Interracial couples (African-Americans and Caucasians) in TV sitcoms (and some dramas)

 

Maybe this subject is moot these days but I don't see this much happening anymore these days in Sitcoms but in the 90's and 00's, occasionally a white character would be paired with a black character. Here I cover the rare main relationships and then the minor characters for just one episode. I will mostly cover African-American with White Americans. Because if you get nitpicky, you can call almost any couple interracial if Italian with British or Irish and Polish.

 

 Saved by the Bell

Lisa and Screech

Screech was madly in love with Lisa and the subject of her being black and him being white never came up. She mostly was disgusted with him and didn't return his advances. Even if she didn't feel the same way and they were never an official couple, it was refreshing they made no big deal about them being from different races. Occasionally she would show signs of liking him back but it didn't happen much.

 

Saved by the Bell

Zack and Lisa

In one episode where Lisa was a fashion designer, Zack and her worked together closely and fell for each other. They ended up kissing, breaking Screech's heart. Again race was not an issue. This relationship was not brought up again.

 

That 70's Show

Hyde and Melissa

Hyde is attracted to Donna's radio work buddy Melissa (Reagan Gomez-Preston---voice of Roberta on "Cleveland Show"). They don't kiss or date, it is alluded that it will continue but we never see her again. We later find that Hyde is half-black but he doesn't date a black girl after this.

 

Mr. Sunshine

 Alice and Alonzo

In the now canceled show "Mr. Sunshine," Alonzo (James Lesiure) and Alice (Andrea Anders) were a couple. James Lesiure is now on the TBS sitcom "Men at Work."

Parenthood

Crosby and Jasmine

Crosby (Dax Shepard) and Jasmine (Joy Bryant) had a kid together and then were engaged. They get married and have a second child.

 

True Colors

A Fox TV sitcom in the 90's was about a blended family with a black father and white wife, two sons from the father and daughter from the mother. Lasted two seasons from 1990 to 1992. People said it was a bad show but I was 8 when it came out and I liked it.

 

New Girl

Winston and Daisy

While Cece is Indian-American and has dated Schmidt who is Jewish and now seems to be paired with Coach who is African-American, I want to bring to light the rare pairing of Asian with Black. Daisy (Brenda Strong) was dating Winston only for a few eps and inadvertently broke up with him when he discovered she was seeing someone else. It was never mentioned about their different races even though the Schmidt character often mentioned him being Jewish and Cece being of Indian heritage.

 

Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue

Joel and Angela Fairweather

In season 8 of Power Rangers in 2000, they had got in the habit of having new cast and story and Joel the Green Ranger was after the scientist Ms. Fairweather. She ignored him for the most part but ultimately he won her heart and they married. 

Angel

James Gunn and Winifred 'Fred' Bruckle

In the end of season 3 and beginning of Season 4, Fred and Gunn became a couple. Like most couples in the Buffy and Angel universe, the relationship ended tragically. Gunn ended up killing for Fred and she didn't like that. She ended up kissing Wes. They broke up and next year Fred died. Anyway, their races wasn't mention but there was clear cultural differences.

 Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Captain Ray Holt and Kevin Cozner

Ray Holt is a main character and we don't meet his husband until Episode 16. Holt's husband who dislikes the NYPD due to their treatment of Holt and his homosexuality during his earlier years on the force. He claims Holt is the 'funny' one in their relationship, while he is very stoic. Their races are quickly mentioned and what is emphasized is that Kevin is one of those pretentious smart gays.



Male Celebrities with Child Bearing Hips

I thought I would center around that men DO have hips. Many people think hips are somehow only belong to women but just like nipples, men have them. Maybe they don't serve a 'purpose' but here are some male celebs, models, or actors who have prominent thighs. This is not to mock them by any means, actually to applaud their appeal.

Joe Jonas

At 5'8" he has short legs and like his brothers, a big plump ass. Nick Jonas' butt is the biggest and plumpest but Joe's butt isn't as huge but it is still remarkable. He has big thighs, hence Birther hips or child-bearing hips.

All three celeb brothers have big hips and nice butts.

Alex Heartman

Even though not a big celeb, I am a big Power Rangers fan and I have personally met Alex Heartman a.k.a. Jayden/the Red Ranger in Power Rangers Samurai. He has said to also have big thighs and have 'child rearing hips.' I peaked at his backside and even though he doesn't have a prominent protrusion, it was still nice to ogle at. I think the black legs make the thighs pop out a bit.

