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L. A. HEAT/SYN/1996
*(Steven Williams/costar) August Brooks, a cool, calm and collected black Los
Angeles police detective teamed with a white partner, Detective Chester 'Chase'
McDonald. Renee Tenison appeared as Kendra Brooks, August's wife.
L.A. LAW/NBC/1986-94
**(Blair Underwood) Jonathan Rollins, a confident, but unseasoned black lawyer
hired on board the Los Angeles law firm of McKenzie, Brackman, Chaney & Kuzak
during the 1987 season.
LAND OF THE GIANTS/ABC/1968-70
**(Don Marshall) Dan Erikson, black co-pilot on the sub orbital aircraft the
"Spindrift" (Flight #612) which passed through a time warp into a land of beings
tens-of-times larger than the crew and its passengers.
THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW/HBO/1992-98
**(Penny Johnson) Beverly, the savvy, super efficient black assistant to the
insecure, ego-maniacal late night talk show host Larry Sanders.
THE LAST PRECINCT/NBC/1986
**(Ernie Hudson) Det. Sgt. Tremaine "Night Train" Lane, black plainclothes
officer (who dressed like a pimp) assigned to the 56th precinct in Los Angeles
with a variety of other misfit officers.
LATELINE/NBC/1998-99
**(Sanaa Lathan) Briana, a beautiful but sardonic, black booker (that's booker
with a "B") who arranges for guests to appear on a late night talk show called "Lateline."
Although overworked and underpaid, Briana is very competent and could probably
do everybody's job on the show, if necessary.
LAW & ORDER/NBC/1990+
*(Richard Brooks II/costar) Paul Robinette, a black Assistant District Attorney
conducting law in the criminal courts in New York City. He grew up in Harlem, is
single and likes tennis. Paul left the D.A.’s office to become a private
practice defense lawyer. S. Epatha Merkerson also appeared as Lt. Anita Van
Buren, the tough-as-nails black supervisor of police detectives at the 27th
precinct who investigate crimes prosecuted by the district attorney's office.
She is married to the owner of a hardware store and has two young sons. In the
fall of 1999 (the tenth season?) Jesse L. Martin was introduced as Detective. Ed
Green, the new partner of white Detective Lennie Briscoe.
LAWLESS/FOX/1997
*(Glenn Plummer/costar) Reggie. a black helicopter pilot living in Miami's
trendy South Beach who assisted his friend and former Army buddy John Lawless, a
private eye.
THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW/ABC/1955-71/SYN/1971-1982
**(Art Duncan) Black tap dancer who was a featured member of the Lawrence Welk
family of musical/dance performers. Art Duncan was with Lawrence Welk from 1964
until the program's last show on February 24, 1982.
THE LAYTONS/DUM/1948
**(Amanda Randolph) Black maid working for the white Layton family on this
short-lived domestic comedy series. Amanda Randolph was known as Sapphire's Mama
on the radio and TV series AMOS 'N ANDY/CBS/1951-53 and played Louise, the maid
on MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY/ABC/CBS from 1953-64.
THE LAZARUS SYNDROME/ABC/1979
*(Louis Gossett, Jr.) Dr. MacArthur St. Clair, a stern black Chief of Cardiology
at Webster Memorial Hospital who was always at odds with the hospital's
bureaucracy. Sheila Frazier appeared as the doctor's wife, Gloria St. Clair.
LEGACY/UPN/1998-99
**(Sharon Leal) Marita, attractive black administrative assistant/bookkeeper for
a horse and tobacco farm owned by the Logan family, Irish-American landowners
living near the city of Lexington, Kentucky in the post-Civil War days of 1881.
Steven Williams also appeared as Isaac, the trusted black ranch hand.
LENNY/CBS/1990-91
**(Scott Lawrence) Richard Johnson, black attorney who married white
Irish-Catholic Megan Callahan on the 1/5/99 episode of this Boston-based sitcom.
THE LESLIE UGGAMS SHOW/CBS/1969
*(Leslie Uggums) Leslie Uggums, talented black singer/entertainer who hosted
this musical variety program featuring celebrity guests, The Howard Roberts
Singers, The Donald McKayle Dancers and various comedy skits One of the
recurring sketches on the program was entitled "Sugar Hill." It featured a
middle-class black family living in a large metropolitan area. The family
members included Leslie Uggams as Henrietta; Lincoln Kilpatrick as B. J., her
husband; Lillian Hayman as Leslie's mother; Johnny Brown as Leslie's brother,
Lamar; and Allison Mills as Leslie's sister, Oletha.
LIFE WITH BONNIE/ABC/2002-2004
**(David Allen Grier) Dave Bellow, the black producer of Morning Chicago, an
early morning talk show hosted by Irish-American hostess Bonnie Molloy.
LINC'S/SHO/1998-2000
*(Steven Williams) Russell A. “Linc” Lincoln, the black proprietor of Linc's Bar
& Grill, a Washington, DC hot spot where “debates flow like the beer on tap and
the patrons wouldn't have it any other way!” Pam Grier costarred as Linc’s
romantic interest Eleanor Braithwaite Winthrop; Regulars to the bar included
George Stanford as Johnnie B. Goode; Joe Inscoe as Harlan Hubbard IV; Golden
Brooks as CeCe Jennings; Tisha Campbell as Rosalee Lincoln; Adewale
Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Winston Iwelu; Daphne Reid as Eartha; Tim Reid as Priest;
Rodney Choice as Tracy; Jamie Mann as Hugh; and Edward A. Brooks as Kalil.
LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE/NBC/1974-83
**(Kelly Lester) Hester Sue Terhune, an African-American cook at the Sleepy Eye
School for the Blind that Mary Ingalls attended. Hester later moved to Walnut
Grove to work along with Caroline Ingalls at Mrs. Oleson's restaurant worked.
The Hester Sue character appeared during the 1979-83 seasons.
LIVE SHOT/UPN/1995-96
**(Hill Harper) Tommy Greer, a black TV soundman working in Los Angeles at
Channel-3 news room.
LIVING DOLLS/ABC/1989-90
*(Halle Berry/costar) Emily Franklin, a brainy black teenage girl who lived with
Trish Carlin, the owner of the New York City-based Carlin Agency who groomed a
group of young aspiring models. Emily saved her model earnings so she could
train to be a doctor.
LIVING IN CAPTIVITY/FOX/1998
*(Dondré T. Whitfield) Curtis Cook, an upwardly mobile African-American living
in a gated, planned suburban community with his wife, Tamara (played by Kira
Arne) and a bevy of goofy neighbors including a bigoted Italian-American man who
thinks all blacks are thieves or worse.
LIVING SINGLE/FOX/1993-97
*(Queen Latifah/costar) Khadijah James, editor of Flavor magazine (a periodical
for black women) who shared a Brooklyn apartment with her cousin and office
manager Synclaire James (Kim Coles). Other cast included Erika Alexander as
divorce lawyer Maxine "Max" Shaw; Kim Fields as sexpot Regine Hunter; T. C.
Carson as neighbor Kyle Barker; John Henton as building superintendent Overton
Wakefield Jones and Synclaire's boyfriend; and Cress Williams as Terrence
"Scooter," Khadijah's boyfriend. Queen Latifah (real name: Dana Owens) was born
in East Orange, New Jersey. Incidentally, the name "Latifah" is Arabic for
"delicate and sensitive."
LOBO (THE MISADVENTURES OF SHERIFF)/NBC/1980-81
**(Nell Carter) Sgt. Hildy Jones, black police officer working with (but not
for) the larcenous sheriff Lobo, transplanted from Orly, Georgia to Atlanta
Georgia.
LONESOME DOVE: THE SERIES (THE OUTLAW YEARS)/SYN/1994-95
**(Diahann Carroll) Ida Grayson, a black frontier woman who purchased a hotel in
the town of Curtis Wells and renamed it "The Lonesome Dove". Billy Dee Williams
played Ida's husband Aaron Grayson, an Indian Scout.
LOVE AMERICAN STYLE/ABC/1969-74
**(Tracy Reed, Clifton Davis) Black regulars on the romantic comedy anthology
series. Tracy Reed went on to star in BAREFOOT IN THE PARK/ABC/1970-71 and
Clifton Davis starred in THAT'S MY MAMA/ABC/1974-75 and AMEN/NBC/1986-91.
LOVE & WAR/CBS/1992-95
*(John Hancock/costar) Ike Johnson, the black bartender and owner of the "Blue
Shamrock, a seedy restaurant/bar located in downtown New York City." After
Hancock (as well as his character, Ike) died of a heart attack, Charlie Robinson
joined the cast as Ike's surly brother Abe, an unemployed Detroit auto worker
who showed up to claim Ike's inheritance which included ownership of the Blue
Shamrock. Both Ike and Abe co-owned the bar with a white female partner who
bought interest in the place to manage the restaurant concession.
THE LOVE BOAT/ABC/1977-86
**(Ted Lange) Isaac Washington, an out-going black cruise ship bartender and
unofficial big shoulder on which many troubled passengers laid their problems.
Phil Morris (the son of actor Greg Morris of CBS TV series MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
fame) appeared as Chief Purser Will Sanders in the revival series LOVE BOAT: THE
NEXT WAVE/UPN/1998.
LOVE THY NEIGHBOR/ABC/1973
*(Harrison Page & Janet Maclachlan) Ferguson & Jackie Bruce, a black couple from
Passaic, New Jersey who moved to an all-white Los Angeles suburban neighborhood
of Sherwood Forest Estates. Ferguson worked as an efficiency expert at Turner
Electronics (as did his white next-door neighbor Charlie Wilson, a middle-class
Republican shop steward. See also THE HUGHLEYS.
LUCAS TANNER/NBC/1974-75
**(Alan Abelew) Jaytee Drumm, black student who interacted with English teacher
Lucas Tanner, assigned to Harry S. Truman Memorial High School in Webster
Groves, Missouri.
LUSH LIFE/FOX/1996
*(Karyn Parsons/costar) Margot Hines, a beautiful, sassy black female sharing an
apartment with an equally outrageous white female artist named Georgette (both
of whom have no visible means of support). Other cast include Sullivan Walker as
Hal Gardner, the owner of a seedy club frequented by Margot and her friend
George; Fab Filippo as fledgling musician Hamilton Ford Foster; Khalil Kain as
social climber Lance Batista; and Concetta Tomei as Margot’s meddling mother Ann
Hines-Davis-Wilson-Jefferson-Ali.
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