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UPCLOSE |
September/October 2007
Prime Time Latinos |
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The 2007-2008 network television season features both a drama and a comedy
with Latino themes—plus a sprinkling of Hispanics in many of the network shows.
Are we there yet?
No....but the tide may finally be turning |
| By Karen Murphy |
Copyright 2007 ABC Studios/
Robert Voets |
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Dapper Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz was the first
Hispanic on network TV back in the 1950s when he
played an exaggerated, comedic version of himself
opposite his real-life wife Lucille Ball on the classic
comedy, I Love Lucy. After Arnaz, it was long time before we saw
another Hispanic character on TV that wasn’t a drug-dealing thug.
NEW FACES
WEB Xtras A look at a real-life
sugar dynasty
A list of Hispanics
on television
More information
on the actors from Cane
Top TV programs among Hispanic Americans |
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| Copyright 2007 ABC Studios/
Robert Voets |
In fact, it wasn’t until the mid-1970s when a charismatic young
comedian named Freddie Prinze was cast on Chico and the Man, a
Norman Lear-style comedy in the same vein as Lear’s groundbreaking All in the Family show. Tragically, a drug-addicted, depressed
Prinze killed himself after the third season. Without Prinze’s charm to
lure viewers, the show stumbled and ended the following year. At the
same time Prinze was on the air, Tony Orlando and Dawn also
enjoyed several seasons of success with their highly rated show, the
first multi-ethnic variety show on television.
Although Arnaz, Prinze and Orlando did not present negative
images for TV viewers, Hispanic actors at the time still struggled to
find good roles. In the 1980s, 30+ years after Arnaz made television
history actor Jimmy Smits brought attorney Victor Sifuentes to life
on the Emmy-winning drama series, L.A. Law. Finally, there was a
character on English-language network TV that showed mainstream
America a very different Hispanic face. Attorney Victor Sifuentes
was not only drop-dead gorgeous, he was—like Smits himself—an
educated, well-dressed Hispanic American who was passionate about
his principles—and light-years removed from the old Hispanic
stereotypes viewers saw over and over again.
Smits followed the Sifuentes character with two other complex,
multidimensional roles on prime time. In the 1990s, he spent four
seasons as Detective Bobby Simone on the acclaimed ABC series, NYPD Blue. He then went on to The West Wing to play Matthew
Vincente “Matt” Santos, a Democratic U.S. Representative from
Houston who ends up elected president of the United States.
Now, the Emmy—and Golden Globe—winning actor is back in
prime time with a compelling, new drama series that ups the ante.
If the pilot is any indication, Cane seems to have it all: gorgeous,
accomplished actors playing multidimensional, multigenerational
characters, beautiful sets and a dramatic plot with enough twists and
turns to keep viewers coming back every week for more.
Even the music planned for the show is exciting. Besides the
essential Cuban rhythms pulsing through the plot, Executive
Producer Jonathan Prince says the show also will use the club
featured in the pilot as a venue to regularly showcase live acts.
“We’ve been talking to people like Daddy Yankee and Mary J.
Blige and Nicole [Scherzinger] from the Pussycat Dolls,” Prince said
during the summer press tour for the show, “the kind of people who
would be playing in Miami and maybe [would stop] by the club for
an afterparty—and sing or perform.”
Key Cane Cast Members
Copyright 2007 ABC Studios/
Robert Voets |
 Rita Moreno
Amalia Duque
wife of Pancho Duque |
 Hector Elizondo
Pancho Duque
the family patriarch |
Paola Turbay
Isabel Vega
daughter of Amalia and
Pancho and wife of
Alex Vega |
Jimmy Smits
Alex Vega
adopted son of Amalia
and Pancho and
the main character |
Nestor Carbonell
Frank Duque
the natural-born son of Pancho and Amalia |
Cane is the fictional story of the Duques, a large, wealthy Cuban-
American family running a successful rum and sugar business in
south Florida. In the pilot episode, the patriarch of the family gets a
call from his archrivals, asking if he would consider selling his sugar
business. The tough decision pits his impulsive, natural-born son
(Carbonell) against his adopted son (Smits), who also happens to bemarried to his daughter, played by the gorgeous Paola Turbay.
