From On Air - Summer 2000

Prime Time Summit II

Diversity on television and teen suicide were the key topics of PCI’s second annual Prime Time Summit. Held June 17 in Los Angeles, the Summit was led by Sonny Fox, PCI’s senior vice president of U.S. programs, and brought together television’s top executives, producers, directors, and writers with the country’s foremost experts to examine these concerns. The event was presented in association with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Producers Guild of America, the Caucus for Producers, Writers, and Directors, and the Writers Guild of America, west.

The first panel discussion, called “Getting It Together,” featured the writing team and producers of Lifetime’s hit program Any Day Now. The moderator, Meryl Marshal, CEO/chair of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, opened the session. “While diversity includes racial, sexual, and gender issues,” she said, “today we focus on bringing insight to issues of racial diversity. Our industry can serve as the best example for our nation in creating an effective way to deal openly in conversation and in practice with creating a diverse work force.”

The show’s producers, Nancy Miller and Gary A. Randall, discussed how truth and trust facilitated their writers’ journey to becoming a cohesive writing team, dramatically improving their ability to communicate effectively with the audience. Ms. Miller said, “I’ve learned so much about racism working on this show. I’ll never again have a writers’ room of just white writers.” Mr. Randall added, “Privileged white [writers] tend to assume that all black people have a common experience, which I’ve learned is ludicrous. Hollywood tends to stereotype each group.”

The writers on the program offered their perspectives. “Most of our heated conversations are gender-based,” said Mark Israel. “For example, we had a heated discussion on a character going to a strip club. At a certain point you have to not let it get personal. We had to agree to disagree.”

“Typically, I disagree,” rebutted his co-writer, Lois Johnson, drawing laughs from the audience. “It does get personal, but this writers’ room works because we respect each others’ opinions.”

Ms. Marshal wrapped up the session: “For those of us who have enjoyed the pleasure of reaching into our hearts and the hearts of others, to share our experience of how we hurt and can help each other, there are no rewards in Hollywood that can come close to the satisfaction of this kind of experience.”

“Keeping It Together,” the second panel discussion, was moderated by Jim Giggans, an anchor and reporter at KNBC-TV News, Los Angeles. A wide range of prominent industry leaders discussed how diversity on television has affected them personally and professionally. The panel included Vince Cheung of Rice and Beans Productions and producer of the WB Network’s Steve Harvey Show; Moctesuma Esparza, partner at Esparza Katz Productions; Loretha Jones, film and TV producer; Michael Mahern, secretary treasurer of the Writers Guild of America, west; and Thom Mount, president of the Producers Guild of America.

Mr. Esparza began the session with a look back at our Founding Fathers. “They were extraordinary thinkers who saw the value of human beings,” he said, “but at the same time were color blind in that they didn’t see anyone who wasn’t of their own color as human.” Today there is a real need for Hollywood to represent all ethnic groups.

“The paradigm in the country is still ‘black and white,’ ” said Mr. Esparza. “Our goal as Latinos is to get [attention] the way African-Americans do.” Mr. Cheung added, “Consciousness is what it’s all about. We in Hollywood need to break our preconceptions of what life and people are really like throughout the country.”

Mr. Mount believes that “Change has to start at the highest level of these companies, not with the writing staffs. If we start with diversity on the executive staff, it will trickle down.”

The afternoon session examined “Teen Suicide: An Equal Opportunity Scourge?” Experts addressed the alarming rise in this devastating and largely unrecognized crisis that U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher recently identified as one of the nation’s leading public health problems.

Dr. Lloyd Potter, leader of the suicide prevention team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that the teen suicide rate has tripled in this country since 1970, and suicide is now the second leading cause of death in the 20-24 age group. He pointed out that while television depicts homicide far more often than suicide, there are actually many more deaths by suicide. Based on emergency room reports, Dr. Potter estimated that almost a million kids attempt suicide each year.

Dr. Pamela Cantor, psychologist at the Harvard Medical School and past president of the American Association of Suicidology, challenged the TV executives and writers to create positive programs that might keep young people from attempting suicide. She said, “Television shows should serve your viewers by making them aware of what to look for, how to listen, how to intervene, where to get help, how to save a life. We must be careful not to glamorize the person who kills himself, or present this person as a hero, or sensationalize a death. Give us programs that help kids find their way.”

Other participants in the session were Beverly Cobain, author of When Nothing Matters Anymore: A Survival Guide for Depressed Teens; Dr. Elaine Leader, executive director for the Center for the Study of Young People/Teen Line; Dr. John Slattery, author of Impact of Teen Suicide on the Family; his daughter Meaghan, who shared their personal family experience; and Susan Tierney, a suicide survivor.

Mr. Fox concluded the Summit by reminding the audience that “A television program can save a life. We have a powerful tool in our hands, and we ought to attend to it.”

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