"CAR 54" WE MISS YOU! 

What We Learned (or remembered) About Race, Class, and Culture 
in New York City From "Car 54 Where Are You" 

Long before "Barney Miller" or the often depressingly somber "NYPD Blue," there was a TV comedy show about cops in a New York City police station - the fictional 53rd Precinct in the Bronx in the early 1960s.

This was when most NYPD cops were working class Joes - before frequent pay raises and dynamite pensions propelled them into the middle and upper middle classes. When they lived in the five boroughs. Patrolmen (as they were called in the days before women patrol officers) Gunther Toody  (Joe E. Ross) and Francis Muldoon (Fred Gwynne) lived in the Bronx borough they patrolled -- not colonials in Nassau or Rockland County. Toody lived in a walk-up with his wife. Muldoon, a bachelor, lived in a modest house with his mother who rented out spare rooms.

These were the days long before it was the Boogie down Bronx.

I just finished watching several episodes on DVD - did not remember any of them (quite young when the show debuted) although I remembered the characters vividly. But most of all I remembered the feel of New York City, where I grew up. And the cops looked like cops did then. These were the days before the silk and satin look of "Miami Vice." These guys, in their off-duty clothes could just as easily have been plumbers, construction workers or sanitation men.

In addition to being funny and well-acted, "Car 54 Where Are You?" depicted New York as it was when men carried lunch pails to work instead of attache cases. And  like the best of the well-written TV shows, you felt as if you really knew the characters - even those with smaller roles.

But most importantly, "Car 54 Where Are You?" was one of the first integrated shows on television. When I said this to a friend of mine, he said: "Well how could you have a TV show about New York cops in the 60s and not have any Black ones?"

Believe me, they did. There were more Martians and extra-terrestrials on television in the first half of the 1960s than Black people.

One of the regulars was Frederick O'Neal, Officer Wallace. A tall impressive looking Black man with even more impressive real-life credentials. The Mississippi-native had appeared in some other TV shows, and films including Anna Lucasta, a breakthrough 1958 film with a largely Black cast starring Eartha Kitt and Sammy Davis, Jr. O'Neal also founded the American Negro Theater and later - the British Negro Theater. He went on to become the first Black president of the Actors Equity Association, a position he held for many years. O'Neal grew into a major labor leader in America, along with his civil rights activism.One other major accomplishment: He ranked high on the "master list" of  President Nixon's political enemies. Bravo!

Then there was the  53rd Precinct dispatcher,  well-known to Black audiences, comedian Nipsey Russell. Russell was a familiar figure at Harlem's Apollo theater and other largely Black venues. In real-life he was a decorated World War II medic who served in Europe, rising from the rank of private to Lieutenant. Russell was also known for his uncanny ability to make up rhymes -- a talent that kept him as a regular on game shows such as "The Match Game," "Pyramid," and "Hollywood Squares."  He was also the first Black ever to host a game show - the short lived, "Missing Link."  Russell also appeared on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show," Ed Sullivan," and in the 1990s was  recurring guest on Conan O'Brien.     

There was lots of other diversity in the show. You could regularly hear names tossed about like Katz, Rodriguez, O'Brien, etc - that reflected much of New York City.

And there was Al Lewis as Leo Schnauzer, Jewish cop with a shrewish wife. He went on to become "The Munsters" Grandpa character, but more importantly to some, was his political  activism as a died-in-the-wool leftist activist. Lewis got his start in vaudeville and spent some time in Broadway shows as well. After "The Munsters" he became a  radio commentator for Pacifica radio station, WBAI-FM, in New York, which provided a platform for his political and social views. He took on many powerful politicians and interests. Lewis even ran for New York governor on the Green Party line and garnered over 52,500 votes. That was enough (by New York state law) to guarantee that the Green Party have a line on the ballot for at least four years.  

"Car 54"'s  Producer/Director was Nat Hiken. It was not Hiken's  first journey into the "integrated" realities of life outside the TV world. That  was "The Phil Silvers Show," frequently referred to as "Sgt. Bilko," after the main character. "Bilko" featured a diverse group of white ethnics - Italian, Jewish, Irish, etc. And the occasional appearance of a Black soldier, one of whom was Godfrey Cambridge, who, throughout the late 1960s through the mid 1970s became a frequent guest on TV shows such as "Jack Paar's Tonight Show, where his intellect on politics and social issues could be displayed. That intellect, by the way, had gotten him a full scholarship to study medicine. Instead he dropped out his junior year to pursue acting. Cambridge was nominated for Broadway's Tony Award for "Purlie Victorious," and appeared in films such as the controversial  "Watermelon Man" (where he portrays a white man who colors himself black)  and "Cotton Comes to Harlem."

With all this "reality" TV going around, "Car 54 Where Are You" reminds us what is really possible when you put true talent in front of and behind the camera.