Or later Maya Angelou's sisters in Sister, Sister or Melvin Van Peebles's brothers in Sophisticated Gents or the women of Brewster Place. In many respects, working on Primetime Blues has taken me back to my earliest days of television viewing. On the one hand, I think all of us still experience a sense of wonder at the rich talents inside that box. On the other hand, we still question much of what we see and remain disturbed by the way in which the more television changes, the more it also remains the same. Some fixed images never seemed to go away entirely.
Television progresses only with the smallest steps.
Yet even at that, we'll stick around the house on a Tuesday or Thursday night, watching in rapt attention, hoping the tube will take us to a place we know but which we've never before seen on that little screen in our living rooms.