Is Cavemen the Series About Black People ABC Was Too Scared to Make?

Is Cavemen the Series About Black People ABC Was Too Scared to Make?

 

LOS ANGELES – I summed up my reservations about Cavemen with a single question to the producers and cast here today: “Is this the series about black folks that ABC was too scared to make?”

I asked because the pilot episode of the show given to critics showed an opressed group of people who had athletic ability and sexual prowess, faced stereotypes of being dumb and lazy, and fought the popular notion that they were inclined toward criminality. From my perspective, the program offered a clumsy, intese allegory to black people — with the added benefit for ABC of not actually starring any black people.

“In terms of them standing in for any one ethnic group, that’s not our intention,” said producer Josh Gordon, one of five producers onstage with the show’s three stars, a long line of white guys defending their questionable choices. “We’re aware that the pilot seems to lean a little more in that direction.”

At first, I wasn’t so passionate about this show and its choices, because it seemed so likely to fail. And for most people, the first question they probably had upon hearing ABC was developing a TV comedy starring the GEICO cavemen was: Why base a series on characters from a car insurance commercial?

But after 45 minutes watching the cast and producers of Cavemen field questions from TV critics here at the summer press tour, it was obvious: Even they don’t know why there should be a series on a concept whisked from a moderately funny collection of TV advertisements.

Executive producer Mike Schiff, a veteran of series such as In Living Color and 3rd Rock From the Sun, could barely stammer out an answer when asked what the series would actually focus on. Another producer, former adman and GEICO caveman creator Joe Lawson, said he was surprised critics would question a series developed from a commercial: “I didn’t know we would catch so much hell,” he cracked. “It was a nice surprise.”

Mostly, this crew could only agree on what Cavemen was not; noting that its leaden, heavy handed pilot episode – in which the cavemen are subjected to the kinds of stereotypes which often trouble black people, such as assumptions of laziness, stupidity or lawlessness – would not air until the 5th or 6th episode.

“Unfortunately, if you pick an offensive stereotype of any kind, you bump up against an ethnic group (victimized by it),” said Schiff, sitting among a collection of eight actors and producers who were all white men, saying the show would focus on the struggle for acclimation by outsiders.

They didn’t seem to get the irony; that a stage packed with white males would try writing a series about exclusion from the mainstream. Or that they would admit — as these producers did during the press conference — that there will be no cavemen shown who are not white people underneath.

Critics seemed to abandon any ire they might have felt about the pilot’s clumsy racial overtones for a feeling of pity – these guys clearly have no idea what a drubbing they are in for.

About This Blog

The Feed is a blog on TV, media and modern life by St. Petersburg Times TV/media critic Eric Deggans. Possibly the most critical guy at the Times, he has served as music, media and TV critic at various times over 10 years. E-mail Eric Deggans: deggans@sptimes.com

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