{"id":2651,"date":"2014-09-29T11:30:09","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T18:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/?p=2651"},"modified":"2014-09-29T11:30:09","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T18:30:09","slug":"justice-on-television-way-before-good-wives-and-even-west-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/29\/justice-on-television-way-before-good-wives-and-even-west-wings\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice on Television: Way Before Good Wives and Even West Wings!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/The-Defenders.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2656\" alt=\"The Defenders\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/The-Defenders.jpg?resize=320%2C240&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/The-Defenders.jpg?w=320&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/The-Defenders.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/East-Side-West-side-poster.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-2655\" alt=\"East Side West side poster\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/East-Side-West-side-poster.jpg?resize=214%2C321&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"214\" height=\"321\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/East-Side-West-side-poster.jpg?w=214&amp;ssl=1 214w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/East-Side-West-side-poster.jpg?resize=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><\/a>Movies stay with us; they&#8217;re great <a href=\"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/03\/i-saw-it-at-the-movies-history-and-film-on-microblogmonday\/\" target=\"_blank\">historic documents<\/a>, but television is intimate, and when it&#8217;s good, television <em>is<\/em> us.<\/p>\n<p>My own early understanding of injustice and race and poverty and social change came from television. \u00a0For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The child of a black couple in Harlem in the early 60&#8217;s was bitten by a rat in the tenement where they lived and no cab driver would stop pick them up to take them to the hospital ( \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tv.com\/shows\/east-sidewest-side\/ \" target=\"_blank\">East Side, West Side<\/a>\u00a0(1963-64) ( <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tv.com\/people\/george-c-scott\/\" target=\"_blank\">George C. Scott<\/a>\u00a0(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0066206\/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1\" target=\"_blank\">Patton<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0057012\/?ref_=nv_sr_1\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Strangelove<\/a>) and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tv.com\/people\/cicely-tyson\/\" target=\"_blank\">Cicely Tyson<\/a>\u00a0(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0071175\/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1\" target=\"_blank\">The Autobiography of Miss Jane PIttman<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt1454029\/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1\" target=\"_blank\">The Help<\/a>) as a social worker and his secretary.) It was cancelled after one season because no Southern stations would carry a show featuring interracial colleagues.<\/li>\n<li>A tragic battle over <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/M'Naghten_rules\" target=\"_blank\">the insanity defense<\/a> in a death penalty case: a two-episode story on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.m.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Defenders_(1961_TV_series)\" target=\"_blank\">The Defenders* (1961-65)\u00a0<\/a>, starring <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Robert_Reed\" target=\"_blank\">Robert Reed<\/a>, later the dad in<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Brady_Bunch\" target=\"_blank\"> The Brady Bunch<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are plenty of others but this is #microblogmonday so I&#8217;m about done: consider though the WWI episodes of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0738012\/?ref_=ttep_ep5\" target=\"_blank\">Upstairs, Downstairs<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0053534\/?ref_=nv_sr_1\" target=\"_blank\">Route 66<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">* The\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\" title=\"Museum of Broadcast Communications\" href=\"http:\/\/en.m.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Museum_of_Broadcast_Communications\" target=\"_blank\">Museum of Broadcast Communications<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">\u00a0called it &#8220;perhaps the most socially conscious series the medium has ever seen&#8221;, a\u00a0show&#8221;singularly resonant with\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\" title=\"New Frontier\" href=\"http:\/\/en.m.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_Frontier\" target=\"_blank\">New Frontier<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 1.714285714; font-size: 1rem;\">liberalism.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Movies stay with us; they&#8217;re great historic documents, but television is intimate, and when it&#8217;s good, television is us. My own early understanding of injustice and race and poverty and social change came from television. \u00a0For example: The child of a black couple in Harlem in the early 60&#8217;s was bitten by a rat in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/29\/justice-on-television-way-before-good-wives-and-even-west-wings\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Justice on Television: Way Before Good Wives and Even West Wings!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2877,2,4,6,28,9,97],"tags":[2812,2881,2883,2882,90,2886,2884,262,2887,2885,2888,2503,261],"class_list":["post-2651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microblogmonday-2","category-2","category-baby-boom","category-culture","category-film","category-politics","category-television","tag-microblogmonday","tag-cicely-tyson","tag-east-side-west-side","tag-george-c-scott","tag-history","tag-robert-reed","tag-route-66","tag-television-2","tag-the-brady-bunch","tag-the-defenders","tag-the-good-wife","tag-the-west-wing","tag-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-GL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2651"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2658,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2651\/revisions\/2658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}