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Connect the dots of TV and feminism to American culture and politics with host Cynthia Bemis Abrams. Interviews with top names - in front of and behind the scenes - offer insights into TV that has shaped American culture and influenced the world. Check out episodes with actors Annie Potts, Margaret Cho, Stepfanie Kramer of Hunter, Kim Fields of Facts of Life and Living Single, and daytime's Cady McClain.  Television veteran writers Georgia Jeffries, Victoria Riskin and April Smith are featured in episodes that explain storytelling as a writing craft. These discussions will forever change how you watch TV. Explore issues of race through interviews with academics Robin Means-Coleman and Charlene Regester, and influencer Karly Beaumont. Ever since the #MeToo Movement of 2017-18, Cynthia has highlighted key episodes and events surrounding sexual harassment - fictional and real life.  With listeners around the world, Cynthia celebrates the progress of representation in media and captures the stories and insights that make TV a powerful storyteller and mirror of truth. In 2025, Cynthia started revealing more about the book she and a colleague are writing. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter at www.tvherstory.com. Promise,  your data will never be sold.
  1. All Episodes
  2. Pioneering Women of Color: TV Women Blacklisted

Pioneering Women of Color: TV Women Blacklisted

Aug 9, 2019

Episode Description

This 4-episode series examines anti-communism/McCarthyism blacklisting's impact on the careers of women who likely would have changed the look, depth, and sound of TV.

Cynthia and author/scholar, Dr. Charlene Regester of the University of North Carolina, have a frank conversation about how racism, stereotyped roles, and Jim Crow laws delayed TV's depiction of African American life by more than a decade. This adds to the story of a previous podcast episode about TV's Single Women and how even in the 1980s, a TV series cast a black woman as a household domestic.
 
Resources Mentioned
  • Charlene Regester (2010) African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility 1900-1960
  • North Carolina PBS featuring Dr. Charlene Regester discussing her book
  • Carol Stabile (2018) The Broadcast 41: Women and the Anti-Communist Blacklist
  • James Gavin (2010) Stormy Weather: The Life of Lena Horne
  • Advanced TV Herstory TV's Single Woman Caregivers & Gimme a Break
  • YouTube: The Beulah Show (feat. Ethel Waters)
  • Charlene Regester (2010) African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility 1900-1960 https://iupress.org/9780253221926/african-american-actresses/

Ancillary Episodes

Pioneering TV Women of Color: TV Women Blacklisted (ep 5.13)

Different 50s TV: TV Women Blacklisted (ep 5.12)

Calculated Efforts to Preserve Power: TV Women Blacklisted (ep 5.11)

Trumped Up Charges & Lists: TV Women Blacklisted (ep 5.1)

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