Tagged: television

What’s working for Latinos on TV?

Los Heroes del Norte

What is and isn’t working for Latinos on TV? I go through the offerings — in English and Spanish — for KCRW’s The Business, covering everything from  Devious Maids to The Bridge. If you’re a Hollywood producer, think of this as a good guide of do’s and don’ts for making TV for Latinos. If you simply like watching television, well, you might make a discovery or two…

Listen to my story here. For the full podcast of The Business, click here.

Above, the amazing cast of Los Heroes del Norte, which airs on UniMás. Somebody in the United States please cast Miguel Rodarte (the guy in the middle) and Andrés Almeida (third guy from the left) in movies. They are both effing brilliant.

Tweet

The annals of television: Morning show edition.

television garbage
Wishful, by Kevin Steele. From a set called tv garbage.

Last week, in a not terribly outdated issue of the New Yorker, I happened to read a remarkable essay by Charles Van Doren about his role in the 1950s quiz show scandals. While learning about Van Doren’s personal history was fascinating, more fascinating was this bit I found mid-way through the piece. In it, he talks about being a contributor to NBC’s Today Show in the late ’50s:

. . . before long Dave [Garroway, the first host of the show] gave me a daily five-minute spot at the top of the hour in which to report on cultural and literary events; I read a great poem or two every Friday morning and talked about its author.

Flash forward half a century. Here is the type of cultural and literary coverage the Today Show is doing these days. And thank goodness. Because nothing will prepare Americans for their new place in the world like being able to say “beach volleyball” in Chinese.

Posted by C-Monster.

Tweet