Disclaimer: I last saw this show 18 years ago – and more of the second season than the first.
“I’ll Fly Away” (1991-1993) was an American television show about a black maid and the white lawyer she worked for, set back in Jim Crow times, apparently in the state of Georgia in 1960. It stars Regina Taylor as Lilly Harper, the maid, and Sam Waterston as the Forrest Bedford, the lawyer.
It is like Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1960) made into a television series, but unlike the Gregory Peck film (I never read the book) it is not a White Saviour story:
- It makes a person of colour (Lilly Harper) the main, point-of-view character.
- The main white character (Forrest Bedford) is a mix of good and evil. He is torn between the white racism he grew up with and what he knows deep down to be right.
In a White Saviour story there is one all-good white character and often one all-evil character, also white. People of colour play helpless darkies. Like in “The Help”. But in this show people of colour were hardly helpless (it is the height of the civil rights movement) and white characters were hardly saviours.
It also cuts against the Mammy stereotype. Lilly Harper is the anti-Mammy: she is not fat, happy or sexless; she is young, speaks Standard English and her main loyalty is not to white people but, as you would expect, to her family. She is not reconfigured to the greater good of whiteness. Her father (Bill Cobbs) is a character in his own right!
The Hollywood stereotype that Lilly Harper falls closest to is the Noble But Boring Middle-Class Negro: she is too noble and has way less of a love life than you would expect (especially for a female lead!). She is a maid but it is easy to imagine her as a schoolteacher. Or a nun. On the other hand her inner life is presented far too fully to be any sort of cardboard stereotype.
In general the black characters are too noble, but they are presented in a serious, well-rounded way that is rare on American television (where most blacks appear either in comedies or as supporting characters).
White racism is also presented far more fully. It is not Just a Few Bad Apples, like the Klan or some good old boys. It even affects someone as supposedly enlightened, well-educated and “well-meaning” as a white liberal lawyer.
It was well-acted and well-written. It was more like a good book or something you would see on HBO or PBS rather than on NBC where it inexplicably appeared.
It won three Emmys, two Golden Globes and four NAACP Image Awards. But it had low ratings and got cancelled before the end of the second season – just when it was beginning to build a sizeable black audience. PBS bought the series and added a two-hour ending.
Unlike “Flavor of Love”, it has yet to appear on DVD as of 2011.
See also:
I remember this show! I loved it and was sad when it was cancelled.
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American television stinks. Almost all of what you see nowadays are white faces EVERYWHERE, and the faces of people of color are stereotypical (funny, demeaning, or both).
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The Hollywood stereotype that Lilly Harper falls closest to is that of the Noble But Boring Middle-Class Negro: she is too noble and has way less of a love life than you would expect (especially for a female lead!). She is a maid but it is easy to imagine her as a schoolteacher. Or a nun. On the other hand her inner life is presented far too fully to be any sort of cardboard stereotype.
The only thing about this is…well I’m something of a boring middle class negro. I’m young, I’m single, and I don’t have much of a love life.
People that have “drama” in their lives tend to be frustrating, rather than interesting people, and I doubt someone in her position especially at that time in history could afford it, as I myself can ill afford it now.
When you’re dedicated to something: a cause, a career, an education, your family you try to keep life as drama free as possible.
Whenever people try to tell me that, I’m young, I should live it up, I think about all the unnecessary drama that might come my way and i just decide to chill. Seems like more trouble than it’s worth anyway, and I doubt I’m missing much.
Still this sounds like a good show.
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@Wong Chia Chi – I totally agree with you! When did life become meaningless unless it had some “drama?” I guess the Jerry Springer mindset has taken hold. You have to broadcast your problems and dysfunction to the world to be pitied or laughed at or publicly shamed. You’re boring and not normal if you don’t have any issues that you’re willing to share with any and everyone.
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I remember this show, and wondered if it were merely coincidence, the WM character’s name was sooo similar to the name of the first grand wizard of the klu klux klan. I don’t believe in coincidence, and certainly nothing coming out of Hollywood.
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The first Grand Wizard of the Klan was Nathan Bedford Forrest. In the show Forrest Bedford’s oldest son is named Nathan! That cannot be an accident.
Also, Lilly’s full name is Lillian Harper, which can be formed from the first names of two (white) female anti-racist Southern writers: Lillian Smith and Harper Lee. Lilly herself wants to become a writer (and did in the PBS ending).
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@ brothawolf
I agree. American television seems considerably whiter now than in the 1990s or even most of the 2000s. And much of what little is left is more stereotyped.
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Seen this show and it was pretty decent one, for an american one about this subject, but still: it got canceled before it took off, unlike some others which did get their audiences later on. I wonder why?
