TV greats reflect on their history-making series

• TV%27s %27pioneers%27 reflect on their star-making series.
• Fourth season of PBS series due in April.
• Episodes focus on standups%2C breaking the color barrier%2C medical series.

PASADENA, Calf.—PBS brought more Pioneers of Television to TV critics Tuesday. For the fourth season of the documentary series on TV milestones, due in April, Bob Newhart and Ray Romano represented standup comedians turned sitcom stars, and Leslie Uggams, George Takei and Jimmie J.J. Walker, those who broke the color barrier in one way or another. Together they span more than four decades of TV history.

Takei says Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's vision for the show reflected its inclusiveness, and paved the way for other Asian stars: "The strength of the Starship came from its diversity," he says, including an Asian, an African-American woman, and a Scotsman, who happened to be played by an Irish-Canadian.

Uggams faced resistance on Sing Along with Mitch Miller, blacked out ("no pun intended," she says) in the South, where viewers resisted minorities on TV. She got her own CBS variety show in 1970, as a replacement for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, canceled abruptly for its political bite—to "take the heat off what they had done. We lasted 10 weeks, but I made sure we had black camera men, which was unheard of at the time," and "the cast was a mixture of blacks, Latinos and whites." Though there were other trailblazers, such as Diahann Carroll's Julia, it was Roots, the 1977 miniseries, that "changed everything," she says.

Walker says Good Times director John Rich came up with his famous catchphrase, "Dine-o-mite!" But executive producer Norman Lear "detested it. He hated it; it literally made him want to throw up."

Romano says he was intimidated when, as a TV novice, he'd started Raymond, shortly after getting fired from NewsRadio on his second day on the job. "I cringe when I watch some of those first-year episodes," and says some failed because they "were given opportunities too early," before they'd refined their acts. But he never looked back when Everybody Loves Raymond ended. "I probably would never do a sitcom again. It's nothing against the genre, I just want to move on and explore other things."

Newhart, who had two hit CBS sitcoms (and returned for guest stints on The Big Bang Theory), is surprised at his longevity. "I never thought it would last this long; I thought I might have five years and that'd be it, and that was fine. Then I pictured myself as an elevator operator, when people in the corner would say, 'This used to be Bob Newhart.'" His second series, Newhart—in which he played a Vermont innkeeper—had a rocky start.

" We were very lucky, we were given two years by audience for what was (initially) not a good show." He credits "loyalty to me, and Larry, Darryl and Darryl," the slow-witted brothers added later, and says his belated Emmy—he won last year for a guest role on Big Bang—was "an emotional experience."

Pioneers also includes sitcom greats Robin Williams, Roseanne Barr, Tim Allen and Cloris Leachman, among others.