"To Set It Right" is the 21st episode of the American military drama television series ''

The Lieutenant ''The Lieutenant'' is an American television series, the first created by Gene Roddenberry. It aired on NBC on Saturday evenings in the 1963–1964 television schedule. It was produced by Arena Productions, one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's most ...

'', produced for broadcast on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. Written by Lee Erwin, it featured a guest cast that included

Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years ...

Don Marshall Donald Robert Marshall (born March 23, 1932) is a Canadian former ice hockey forward. Don played in the National Hockey League from 1951 to 1972. During this time, he played for the New York Rangers, Buffalo Sabres, Toronto Maple Leafs and Mont ...

Woody Strode Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914 – December 31, 1994) was an American athlete and actor. He was a decathlete and football star who was one of the first Black American players in the National Football League in the postwar era. Aft ...

and the acting debut of

Nichelle Nichols Nichelle Nichols (, born Grace Dell Nichols; December 28, 1932 – July 30, 2022) was an American actress, singer, and dancer best known for her portrayal of Nyota Uhura in ''Star Trek'' and its film sequels. Nichols' portrayal of Uhura was gr ...

. The series followed the lives of members of the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

stationed at

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and is one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the United States. It is on the Southern California coast in San Diego County and is bordered by Oc ...

. In this episode, after a racist altercation between Cpl. Peter Devlin who is white, (

) who is also white, and Pvt. Ernest Cameron who is Black (

), Lt. William Rice (

Gary Lockwood Gary Lockwood (born John Gary Yurosek; February 21, 1937) is an American actor. Lockwood is best known for his roles as astronaut Frank Poole in the film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968), and as Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell in the '' Star ...

) attempts to settle their issues by first arranging a boxing match and then forcing them to work together on a march. Notable about the episode are love expressed by a Black couple and frank discussions of surviving day-to-day in a racist world, something that was unheard of on television at the time.

The Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...

, who had previously aided the production of the series, protested the depiction of the Marine Corps as having racist members.

Production

''The Lieutenant'' was developed in conjunction with the Pentagon, but following a series of plot points concerning racism within the military relations became strained. The Pentagon was concerned with the depiction of racist men in uniform in the plot of "To Set It Right", and warned the producers that the airing of the episode could result in the production no longer being able to use the free equipment and extras provided by the Marines. In response, Roddenberry informed the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...

, who pressured the network to air the episode. The assistance of the Pentagon was withdrawn, and the series was officially canceled a week later.

Reception

Donald Bogle Donald Bogle is an American film historian and author of six books concerning black history in film and on television. He is an instructor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and at the University of Pennsylvania. Early years Bogle g ...

wrote of the episode in his 2001 book ''Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television'', saying that the episode "lost its nerve and ultimately undermined the feelings - the very strong, modern Black perspective - of its character Cameron". This resulted in the character appearing to be "one more angry young negro with unjustified racial hostility". However, Bogle praised the interactions between Rice and Norma and said that this was a better articulation of the problems faced by Cameron than those explained by the actual character. Bogle felt that although "To Set It Right" sought to address racial issues, it wanted to avoid upsetting its mainstream viewers. A videotape of the episode is part of the

Paley Center for Media The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and the Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution in New York City, New York with a branch office in Los Angeles, ...

collection in New York, contributed by Gene Roddenberry. It is also available on DVD in the collected episodes of "The Lieutenant".

Notes

References

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External links

* {{IMDb episode, 0631555 African-American-related controversies Race and ethnicity in television Race in the United States Stereotypes of African Americans Unaired television episodes