The main character had dignity, I thoughed. Of course, it was a tv drama and people were simplistic in that sort of way, but on the whole this was above the average stuff. Regina Taylor did her role in style and was very convincing despite some of the limitations in the range of the character. Good acting.
Which brings me to this: have you noticed how many damn good black actors there are, specially in tv? And how the heck so few of them are in main roles? Something I started to think way back in the 80’s.
And about the tv getting whiter: and this happens at the same time when deomgraphics are changing in the country? I wonder why…
As for the drama in real life; i think one should have the dramas when one is young. That is the time for heart aches, break ups, this and that. It is very very sad sight to see guys in their 50’s acting out those “wild dreams” they never did when they were young. Chubby middle aged men trying to look like cool jocks at bar desk, women dressed up in their latest Lily Allen do’s, acting like the oldest teenage girls in the world…
Now I do not say that life is over when you are 50, Raquel Welch said it begins at 45, but those relationship games and stuffs are for young ones. When you are 50 and you meet a person who is interesting but difficult, you look at her/him and think for a long time, and then say to yourself: Naaaah…
And walk away.
You can wild at your 50’s in a different ways, sometimes even wilder than in your youth, but the “should-I-call-back-and-when-and -what-did-that-mean-and-is-this-for-real-and-did-we-dreak-up-or-are-we-together-or-not-and-who-was-that-and-do-you-mean-it-and-waht-do-you-mean” dramas should be dealt with when young.
I did. 😀
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@Abagond
Also, Lilly’s full name is Lillian Harper, which can be formed from the first names of two (white) female anti-racist Southern writers: Lillian Smith and Harper Lee. Lilly herself wants to become a writer (and did in the PBS ending).
Can I check something with you…Harper Lee, you say that she was an ‘anti racist’ yet I saw a television documentary, maybe a year or so ago, which looked at the origins of this. Following conversations with her sister (who I believe is or was attorney), the revalation was that To Kill a Mockinbird was not in fact based on a real injustice she had seen but that it was a ‘story’ that emerged and grew wings so to speak.
I would be interested to hear your view on this….
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I never watched this show but now wish I had. I guess at the time I didn’t want to see a show about a black maid, and never gave it a chance. I’m so glad the main character wasn’t depicted as a “Mammy.”
Not to get off topic, but I saw a snipet of the new season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta” last night. Talk about Jezebel and Sapphire stereotypes! When the women weren’t talking about sex, they were going off on people or talking about going off on people. RHOA has ratings through the roof and appeals to the mainstream. I get the impression that positive depictions of Black characters on TV are considered boring by the mainstream. Negative, stereotypical ones are considered entertaining, and have much higher ratings and longer shelf lives. (Just making a point. I realize “I’ll Fly Away” and “RHOA” are two different types of shows.
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“Unlike “Flavor of Love”, it has yet to appear on DVD as of 2011.”
ZZZIIIINNNNGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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“Flavor of Love” made me cringe!
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Excellent show. I watched it faithfully and remember when NBC suddenly dropped it. In the last season, it wasn’t on regularly, was preempted a lot and then just disappeared. There are plenty of successful series that have been propped up and promoted by the networks until they caught on and became popular. NBC was not willing to work with this show, even though it was one of the best programs on television in that decade. And don’t forget Bill Cobbs (Lilly’s dad), Regina Taylor (Lilly), and Sam Waterston (Attorney Bedford)–great actors with a great supporting cast. For NBC to drop this show without supporting it demonstrated the hollow mindset of its executives. I recall the people who made “I’ll Fly Away” made the series from a reference point to “To Kill a Mockingbird,” particularly in that they observed the passive role of the black maid in that film, and wanted their show to give the Bedford’s maid her own life and thought. However, perhaps the real people to blame for this show’s demise are the “majority” viewers, who cannot tolerate looking at anything too long that is (1) historical, (2) disturbing to their mythical sensibilities about “race”; and (3) challenges their sense of entitlement, which includes entitlement not to be too disturbed by injustices perpetrated on people of color, past or present.
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@ Louis DeCaro Jr.
Good points.
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I liked this show. She was always very attractive to me, I used to relish on her with my friend, mmm… She was always so graceful, warm and intelligent. Hugely attractive to me. I always wanted them to have a relationship, and it was always there. The possibility. Much like the ‘Remains of the Day’.
I also loved the subtlety of how his son’s death was portrayed. That he was gay and died of aids. The only thing his father said was that he was ‘such a gentle man’. I just loved the subtlety. Sometimes it is more than words.
Chia, chia.
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I don’t need drama. I’m old enough to know better. Chill, cuddle, kisses, talk, sex. Warmth. Tenderness. Skin. Mind.
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Abagond:
At some point, Hollywood has to stop the madness, as it relates to blackwomen. It’s 2011, how long can the insanity last? Black folk have been brainwashed for a long time, but, eventually people wise up.
