Arrested Development

Arrested Development, a FOX show, began in 2003 and was cancelled in 2006 after it had run for 4 seasons. It has been characterized as a "dramedy," or a drama and a comedy. I believe it pertains to the idea of TV Tokenism because its core characters- the Bluth family- are all white. Throughout the course of the seasons, there are several "tokens," such as Lupe (Lucille's maid), Annyoung (Lucille and George's adopted son from Korea), and Ice (a PI hired by the family and brief love interest for Lindsay). It seems as though the only revolving characters are from a minority, and this suggests that they were mainly brought on to please their respective groups. However, as time went on and it became more normal to have an actor from a minority stay on the show as a permanent character, Arrested Development failed to come to these terms. That is why I believe it stopped running. By the third season, the ratings were so low that FOX had to cancel it. Therefore, this show supports Mr. B's thesis (on newtwork channels the main characters are white and they are the ones who have the most complex lives whereas minority characters play a less complex role) because its failure to add minority characters as constant characters most likely led to its cancellation.