Room for Improvement
Flash Gordon. Both Earth and Mongo are mostly white. Nick, Flash's fellow mechanic (played by the black Canadian actor Panou), is supposed to be a recurring character, but he's seen very rarely and in only one episode so far has he been at all involved in the plot. The rest of the time, the only diversity on the show is the slight differences between the various communities on Mongo.
Journeyman. Journeyman takes place in San Francisco, one of the most interestingly mixed American cities, but that aspect of the Bay Area's charm isn't showing up on screen, which just feels odd. Dan's ex-fiancee and "handler," Livia, is played by a woman with Korean-European ancestry; the rest of the cast and the people that Dan help are overwhelmingly white.
Moonlight. Set in Los Angeles, but short on nonwhite recurring and background characters. The ones we have are of extremely limited scope: there's a black police lieutenant who exists solely to provide exposition; Beth's ethically challenged boss, who gets little screen time and even less development; and Guillermo, the briefly seen morgue worker who gives Mick his blood.
Smallville. The weird thing about Smallville is that it's been getting less diverse as Clark gets older and the settings are more frequently in the big city of Metropolis. In early seasons Clark's best friend was Pete Ross (Sam Jones III), and recurring characters might include Dr. Hamilton, principal Kwan, or Dr. Teng. But the regular and recurring cast, including the new additions for season 7, is now all-white; the only exceptions worth noting are Victor Stone/Cyborg, seen once in season 5 and once in season 6, and John Jones/Martian Manhunter (Phil Morris), a character who stubbornly refuses to have any impact on the plot whenever he appears.
Supernatural. The closest we have to a nonwhite recurring character is Gordon Walker (Sterling K. Brown), who thinks Sam needs to be killed to stop the spread of evil. And Jake, the super-strong guy who tried to kill Sam last season (at the behest of Azazel, the Yellow-Eyed Demon). Otherwise, hunters, demons, and bystanders on Supernatural tend to be white.
Mixed Messages
Chuck. There is color in Chuck's world, but on further examination questions arise. All the interesting and glamorous people in Chuck are white, and the two whitest are also the most heavily idealized (the beautiful blonde superspy Sarah and the all-capable "Captain Awesome"). Government agents seen so far are lily white (though John's stiff NSA boss, seen only on video screens, is black). Chuck's Buy More workmates occupying the lower rungs of the cast list constitute an ethnicity checklist, but all of them are stock characters with one personality attribute apiece, none sympathetic. Meanwhile, Joshua Gomez plays a guy named Morgan, who is suddenly identified for us as Hispanic a month into the show.
Pushing Daisies. One of the show's three leads is Chi McBride's Emerson Cod, who by sheer physical presence makes up for the fact that this candyland world is so far largely inhabited by very, very white people -- with the notable exception of the droll coroner, a recurring character played by Sy Richardson. The fact that the two black characters are materialistic (Emerson is in this for the cash, and the coroner demands a cut) while the rest are looking for love makes me a little queasy, but it's probably just a coincidence. I hope.
Reaper. Underachiever Sam's second-best friend, after loser Sock, is ladies' man and perennial bad-guy punching bag Ben (Rick Gonzalez); he's pretty much Core Team, going on all the missions, but all we know about him so far is that women dig his hair. Lurking on the fringes is Josie (Valarie Rae Miller), an exposition device (she works for the D.A.) who's otherwise completely extraneous and overdue to be written out.
Aliens-of-Color Only
Stargate Atlantis. I should be giving Atlantis a pass, since two of its four regulars -- Jason Momoa (Ronon) and Rachel Luttrell (Tayla) -- are nonwhite; even Heroes can't muster a fifty percent ratio. But here's the rub: Ronon and Tayla are both aliens, encountered during the Atlantis expedition's exploration of the Pegasus galaxy. (Atlantis inherited this set-up from Stargate SG-1, which also had a team of white humans accompanied by an alien played by a black man.) Meanwhile, the internationally staffed expedition itself is, startlingly, made up overwhelmingly of white people. Even given that the Stargate program was initiated and run by the American military, Atlantis doesn't portray diversity on any level approaching what's present in America (or the American military, for that matter), much less the people of Earth. The other inhabitants of the Pegasus galaxy are pretty white as well -- including Ronon's race, the Satedans. Even among extremely minor characters, nonwhites are rare; the Japanese nurse is seldom seen, and the last black guy I remember impacting on the plot is the engineer who exploded in "Sunday."
It's great that we have Radek Zalenka (the excellent David Nykl), and that his character has become more prominent over the years; but one Czech scientist, a black lieutenant written out of the show three years ago, and Rodney McKay talking about "zed-p-m's" don't provide enough diversity to outweigh the near-complete dearth of Asians, blacks, and Hispanics in Atlantis. I firmly believe that this sends the dubious message that no nonwhites were needed in order for the human race to reach out into space. This stance that it's not necessary for humans of different backgrounds to work together to go out into space is only partially offset by the message that we should work together with the aliens we meet when we get out there -- because, at the end of the day, Ronon and Tayla are still apart from the humans, sometimes self-consciously so.
