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On Point | Podcast

Rebroadcast: Half a century of Black TV

On Point | Podcast

WBUR

Talk Show, Daily News, News, Npr, On Point, Daily

4.23.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From Roots to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Abbott Elementary, Bethonie Butler’s new book "Black TV" shows how TV series centered on Black characters have evolved over the past 50 years.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from BU

0:04.6

Quest from School of Business. Follow wherever you get your podcasts and stick around

0:09.0

until the end of this podcast for a preview of a recent episode that looks at how businesses might

0:14.4

tackle issues like climate change. This is on point. I'm Magna Chakrabardi.

0:19.2

And now here's your host, Don Crenelia.

0:24.0

Hello and welcome aboard you right on time for another magnificent ride on the

0:28.0

soul train.

0:29.0

Be coming right back at you with a big smash by the mighty temptations right after some very important

0:34.8

messages.

0:37.8

In 1971, Soul Train began its 35-year run on American television. The pioneering music and

0:45.4

dance show featured the best of black talent and was recognized as one of the

0:49.3

most influential television shows of its time. And the influence of Black TV on American culture

0:55.4

continues. It's a half century path chronicled by pop culture writer Bethany Butler

1:01.2

in her new book Black TV, five decades of groundbreaking

1:05.8

television from Soul Train to Blackish and Beyond. And Bethany Butler joins us

1:11.2

today. Welcome to Onpoint Bethany.

1:13.4

Hi, thank you so much for having me.

1:15.6

I actually would wonder if we could start with

1:19.2

the influence of Black TV on you. What's the sort of earliest show that you remember loving

1:27.7

that featured you know either black stories or I suppose maybe a long time ago there weren't that many black

1:34.2

writers allowed into the writer room but writer's room but your formative

1:37.8

experiences with black TV. Right so I grew up on, you know, Family Matters, the Fresh Prince, really that early

...

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