Michael Phelps

He is an Olympic swimmer so his thighs have to be big and his hips may not be as big and beefy as Joe Jonas' but they do protrude wider than his waist.

 Rick Martin
He has been shaking his hips for years and since he has already reared two kids and held them up to his shirtless torso, I think he qualifies for having child bearing hips. ha ha.

 

Max Greenfield

Jewish hottie best known as "Schmidt" on "New Girl," he has a pale but tight body, full of cute birthmarks and muscular legs.

Kris Kranz
A model with notable upper legs and impressive body.

Comcast Channels

Hiya, I was disappointed that a few months ago regular Comcast channel users (not digital cable) lost TruTV, History Channel and Cartoon Network. But now because in mid-September Comcast will be needing everyone to use Digital. So now we got these digital converters, and I got those channels back! Including Oxygn and Hallmark, which we lost last year thanks to the channels themselves. I even got G4, which I've been hearing about for five years and never gotten to see. But I am disappointed I don't have Logo and Nicktoons, I've wanted Logo for years since it is a gay network and also Nicktoons, since Power Rangers will be airing on Nicktoons in October.

Henshin Grid -- The Blog

This is my brand new blog dedicated to all kinds of Tokusatsu (Live-action special effects children's programming) from around the world. On my blog Spanengrish Ramblings, I covered a couple of things on Super Sentai and Power Rangers. I own the unofficial fan website SuperSentai.com and help Power Rangers Central that my partner inherited. I decided to put all my past posts on this blog, including more insights, rumors, and ramblings (of course). The reason it is called Henshin Blog is because Henshin means 'to change' in Japanese and commonly used by Tokusatsu heroes and Grid is from 'Morphing Grid' as 'Morphing' is the equivalent to Henshin. Above is a picture of the Red and White Rangers and the Masked Riders in a special 1995 episode in the third season of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers." It is considered non-canon for fans and the only team-up (in a way) between Super Sentai and Kamen Rider.

Henshin Grid -- The Blog

The newest member to the Disney Rangers

I have been covering the Power Rangers at the newly dubbed Disney's Hollywood Studios, there are rumors Power Rangers will end its 15-year run this year, so this might be the end of this. For those who don't know, Power Rangers have their own car part of a Motor Cars Parade and one ranger from different teams pose and then sign autographs. For those wondering, most of the regular teams include red, blue and yellow, while black interchanges with green and pink interchanges with white. Sometimes teams have started with three, and if they do, there is no pink ranger.

2001 - Power Rangers Wild Force - Lunar Wolf Ranger
2002 - Power Rangers Ninja Storm - Green Samurai Star Ranger
2003 - Power Rangers Dino Thunder - White Ranger
2004 - Power Rangers SPD - Red Ranger
2005 - Power Rangers Mystic Force - Pink Ranger
2006 - Power Rangers Operation Overdrive - Yellow Ranger
2007 - Power Rangers Jungle Fury - Blue Jaguar Ranger

This year has a purple ranger (Wolf Ranger) and I was hoping he would be picked but he hasn't appeared on the show yet. But it makes sense they picked the Blue Jaguar Ranger since they haven't ever repeated a color. Expect for the Pink Ranger, but when they introduced the Pink Mystic Force Ranger, they retired the Pink Time Force Ranger. When they introduced the Yellow Ranger, they retired the Lunar Wolf Ranger--but it seems he is back.

Blue Jaguar Ranger versus Ron Stoppable from Kim Possible.

Related Topic: Update on Disney World Power Rangers | Power Rangers at the Disney Resorts

Male to Female Power Ranger Monster Conversions

I am on a roll now. Since writing "Gender Bias in Power Rangers" and "Transgender Characters in Popular Culture" I felt like dealing with female villains in both series and the fact that the Power Rangers change male monsters to female. Also, the diverse male characters in Super Sentai.

In partially all Super Sentai series, there is a main villainess and the same in Power Rangers. But when it comes to the 'Monsters of the Day,' there is a only about three to two female monsters. "Kakuranger" (1994) had eight female monsters, making them the most. I did count the series from 1991 to 2007. In Power Rangers, they convert some feminine-looking male monsters to female. For example, above left male Incubus from "Magiranger" was changed to female Gnatu for "Power Rangers Mystic Force"; male Hanasakkadoshi from "Hurricanger" was changed to female Florabundacus for "Power Rangers Ninja Storm". And these are just a few of the changes. Sometimes, they don't even use the actual female monster from the Japanese series and feel short so they make one guy into a girl. For example, from the 8 female monsters of "Kakuranger," only 4 made it to "Power Rangers." I think they do it to have balance but just have a few female villains is not going to do much.


