Race: Black Voice Actors Begin Social Campaigns For Re-Cast Characters ; Scott Adams Claims Racism In “Dilbert’s Cancellation

 

 

With news last week that series like Big Mouth, Family Guy, The Simpsons, and other series were making wholesale changes assuring that characters are only voiced by their respected races, actors and producers are coming out of the wood work to throw their hats in the ring for hopes of a gig.

So far, Wendell Pierce (The Wire) is the highest profile to come forth in a pitch to land the gig of “Cleveland” for Family Guy, replacing the recently-departed Mike Henry who has decided to step away from the role. Other up and coming voices have been doing the same in getting the word out to campaign for some of the recently dropped roles by speaking up on a bunch of the social pages for the various franchises in hopes these will get seen and signal boosted for endorsements.

In related news, Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip that was then adapted to an excellent animated series, noted that HIS show was canceled because he was a white producer on a primarily black produced network. Originally airing on UPN, Dilbert ran for two seasons, won an Emmy award against The Simpsons, but for some reason was canceled without any rhyme or reason. Well, now Scott is the latest producer to come forward and note that the reasons fro Dilbert’s cancellation were because he is white. 

Our Take

Personally, I don’t like the idea of re-casting characters as much as I do replacing characters with new ones. Wendell Pierce would make a great addition to Family Guy, but maybe the Brown family should just be written off and Pierce can come in as someone new that could lead to a bit of a shake up at a Family Guy show that has become increasingly stagnate.

For Adams, it is odd that an Emmy winning series would get canceled. If what he says is true, then yes, this is another example of racism in the entertainment industry. I’m more curious why that show hasn’t been renewed or picked up at another network given that UPN isn’t around anymore and Scott still owns the rights to produce an animated series if he chooses.