Clarence Williams III, who famously played Linc Hayes on The Mod Squad ("One black, one white, one blonde," one of the most famous and most ridiculous TV taglines in history), has passed away at age 81 of colon cancer. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/clarence-williams-iii-mod-squad-dies-at-81-1234963703/ The show was often stupid, but it was about as counterculture as television drama got back in 1968. Aaron Spelling fought hard to keep a friendly kiss between Linc and Julie from being cut, and famously reported that despite the fears of the people at ABC he didn't get a single complaint letter after the episode aired. Williams had a long career of appearances in television, movies, and on Broadway (the last of which being where his career started, including in a Tony-nominated performance in Slow Dance on the Killing Ground). With Peggy Lipton's passing in 2019 and Tige Andrews' passing in 2007, only Pete (Michael Cole) is left.
In every episode he would make at least one leap, usually across the hood of a car, to take down the bad guy.
The audience for The Mod Squad was already filtered for people who weren't interested in watching a black main character. That at least partly explains the lack of outrage on the CW/PL kiss. We forget how few black actors got to play major roles during the 60's and early 70's. And when you did have a black character playing a major role they were the only one on the show - like CWIII on The Mod Squad and Nichelle Nichols on Star Trek. The people for whom race was a determining factor just stayed away from shows that featured black actors. In the mid-70's things began to get a bit better, with shows like Barney Miller occasionally featuring multiple black actors alongside Asian actors, Hispanic actors, etc. A few shows featuring largely black casts even went mainstream, like Sanford and Son and eventually The Jeffersons.
Geez Louise, my childhood is just slipping away. It was groundbreaking even wiih the cheese factor That's so depressing . I'm so ancient I'm almost calcified, so I would've thought he was closer to 90.
Yeah that was another of the pioneering black casted shows. Sanford and Son was the real ice-breaker. It was the first show that gave studios the incentive by proving that white audiences would watch it reliably in the big media markets. Redd Foxx was like the Jackie Robinson of network TV. He followed Sidney Poitier's work in the 60's making leading roles in mainstream film work acceptable. Before Sanford and Son you had one black character in a lot of shows but they were always a secondary character. Ivan Dixon in Hogan's Heros, Greg Morris in Mission Impossible, Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek, Clarence Williams III in The Mod Squad, etc.
It was very popular. Who amongst ye didn't think Thelma was gorgeousl? I think she went on a campaign about Alzheimer's after her Mom died from it years later, just something odd that I recall; but kids used to walk around saying, "Dyno-mite!" in grade school, haha. I think JJ was supposed to be anywhere between 18 and 65 in the show. It's upsetting to see Janet Jackson years before she decided to have the family plastic surgeon take a hatchet to her face. She was so adorable. : /
Excellent catch. Diahann Carroll was a great actor. I wouldn't have watched Julia but my sisters would have.