Most recently, the one above doesn't look female at all but they changed "Boukenger"'s Ouga to Crazar in "Power Rangers Operation Overdrive," the name doesn't even sound feminine. Most of the time the actor inside the suit is male. Even for the female rangers. There are rare times and more often up to recently that actual women don the female suits. And recently in "Gekiranger," a female is the suit actor for their male cat mentor Master ShaFu.


Some cases, they have no choice. Like the monster above left looks very female but was Wedding Dress Org actually male in the original "Gaoranger." In that same series, there was a intersex character Rasetsu that spoke in both female and male voice and surprisingly made it for "Power Rangers Wild Force" as Mandilok. The original American voice of Rita Replusa even voiced Mandilok's female aspect for a while. Strangely enough the female Jin (monster above right) in "GoGo Five" was converted to male in "Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue."


As for the male characters in Super Sentai, some are allowed to be artistic or hairdressers or look feminine. Some of those include Dairanger's Kazu, Abaranger's Yukito, and Gekiranger's Retsu and Ron (above left). In fact, many of the male heroes these days all look androgynous but that is the 'look' now in Japanese popular youth culture. Many times, ignorant people mistake them for girls. But us used to Anime and Tokusatsu are used to it. Actually the picture above is non-character time, the actors are in their regular clothes.

[Left to Right: Naoki Kawano; Hirofumi Araki; Hiroki Suzuki; and Riki Miura]

Gender Bias in Power Rangers

When the Power Rangers first came out, people were curious to know why the Pink Ranger had a skirt and the female Yellow Ranger didn't have one. One of the many concerns fans have had about the 15-year running series is the increasing gender bias. Through the years, the females have not gotten motorcycles and in the toyline, mostly ignored. Since 2005, there are only two figures of each female ranger in the whole line. While the male rangers, especially the red ranger (which is another issue fans have) gets around 30 or so products. Many would just say this is because it is a Boys toyline and that is the bare truth. Since 2001, Bandai America (that produces the figures) claim the Pink Ranger sells less than all other figures. Since then, the female rangers are spotlighted on eBay because they are hard to find in stores.

[The picture above is Sasha Craig as Kelsey Winslow and Alison MacInnis as Dana Mitchell in 2000's "Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue."]

The reason that five of twelve odd female Yellow Rangers had no skirts when their female buddy had a skirt is because of the source: the Japanese series Super Sentai. The first series to be adapted to make "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" was "Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger" (Dinosaur Squadron Beast Ranger), which had only one female. The yellow ranger was male, funny enough his name was Boy. Mostly because he was the youngest. But there are some series (of Super Sentai) that have had two females. They could have add skirts but then there would be a conflict with the footage. I guess they rather dealt with disappearing boobs than disappearing skirts. Now, why did they have to go through all the trouble of adding a female if it is a male-orientated show?

Maybe in the beginning, they did want both boys and girls to be into it. And now, it is probably tradition. Since Disney took over in 2003, it hasn't been an issue because there have been two females in the teams of five. In the cases that the show started with three heroes and eventually get to six or five, there would just be one female and no other was gender changed. Actually there was only one series in Power Rangers that the girls has no skirts... "Power Rangers S.P.D." That one had 6 females (Pink, Yellow, Red, Orange/White, Pink and Silver/Navy), all had no skirts. While in Super Sentai, there are plenty series that the girls had no skirts. Despite common belief, yellow is not always female in Sentai. More males have had that designation.

