TELEVISION: TV'S BLACK FLIGHT

THE FALL SCHEDULES ARE OUT, AND SHOWS WITH PREDOMINANTLY MINORITY CASTS HAVE LANDED IN THE LOW-RENT NEIGHBORHOODS

There's a standard explanation that white-run companies employ when they are taken to task for having homogeneous work forces. "Hey," upper-level management types will say, "we looked for qualified folks. There just were no black candidates." It's the old "N.B.C." answer, and in the face of a historic turnabout, the National Broadcasting Co. happens to be using said answer to defend its just-announced fall season. NBC, the network that broadcast the pioneering Cosby Show in the '80s, the network that carried the Nat King Cole Show in the 1950s when virtually no advertisers were willing to sponsor a variety show hosted...

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