Video: Awaiting A Gringo Crumb

Hispanics have gained on TV -- but, oddly, not much

In 1974, several years before she turned her attention to the decadent doings of wealthy Wasps, Dynasty Co-Creator Esther Shapiro brought NBC a script for a much different sort of TV show. Called Maid in America, it was a bittersweet movie about a Hispanic girl who goes to work for an upper-middle-class Anglo family. NBC executives praised the script but ultimately turned thumbs down. The reason, Shapiro recalls, was expressed in one blunt comment: "Tacos don't get numbers."

Food, fashion and network attitudes have changed since then -- but, oddly, not that much. Several Hispanic stars have made it to the...

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