[The picture above are sketches by the Japanese artists of warriors from various Sentai series, some came before Power Rangers. Top: Phoenix Ranger from Dairanger (1993) and FiveYellow from Fiveman (1990) Bottom: Magiranger's MagiBlue (2005)/Blue Mystic Force Ranger (2006); Gaoranger's Gao White (2001)/White Wild Force Ranger (2002); Gingaman's Ginga Pink (1998)/Pink Lost Galaxy Ranger (1999)]

I think the reason people wish females in Power Rangers got a little more respect is probably because in some choice times, female characters are allowed to cross the line of the traditional roles in both Super Sentai and Power Rangers. For example in Power Rangers, there has been three female leaders. White Alien Ranger in 1995, Pink Time Force Ranger in 2001, and Red S.P.D. A-Squad Ranger in 2005. Funny thing about her (above), she didn't have a Japanese predecessor and producers had to convince Disney to have a female red ranger. It is obvious they hadn't decided on her gender until later in the series since in earlier episodes, the red ranger was heard to have a male voice. Fans sum this up as her disguising her voice to fool the enemy. Ultimately, I think they let it happen because she was not part of the main team, nor where there any toys based on her or her team. Best thing was that particular team was the first 'evil' team that was not under a spell. They actually chose to oppose the forces of good on their own free will. Super Sentai producer Hideaki Tsukada was recently asked about the possibility of having a female red ranger leader and he said it wasn't completely out of the question, "But still unlikely. For example, the fact that Super Sentai is a show for 3 to 5 year old boys, having a female leading character is not supported by the toy shops." It all goes down to toy marketing and sales, both series are aimed to boys.

The same plight that have gone to the females in Power Rangers have come to Super Sentai. Lately female warriors have gotten the shaft in the toy lines. But not so much to storylines. To the current incarnation that will end in February, "Juken Sentai Gekiranger" (Beast-Fist Squadron Fierce Ranger] that will be adapted into "Power Rangers Jungle Fury" that same very month, GekiYellow (above) is the leader. Some fans have complained that even with that, she is not getting very much focus and it could be that she was given the leader position as lip service. The picture above is about the upcoming teamup 'Gekiranger Vs. Boukenger' coming in March. Each year the previous team meets with the current team in a straight to video special. Next to her is Natsuki, Bouken Yellow from 2006's "GoGo Sentai Boukenger" (Rumbling Squadron Adventure Ranger) and she had special focus in the series. People liked her that she was a bubbly and childish. She is a fan favorite.

[The picture above is Mina Fukui as Ran Uzaki and Chise Nakamura as Natsuki Mamiya.]

The Future of the Power Rangers

In 2002, Disney acquired the rights to the Power Rangers and with that, the rights to adapt the source of the series--Super Sentai from the Toei Company in Japan. Since Power Rangers have still been on the air since 1993, fans were not exactly happy with what Disney was doing with the series. One fact is that Disney's contract with Toei is ending this year. There is a rumor circulating that Disney is planning to stop production with the live-action series and might go animated. There is a large possibility this might come true.

Disney (in general) has not had many fans in the past few years for any of their decisions. Thus going animated with the Power Rangers is not a surprise. Along with the rumor, there is another that the animated series will based on the original "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," supposedly in hopes of capturing old fans. Since 1996, Power Rangers have followed its source Super Sentai in changing theme, title, plot, and cast each year. Super Sentai is an ongoing franchise since 1975 and has recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. If Disney does choose to go animated, then the newest Super Sentai series won't be adapted to English. This week, pictures of the 2008 series have been revealed.

Gouonger or Go-On Ranger has received mix-reviews like 2007's Gekiranger, which is now being adapted into "Power Rangers Jungle Fury." One main reasons the designs of Gekiranger got mix-reviews was that they have no belts, which is a Sentai mainstay. Some fans are happy and some others are calling the costumes and robots of Go-onger goofy and garish. And some joke 'No wonder Disney dropped out.' But this was a long time coming for them to leave because of their contact. Power Ranger fans are notorious for freaking out before anything happens, they have been called worse than Star Trek, and comic book fans all put together. Very often, fans see a new sentai and think it won't get adapted and it does get adopted regardless. I am proudly one of them. hee hee. My family and friends call me obsessed. I for one, I am excited to go what will be the result of all of this.

Updated December 15 2007:
PrometheusUFO reports a 10-minute animated pilot has been produced. It is said to be called "Power Rangers Morphin' Heroes." There are rumors the animaed series will be just a year and it might go back to live-action. Which makes both PrometheusUFO and I happy that they will definitely have more time to plot out the storyline for the 2009 season from the Japanese source. But it could be they skip Gouonger all together and adapt Sentai 2009 for 2010 and end up the same way. Lemme explain, we fans don't like the squeeze PR producers have to go through by adapting the Japanese footage and their whole series feels so squished. It doesn't help that Disney has reduced 40 episodes to 32 episodes. Super Sentai series since 1998 have had 50 episodes and were merely reduced to 49 in 2005.

