Hollywood is reckoning with onscreen depictions of racism and police violence. In response to the global Black Lives Matter protests, Paramount Network pulled the police reality show “Cops” just before the premiere of its 33rd season, and A&E pulled its spiritual successor “Live P.D.” from its network. Both shows came under fire for glorifying police work without addressing the inequalities of the criminal justice system.
Other networks have begun to figure out how to respond to the film industry’s racist legacy. HBO Max has pulled “Gone With The Wind” from its streaming service, though the network says it will return at a later date with a disclaimer denouncing its racist depictions of the antebellum South.
Still, many of network TV’s most popular shows — “Chicago Med,” “FBI,” “NCIS,” “Blue Bloods” — are all about law enforcement officers. There are some calls to put a moratorium on cop shows. Whether Hollywood heeds that suggestion will be a question for the coming months.
On the production side of things, a white paper put together by industry unions offers guidelines to resume Hollywood production on June 12. There’s still a lot of uncertainty about how filming would actually work — love scenes and crowd scenes seem off the table for now — and there’s fear about returning back to sets too soon.
Meanwhile, Disneyland has gone ahead and announced a reopening date of July 17. The park will open to a reduced number of guests and with rules in place about masks, temperature checks and social distancing.