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XXXXX DRUDGE RETORT XXXXX 21:49:29 UTC FRI AUG 13 1999 XXXXX Improvements in Color Television -- Blacks Now Visible!
By Jonathan Bourne Bowing to pressure from the NAACP, the top executives of the major TV networks have agreed to add African-American actors to their primetime casts. The DRUDGE RETORT has obtained the minutes of a meeting that will take place Monday at CBS confirming that network CEO Leslie Moonves has approved the recasting of the title role in EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND. A source with his ear to the head of the Eye network overheard Moonves say, "Ray Romano is out. Blair Underwood is in."
Romano, who was not only the star but a co-creator of the autobiographical sitcom about an Italian-American family living in Long Island, had no official comment. But Kate Adler of Worldwide Pants [the show's production company] told the RETORT: "It's got to be devastating for Ray to be recast right out of his own show -- twice. I mean, first MARTIN and now this!" A source inside NBC known only as "the guy who was supposed to shred all that stuff" told the RETORT that the Peacock network plans to recast some lily-white shows with black actors -- notably FRASIER. NBC reneged at the last minute when a visibly shaken David Hyde Pierce burst into Big Three bigwig Scott Sassa's office and tearfully admitted that his great-grandfather was black. In a letter Sassa plans to send to the NAACP this week, the NBC chief exclaims, "What do you mean we don't have any African-American actors on our show? The guy who plays Niles Crane is a full-fledged octoroon!" [ABC's offer to "darken up Bill Maher's face a little, you know, with make-up" has heretofore not been taken seriously by NAACP President Dikembe Mutumbo.] CBS will also announce plans to replace WALKER TEXAS RANGER's trademark 10-gallon cowboy hat with a kufi, and beginning next Wednesday, Dan Rather will end every story on the Evening News with a spirited "A-ight?" and "Peace out!" © DRUDGE RETORT 1999 |
