Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Forgotten TV: ROC



Roc is an American  television series which originally ran onFox network from August 25, 1991 to May 10, 1994. The series stars Charles S. Dutton as Baltimore garbage collector  Roc Emerson and his nurse wife, Eleanor played by Ella Joyce. 

ROC was a much more realistic look at a black family than we had on COSBY. Roc was a garbage collector and had a brother with drug issues. There was an interesting piece in the NYT on Sunday about ROC. Not many shows about lower middle class people from any race/ethnicity anymore.

I can only think of THE MIDDLE.What else?

22 comments:

Jeff Meyerson said...

Roseanne, obviously.

We never watched Roc.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Oh, you meant on now. Never mind.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Oh, you meant on now. Never mind.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Roseanne, obviously.

We never watched Roc.

Rick Robinson said...

I'm pretty sure I never watched this show.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Since I always post only once, I don't know why my phone insists on double posting.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Since I always post only once, I don't know why my phone insists on double posting.

Cap'n Bob said...

Fresh Off the Boat? Blackish? Not that I watch them, but I'm aware they exist.

pattinase (abbott) said...

They are not lower middles,

Anonymous said...

I'll have to be honest, Patti; I never saw this one. But I agree there aren't a lot of shows that feature lower middle class people.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the only place on television to see accurate depictions of lower-middle-class, working-class, and straight-up below-the-poverty-line lives is on "reality" shows like "COPS", "Hoarders", and "My 600-Pound Life" (an important show, IMHO, for clearly delineating the connection between poverty and obesity in our country). Fictional depictions of working-class life are to me either condescending or ersatz "inspirational". I'll take a hoarding show any day.

--Deb

pattinase (abbott) said...

As usual Deb has the best insights.

Charles Gramlich said...

I vaguely remember this being on but never watched it

Cap'n Bob said...

Amos 'n' Andy?

pattinase (abbott) said...

Boy, I cannot remember it well enough to know.

Todd Mason said...

I'd have to say that the freak-show exploitation of those "reality" shows is rather distant from any lack of condescending distortion. Much of my extended family is of the lower middle class, and oddly enough the better episodes of ROSEANNE have more resemblance to their reality than anything I've ever seen on COPS...which carries about as much universal application as its parody, RENO 911. Might as well say REAL HOUSEWIVES is representative of the upper middle class.

Todd Mason said...

ROC could be a bit heavy-handed...and was a bit more representative of Some back families, even as THE COSBY SHOW was sitcom about well-to-do black families (which soon devolved into Cosby hugging at small children for half of any episode). There are a number of folks by that description, as well.

Todd Mason said...

Of course, the most clangorous example of economic struggling in the US of late has been SHAMELESS, which despite borderline surrealism does get across the coping v. giving up ethics. BROAD CITY more or less likewise, even if the protagonists are relatively boho.

Todd Mason said...

A&A was about a mixture of middle class, working class and scuffling by characters...and on the tv series, at least the actors were African-Americans...

Todd Mason said...

That was mugging, which my spellchecker decided couldn't be correct. If Cosby had stopped at only mugging...

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