VR Troopers Unseen 7-minute Pilot presentation w/ Jason David Frank

This needs lots of explanation for non-fans. Back in 1994, at the height of the popularity of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers", before Tommy the Green Ranger returned to the series, Haim Saban (the creator of the series) decided to make a series with footage of another Japanese action series, namely "Metalder." In this pilot presentation, Jason David Frank portrays Adam Steele, who becomes Cybertron. Even Jamie Kennedy is in it, as a camera-holding surfer dude. Because fan demand was so high for Tommy and copyright infringement towards The Transformers' main planet, Cybertron was recast and changed to "VR Troopers," which had two seasons. The main character's name was changed to Ryan and the role given to Brad Hawkins and two other heroes were added with footage of "Speilban."

After you watch that, the last scene where Jason is in a black A-shirt and red bandanna, well they used that photo for this card below that I've had for 12 years.

For years, the only proof fans had of Jason David Frank being in the pilot was an article on Disney Adventures magazine. Little did I know that my Cardzillion card of the White Ranger was one too. When I got the card, I wondered why I never saw him in that outfit on the MMPR show.

Update on Disney World Power Rangers

Since the Power Rangers joined the Lights Motors Action Parade at Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney-MGM Studios) back in 2005, each year a ranger gets replaced to accommodate for the newest series. The Pink Time Force Ranger got replaced last year with the Pink Mystic Force Ranger. But since most of the rangers were 'Other Rangers,' like the Lunar Wolf Ranger, Green Samurai Ranger and the White Dino Ranger--I was wondering who they would choose to replace the Lunar Wolf Ranger, since he was the oldest ranger there. And after searching today, sure enough--they did replace the Lunar Wolf Ranger, but not with an 'additional' ranger but with the Yellow Operation Overdrive Ranger. Good for them! One more female, awesome. Plus, her Japanese counterpart Natsuki is a fan favorite.

Disney Ranger profile on wdwautographs.com

What is really curious that I found is this...
The people who are/were in the ranger costumes call themselves 'Disney Force.' They had their own MySpace profiles. But now I can't find them. Maybe Disney asked them to take it off. Very strange. Well, their videos are still on youtube. Picture above from The Callaghan Family
Walt Disney World Photo Album. Thank you thank you thank you to them for the picture. I guess I will be doing this every year. My guess is that the color that will replace the Green Samurai Ranger will be blue, I wish it would be purple.

Related Post: Power Rangers at Disney Resorts

Unknown Hotties of the Week 3/26/07

Jeff Henry
He'll be 41 next month, barely noticeable huh? Well, depends when this picture was taken but I doubt he changed so much. He got his first acting break in "Exorcist 3" as Angel back in 1990. He usually plays bodyguards and police officers.

He know him from 'Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue,' where he played the resident female scientist's brother Clark Fairweather in 2000. This one was about a team that was selected to fight demons with rescue vehicles and the help of a marine-like captain. The female to his left invented all the weapons and zords (giant robots) and her brother was also a scientist who invented this awfully named cool armors for the blue and green rangers called 'Mega Battles'.

He played Tiger Handler/Roustabout in six episodes of the 'Days of Our Lives' in 2004. He played a construction worker stripper on the ill-fated 'The Geena Davis Show." He recently was the improv comedy KwameWorld. In a spoof of you know what when you read the title called The Slow and the Cautious, he played a transgender nameless character.

Christian Klien
Baby boy just turned 24 back in February and he is from Austria.

Klien was into Formula One with the Jaguar Racing team but in 2005, Jaguar were sold to Red Bull and renamed Red Bull Racing. Klien shared the race seat with Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi.

After an unsuccessful 2006, it was announced that Klien's old teammate Mark Webber would replace him for the 2007 season. Klien was offered a few alternatives to Formula One for 2007, but Klien refused and wanted to continue driving Formula One. He was eventually given a test driver role at Honda despite competition from other drivers.

He made his debut for the Japanese works team at the Circuit de Catalunya during late November of 2006.

Anthony Davidson
Anthony Denis Davidson was born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire and will be 28 next month.

He is an British racing driver currently racing in Formula One with Super Aguri. In November 2006, it was confirmed that Davidson would partner with Takuma Sato at Super Aguri for the 2007 Formula One season.

Last August, he married his girlfriend Carrie in Banbury, Oxfordshire. The couple live in London.