The WB's new series "Black Sash" is one of the few in television history that features an Asian-American actor in the lead role. But, not surprisingly, that actor — Russell Wong — is cast as a martial-arts master.
Is this progress?
"My attitude in the past has been — OK, I've got to do martial arts to be on TV or to be an actor or try to grow as an actor, so I better learn it or I'll just be another unemployed actor," Wong said. And when he started reading the "Black Sash" script, "I go, 'Oh, here it goes again — another typical fight scene.'
"And then I got into the relationships with the daughter and the ex-wife and the students and I said, 'Finally, here's a real character that has real dimensions and different levels of humanity that he can explore.' "
Wong stars as Tom Chang, an ex-cop who was framed on drug charges and sent to prison in Hong Kong. As the series opens (Sunday, 8 p.m., Ch. 30), he's just returned to the United States where his ex-wife has remarried and he's kept from seeing his young daughter.
Tom's mentor, Master Li (Mako), hires him to run his martial-arts school. Tom becomes a mentor to a group of troubled teens, who join him in fighting crime while learning life lessons.
The young stars — Sarah Carter, Ray J, Missy Peregrym and Corey Sevier — are all, of course, good looking. This is the WB, after all.
While "Black Sash" comes to us from Carlton Cuse, the executive producer of shows like "The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr." and "Martial Law," there isn't a whole lot of humor in this new show. The pilot, at least, is pretty grim.
We're promised that things will lighten up, just as we're promised that "Black Sash" will be about more than just action sequences and fight scenes.
"Well, I think that's the starting point," Cuse said. "And my hope is that it becomes a lot more than just a martial-arts show. . . . This is not a show about a guy who is a martial artist. This is not 'Mortal Kombat.' This is a guy who has varied strengths and failings as a character, and one of his strengths is that he is a martial artist."
Yes, but the fact remains that in order to get an Asian-American into the lead of a network television series, he had to be a martial artist. And martial-arts sequences are the highlight of the "Black Sash" pilot. (We'll see "a couple of fight scenes per episode.")
Still Cuse said, "I love the fact that we're creating — I truly believe — a very multi-dimensional Asian-American character on television."
And if he has to practice martial arts to star in a TV show, well, Wong isn't complaining.
"I think this is one of the few times that there's been an Asian-American lead in a TV series," he said. "So it's been a long time for me as an actor to get this opportunity."
WB RENEWS SIX SERIES: The WB won't announce its fall schedule until May, but we already have a pretty good idea what it will look like. The network has renewed six of its series — almost half of its prime-time schedule.
Programs getting one-year pickups were the made-in-Utah "Everwood," "Smallville," "Gilmore Girls," "Charmed" and "Reba." And "7th Heaven" was renewed for two more seasons, which will make nine for the WB's highest-rated show. None of which is particularly surprising.
What's a little scary is that "Angel" wasn't on that list. It doesn't necessarily mean that "Angel" or any of the other shows the WB didn't pick up early are canceled, but it's not a great sign for their future.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com