Yesterday the head of Disney’s Touchstone Television and the head of
casting for ABC/Disney called me to, er, suggest that According to
Jim might do a little better this year in terms of casting minorities
in significant roles. Our admittedly dismal track record was recited
to me — two Asian-Americans, one Latino (oh, dear, is that the right
term?) in roles of “guest star” billing during the 26-episode course
of last season. “Guest star” is higher than “co-star,” for purposes of
non-regular characters. They didn’t talk about “co-star,” where I
think we did a little better.
The exex were quick to point out that they weren’t singling out ATJ –
they were calling all their shows. And I said nothing more than
“message received, we’ll do better,” because that’s the kind of
cheery, can-do attitude I like to display for my bosses.
With you guys I can whine a little. It’s really hard! Half of our
guest stars end up in fistfights with one of the regulars. So am I
supposed to cast the first African-American neighbor in the history of
the show, only to have Jim punch him out for being a loudmouth? Then
there’s the ongoing demand of the network for “stunt casting” — the
idea being that Tom Arnold should get the part of the loudmouth client
because he’ll bring in viewers. (He didn’t, to everyone’s utter
disbelief, though he is a very nice man.) So if the network insists
on stunt casting AND on diversity, I guess George Lopez is going to
get a lot of calls.
Of course, the conservative in me wants to say we should just find the
best damn performers available, and judge them on the content of their
character-acting, not their color. But that’s impossible, because of
the time limitations. We can’t see everyone in town for every guest
part. Our casting director has a few days for “pre-reads” then brings
the best 6 or 7 choices to us. Ultimately, I will face a situation at
some point this year where I say, “Well, X was the funniest white
actor, but we should probably go with Y.”
And right after I got off the phone with the exex, I got hit again: written on a bulletin board,
“Sexual Harassment Seminar, next Wed. at 8 AM.”