Tyrone
Black Eros Movement
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“At some point, Hollywood has to stop the madness, as it relates to blackwomen. It’s 2011, how long can the insanity last? Black folk have been brainwashed for a long time, but, eventually people wise up.”
I hope so because it’s been around too damn long. As long as this continues something’s going to fall through hard.
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I can’t even imagine in my wildest dreams that a show like this with such realistic treatment of Black characters could possibly air now. TV has gone back to the 50’s with regard to Black characters.
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What I would very much like to see is a mainstream movie or tv show where ALL the charachters would be normal, real, REGARDLESS of their race. Or a show where the main charachters are black and NORMAL humanbeings. It is indeed 2011, after all.
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@bulanik: The key word was “difficult”. I did not mean Boring is better. I meant by Drama the useless stuff that pre occupies so many today.
Me? Hey, I love good food, good company, good stories, good music, good art, good movies, good sex etc.
To your questions:
1. Walk away if its boring, just do it without drama. If you are an adult, you can say: hey, this does not work because of blablablab, all the best, bye bye.
2. Same answer. Do not kill yourself in a bad relationship. Good steady relationship doesn’t have to be boring. It can be all you want. Just find the right guy and do it. It is up to you.
If you feel lonely in a relationship I have news for you: you have no relationship, you have somebody there, but not with you. Find some one to be with you. Just do it without the Drama.
Good luck and life!!
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Yes, sounds so familiar to me.
Anyway, what constitutes boring?…..If people are not compatible then they may find the other person boring….So, better to find the person who gives you the adventure and thrills you seek than to be stuck with someone you deem to be ‘boring’.
The woman could be a nun…Personally, I don’t blame her since so many men sleep around and carry diseases, better to be a celibate nun then to have your crotch on fire, as far as I’m concerned!
Well, we all have our good and evil sides, I suppose….Nobody is perfect, but to have mainly an evil side is the major problem, I think.
Just because a character is well meaning, this does not mean that they can’t have elements of racism or should I say covert racist behaviour…..I see it everyday with people who say they mean well.
Anyway, sounds like a show I would watch, if I watched TV.
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@sam – wonderful reply. That’s what I mean by drama. It has nothing to do with whether one’s life is boring or not. It’s how you respond to your troubles.
I have too much to lose (health, freedom, money) by going into histrionics at every slight I experience or having public cat fights with people that I have disagreements with. Even though I’m not religious, I also believe in the Golden Rule and try to treat other people with respect. Finally, since I’m a real person who has relationships with real people, I don’t need to see dysfunction on television to understand that others have it as bad or worse than me. I can’t stand 99% of what’s on television these days that is passed off as entertainment, i.e. those sickening or exploitative “reality” shows. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against seeing violence or vice. A number of Quentin Tarantino’s movies are among my favorites.
Anyway, I would love to see something like “I’ll Fly Away” on television now.
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I couldn’t help posting this song…..First time I ever tried posting a vdeo on a blog besides my own, so hopefully it comes out ok.
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Well, that didn’t turn out the way I expected it to….Anyway, the song is Randy Crawford – One Day I’ll Fly Away.
That song came into my head the very first time I saw the title of this post.
Maybe you can edit and adjust the YouTube video to fix it, so it shows up like it’s supposed to do.
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@Happiness
Beautiful song – one I have tried to emulate many times 🙂
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I loved the show, I’ll Fly Away. I used to watch it, when I was in my teens, in the late 90’s when it used to air on PBS. As a teenager, the show gave me the opportunity to think about race relations, and I liked the fact that Lily was the protagonist of the show, instead of a background, minor character. As far as where the show can be viewed now, I used to search for it on YouTube to see if anyone has uploaded it. And in my last search, I happened to find a lot of the episodes on YouTube several months ago, which was a pleasant surprise. So if anyone wants to watch some of the episodes, I believe that all of them are on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soCf3gWU3qQ
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I’ll Fly Away was one of my all time favorite TV shows. It covered a wide area of different bigotries; black / white, gay / straight and even men / women issues. This show was way ahead of its time. I would be thrilled to watch this series again and would love to see this show brought up to date with the same characters and actors. Maybe it would help lessen the bigotries that I have recently witnessed both nationally and locally.
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I loved this show. Well acted,great writing. There are no shows like this anymore.
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Regina Taylor was excellent as Lilly Harper. I liked that she spoke her mind and was smart and she was not some one dimensional mammy character. That is what made the show refreshing to me.
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I remember this show as one of the great peaks of Saturday night entertainment on NRK (Norwegian Public Boardcaster) when I grow up. I was googeling the show, when the Abagond blogg, witch I been commented on before, came up.
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