Because all the characters but one are related, they had to be white, he says. The only nonfamily character is Campbell's promiscuous, self-involved colleague. I'm not interested in having one black character who's a reprehensible person. That doesn't convey the complexity of racial issues in this country. I make my shows follow my own value system.
Some critics say the dearth of on-screen minorities is the result of too few nonwhite writers.
Crane, however, thinks the problem is more what shows the networks choose to develop each season. If we had black characters that were being poorly realized or material that wasn't ringing true, that would clearly be a bad choice in hiring. What we do is creative. Ideally, I suppose so. But as a creative person, you can't go out of your way to represent demographics.