Just the re-emergence of Smits on network TV is enough to get
many viewers to tune in. But this time, instead of being the lone
Hispanic actor on the set, he is flanked by a dream team of
accomplished Latino actors (see key cast members above).
|
Copyright 2007 ABC Studios/Richard Cartwriight |
Veteran actor Hector Elizondo (Chicago Hope) plays Pancho
Duque, the patriach of the Duque family. His wife is played by the
effervescent Rita Moreno, whose has had an amazing 60-year career
in entertainment. Moreno is one of only nine actors to win all of the
prestigious entertainments awards: the Oscar (Best Supporting
Actress in 1961 for West Side Story); the Tony (Best Featured Actress
for The Ritz in 1975); a Grammy (for The Electric Company Album in
1972); and two Emmys (for The Muppet Show in 1977 and The
Rockford Files in 1978).
Smits’ rival, Frank Duque, played by Nestor Carbonell, probably is
best known for his portrayal of photographer Luis Rivera on the late
1990s sitcom, Suddenly Susan. More
recently, he has had a recurring role
on Lost, and played a killer in the
2006 movie, Smokin’ Aces. In all,
the ensemble cast has 11 regular
speaking roles, putting it in the
company of Grey’s Anatomy,
Desperate Housewives and Lost
based on the size of its ensemble.
“[This show] is the first time, as
far as I know, you will ever see a
successful, educated, beautifully
dressed, articulate Latino family who
don’t necessarily talk like this all the
time [speaking in a thick Latino
accent],” Moreno said during the
summer press tour. “I can’t tell you
what that means to me.”
Smits, who also serves as one of
the show’s executive producers, is
equally excited about the show’s
potential, in part because of his
respect for screenwriter Cynthia
Cidre, who just received the Norman
Lear Writer’s Award at the Imagen
Awards in July.
“Cynthia’s voice is unique,” Smits
says. “She’s somebody I’ve worked
with before…and I’m just really
excited about the cast we’ve amassed
here. I’m very proud of what this
group has accomplished. On a
day-to-day basis, it [will be] about
trying to keep the boat sailing in that
direction.”
Limited Choices
Until last year, when the charming
America Ferrera helped Ugly Betty become a huge sleeper hit, the only successful, Latino-themed show
on network television was The George Lopez show, which was
unceremoniously cancelled in May after five seasons. While Lopez
was quite vocal about his anger over the cancellation, Mediaweek’s veteran TV analyst Marc Berman was more realistic.
“The cancellation of George Lopez on ABC had nothing to do with
the series featuring a Latino cast,”
Berman says. “After five seasons,
there was very little audience left and
ABC was justified in canceling it.”
Even though we still have Ugly
Betty and soon will have Cane,
Hispanic-themed shows on network
TV have historically been few and
far between.
“Like other minority groups,” Berman says, “the Latino community
has never been adequately represented on television. If Cane is a
success, that could begin to change. Consider Cane a step in the right
direction.”
It is hard to believe that Cane could ever fail. The show already is
generating a buzz that likens it to some of the best examples of its
kind—including HBO’s recently departed Italian family from Jersey.
“Cane is the first regularly scheduled primetime series to depict a
Latino family as wealthy,” says Berman. “And the show is hoping to
capitalize on the once prosperous serialized drama genre where shows
like Dallas and Dynasty thrived. Opposite ABC’s Boston Legal and
NBC’s Law & Order: SVU, there could—and should—be a spot for
Cane on Tuesday.”
We heartily agree.
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NEW FACES
The 2007-08 television season brings viewers 30 new prime time shows—17 dramas, six sitcoms
and seven non-scripted (aka Reality TV). But in those new shows—with the exception of Cane—
we could only find one new face. The other new Latina on network TV joins an existing show.
NOTE: We only looked at network television, not the cable channels.
 CHUCK (NBC)
PREMIERES TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
Joshua Gomez (brother of actor
Rick Gomez) plays Morgan Santos, the friend of the
lead character. It's a goofy, nerdy dramedy aimed
at twentysomethings. The tagline is Computer geek
by day. Government operative by night.
Guess a guy’s gotta make a living.
www.nbc.com/Chuck
Photo by Chris Haston/NBC
PRISON BREAK (FOX)
RETURNS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
FOR ITS 3RD SEASON
The testosterone-heavy show gets a little female
saborwith the addition of the beautiful Danay
Garcia when the show moves to Panama.
Garcia plays Sofia, a woman whose boyfriend
is in prison. On this show, isn’t everyone?
www.fox.com/prisonbreak
Photo courtesy of Fox TV
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