For much of Hollywood’s TV history, four networks ruled the airwaves. Before the competition of streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu, the Big Four were in competition with each other: ABC, Fox, CBS, and NBC. ABC was the most family-friendly network, as it was acquired by Disney in 1996. CBS was known for their dramas, like the NCIS franchise, and for hosting many of the major awards shows. Fox was known for animated adult series like The Simpsons and Family Guy. But NBC stood out with their comedies, sports shows, and, of course, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

NBC’s notoriety doesn’t stop with what it broadcasts. The network’s dramas and comedies are often the first of their kind as far as representation goes. The groups being represented often break from traditional stereotypes and therefore avoid tokenizing those characters. For example, if an Indigenous character is a lead, like in Rutherford Falls, they are played by Indigenous actors. Or, in terms of women’s empowerment, women characters range in age, like the actresses of The Golden Girls or The Good Place, and complexity. In the case of Black voices, shows like Grand Crew are written by Black creators. Even LGBTQ+ representation pushes beyond the stereotypes like in Go On. Before Netflix’s inclusive productions, NBC was the trailblazer of television.

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POC Leads

     HBO Max

Although Hollywood continues to catch up with representing people of color, they often fail to center them without tokenizing them. Health outlines the psychological effects of a person being included because of their identity, or tokenizing, as elevated pressure, further separation, and depression. More often than not, this person feels like the representative for their identity, or identities, leading to the pressure to undo stereotypes without also becoming one. Representation in Hollywood has relied on stereotypes of certain ethnic groups while boasting “the first” in advertisements. NBC’s recent shows like Superstore, Sex Lives of College Girls, and Rutherford Falls can be boasted as some of the first non-tokenizing shows with POC at the forefront.

In Superstore the main character is Amy, portrayed by America Ferrera, a Latina who is a devoted mother and employee, but is unhappy in her marriage. She achieves upper management positions for her ability to organize. In the hit series, The Sex Lives of College Girls, one of the four roommates is Bela (Amrit Kaur), an Indian-American woman from New Jersey. She dreams of being a comedy writer when she graduates from college and is sex-positive. Typically, women, especially AAPI, are portrayed as anti-sex or asexual until they fall in love. Although it was canceled after two seasons, Rutherford Falls centers on two Indigenous characters portrayed by Indigenous actors. Michael Greyeyes, who portrays Terry, is Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and Jana Schmieding, who plays Megan, is Cheyenne River Sioux.

Women’s Liberation

     NBC

Regarding women, NBC has pushed the envelope so far it cannot be located. Throughout television’s history, women have been blonde, beautiful, thin, and young. Often, the leading women on television, especially procedural crime shows, are the epitome of brains and beauty, wanted by every man on the show, but have no time or desire to date or have sex. Hollywood’s obsession with youth is pressed even further when the lead actress is paired with an actor 15 to 20 years older than her, perpetuating the myth that youth equates adoration and needing guidance. Some would even define this as grooming. Yet NBC took these ideals and virtually obliterated them.

Golden Girls broke practically every “rule” of women on television. The main actresses were in their 50s, portraying women in their 50s, and dealing with real issues that come with aging. Whether it was employment, aging parents, and maintaining relationships with adult children, Golden Girls showed audiences that life can continue and even start over at 50+.

While Law and Order: SVU receives criticism for portraying cops as compassionate, the show pushes boundaries in another way. Lead Detective Olivia Benson is middle-aged and becomes Captain in her 50s. Despite the show’s unrealistic conviction of sex offenders, the show makes a point to undo the “ideal victim” narrative or the person who will garner the most sympathy.

In The Good Place, two women lead the storyline. While Eleanor (Kristen Bell) and Tahani (Jameela Jamil) are both young and have virtually flat stomachs, television rarely shows youthful, beautiful women dying accidental deaths. The comedy series pokes fun at the afterlife while centering on women who are smart and willing to change.

Black Voices

In television, Black stories are often caricatures rather than three-dimensional characters. Complex details how Black characters have been tokenized throughout television. For example, Nina on 3rd Rock From the Sun often combats racist remarks from Dick, an alien who is living among humans. The article also mentions Markus on Doogie Howser, M.D., who is given a second chance by a Doogie, a white person, after taking him, hostage. Though the stereotypes of the angry woman or criminal impact real life. As McKinsey discovered, Black creatives who are in higher positions in Hollywood often are relied upon for their experiences in the writer’s room and beyond.

Phil Augusta Jackson worked with Issa Rae on Insecure and on two NBC shows: Grand Crew and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. According to Buddy TV, Jackson was inspired by his own life to create Grand Crew. The show centers around a group of friends who hang out at a wine bar and talk about issues concerning the mental health issues men face, like unresolved father-son issues and being vulnerable. Brooklyn Nine-Nine stars Terry Crews as Sergeant Terry Jeffords and Andre Braugher as Captain Holt. The show tackles real-life issues like police brutality, corrupt police, and racial profiling. Jackson revealed to Black Girl Nerds that some scenes between Crews and Braugher strike a chord and the entire set will take a pause. Yet before Jackson was in the writer’s room, another prominent comedy show tackled issues like class disparity and the AIDS/HIV epidemic using comedy. A Different World encapsulates producer-actress-director Debbie Allen’s personal experience at Howard, an HBCU, according to Essence.

LGBTQ+ Tops

LGBTQ+ representation has been widely tokenized on television. If a character is lesbian, they are fetishized for male audiences. Gay men are either ultra femme or closeted, but both are called slurs. Some characters are even coded, as in they give off stereotypes or fetishized qualities. For example, a coded bisexual woman is often the one to initiate a threesome or portrayed as hypersexual, while a coded bisexual man will announce when he thinks another man is attractive, but exclusively dates women who are models or actresses. NBC has often missed the mark on LGBTQ+ representation, but has become wiser over the years.

Will & Grace broke a lot of stereotypes surrounding LGBTQ+ culture. Will Truman is a gay man who is out, but is critical of other gay men’s expressions and even retreats back into the closet from time to time. Jack is the other end of the stereotypical gay man spectrum with his obsession with musical theater and over-the-top reactions. That said, the revival made up for fueling the fire by making Jack and Will more three-dimensional.

Surprisingly, 30 Rock has several gay and bisexual characters, though some are coded. For instance, J.D. Lutz is coded as bisexual, while Devon Banks and Jonathan, Jack’s assistant, are out and proud. The representation of lesbians across TV is wanting, but in the series Go On, Julie Winters portrays Anne, a middle-aged woman who is grieving her recently deceased wife. Anne eventually attends a lesbian wedding and later meets a woman she dates. NBC has a long way to go with representation, but they are clearly on the right track.