Engagingly enough, there were some Hollywood celebrities and TV shows that were culturally sensitive, even during a time when “Sapphire,” “Sambo,” “Amos & Andy,” “Aunt Jemammy” and “Uncle Ruckus,” as well as “JJ ~Dynomite~ Evans” were standard fare for white America. Here they are, in no particular order, and as remembered:

The Andy Griffith Show – When Black people appeared on Andy Griffith, which wasn’t very often, they were well-dressed and “highly articulate,” without exception. In one particular episode, little Opie (Ronnie Howard) Taylor was in deep admiration of a famous Black football player, and even refused to do his piano lessons in order to play football with his pals after school. When he found out that his “sports idol” also was a prolific pianist, however, Opie changed his mind and started going to both football and piano practice.

Twilight Zone – Rod Serling, most fabulously known for the all-time biggest Twilight Zone episode ever “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”, believe it or not, wrote the episode in order to challenge racism in society. The way the episode turned out was not the way he wrote it, however. Studio executives were highly sensitized about addressing racism the way Serling wanted to, and when they were done cutting up and pasting Serling’s original script, it came out the way that will rest in our minds forever.

Rumor had it that Serling nearly quit TZ because of the way they messed with his original writing, but the episode did still “hit at” prejudices pretty hard.

Frasier – There were no truly ‘stereotypical’ Black people on any Frasier episodes to my memory.

When you did see Black folks on Frasier, even in the background, they were always just mingling and hanging out with everyone else. Kelsey Grammer even made sure there were Black people around in his and brother Niles’ “exclusive uppity foie-gras-munching-sherry-swilling wine clubs,” to evidence the fact that there are indeed upscale Black folk who aren’t always “on the clown tip.”

In the episode where Grammer character ‘Frasier Crane’ tackled racial stereotypes head on, he leveraged “Dr. Mary” (played by actress Kim Coles) to address it, and he hit the nail on the head about the differences in the way Black women are viewed by white people.

Interesting, especially considering that Grammer’s most beloved baby sister, Karen, was raped by four black guys, and murdered by one of them. Sometimes, one has to wonder if Frasier was a soothing mechanism for the much ‘be-troubled’ Academy Award-winning star of the 1990s and early 2000s. A guy by the last name “Niles” murdered his father, but actor David Hyde Pierce played his younger brother, Niles Crane.

Bewitched – Elizabeth Montgomery hated racial stereotypes of any and all kinds, even when it came to the ‘flaming’ gays who graced nearly every role on the show–up to and including Paul Lynde, Maurice Chevalier, Dick Sargent, and “Mommy Dearest Endora” played by actress Agnes Moorehead. Black folks didn’t show up very often on Bewitched, as in most other shows, but when they did appear on Bewitched, they were always very culturally sensitive. Though Isabel Sanford did show up on the show once playing the role of “Aunt Jenny,” it didn’t come off as a stereotype because she was living during a time (colonial times) when the white women who worked on the farms dressed the same way and said and did the same things. ‘Aunt Jenny’ was no one’s ‘Aunt Jemima’, she was a very powerful (and good) witch herself.

One particularly sensitive episode, however, was when little Tabitha Stevens (played by twins Erin and Diane Murphy) decided to put Black polka dots on herself and White polka dots on her little “colored” friend, so they could be “sisters” forever. The little Black girl’s father was played by none other than a very professional and well-dressed Greg Morris, also known as “Barney Collier,” an electronics expert on Mission: Impossible.

Speaking of Mission: Impossible, Greg Morris’ role was a phenomena that Black Hollywood saw very little of for a long time. The years 1966-1973 represented a vast change in the usual slaves, maids, ho’s, and jiving shucksters that white media liked playing with, with a few exceptions like Jimmie (“JJ Evans”) Walker and more of Sherman (“George Jefferson”) Helmsley than most of us cared for at the time. Nevertheless, the Black television stereotypes literally nearly almost disappeared for a little while.

Julia and I Spy – Diahann Carroll, who was light enough, fine enough, and well-known enough not to have to play stereotypes, didn’t accept roles for them anyway. Not if she could help it, that is. We knew that Hattie McDaniel, playing her role as “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind, said the words “I’d rather get paid more money playing a maid than what I’d be paid if I were a maid,” (or words to that effect) was right, but Black actresses like Diahann Carroll weren’t having much of any of it. Also, nobody was doing Black detectives like I Spy at the time, and the fact that character Alexander Scott (played by William H. “Bill” Cosby) was as equal to the gumshoe task as his white partner, “Kelly Robinson,” played by late actor Robert Culp, and that was no small feat back in those days. “Alexander” even got a gun and didn’t have to ‘stand down’ for the white man in their escapades. And just for a side note, you were more likely to see a bad stereotype of an Indian or Mexican than a Black person on the show The Wild Wild West.

The Mod Squad – Who doesn’t remember Officer Lincoln “Linc” Hayes, played by actor Clarence Williams III? Along with his white partners-in-copdom, ‘Pete Cochran’ and ‘Julie Barnes’ (Michael Cole and Peggy Lipton), the scripts were pretty “solid” for all of them. Some pretty cool characters that were nearly repeated years later on New York Undercover (i.e., Malik Yoba) before “racist white world” lost their minds over the fact that a Black man, a Latino, a street-wise white boy who grew up poor and under-privileged, and a female police chief were ganging up and running circles around the TV police world — and knocking the crud out of some very criminal-minded rich white males.

Star Trek – Needless to say, there was Lt. Nyota Uhura (played by actress Nichelle Nichols), and the “kiss” the world will never forget.

Even though Lt Uhura and Capt James Tiberius Kirk (actor William Shatner) kissed each other “under the influence” of planetoids who were funning with them, Hollywood most definitively ‘pushed the racial envelope’ with that one and nearly ended up with a serious series-ending riot on their hands because of it. Needless to say, the ‘flack’ was not coming from ‘Black’.

Mannix – Gail Fisher, who played a detective’s secretary in Mannix, was no joke.

“Peggy Fair” was smart, savvy, professional, didn’t hold back when it came to asking the right questions and even came close to helping her boss (played by actor Mike Conners) solve a few of those crimes. She was the equal of the time to Perry Mason’s secretary, “Della Street” (played by actress Barbara Hale).

Speaking of Perry Mason and actor Raymond Burr who played the role, our own beloved Joan Pringle showed up on Ironside, playing a very savvy and sophisticated Black woman named “Diane Sanger.”

The Mary Tyler Moore Show – Before showing up as “James Evans” on Good Times, actor John Amos played “Gordon Howard,” a weatherman at WJM-TV, where Lou Grant (actor Ed Asner) was the boss man.

They didn’t even come close to allowing ‘Gordy’ to get stereotyped, but like all the other characters, he had his moments and he was just as funny on an entertaining level as his white counterparts. He wasn’t the show’s ‘Black class clown’, he was as simply and profoundly and sophisticatedly smart and funny as everyone else who worked for Lou. 

There were a few other shows that left the stereotypes for the stupid – I mean ‘unintelligent’ folks; but suffice it to say that even during some highly racially inflammatory times (like that ever didn’t happen, duh), these were the shows that shined high above them all.