CVK
(Thanks to Michelle M for all the tips here!) There have been quite a few instances of interracial couples and/or mixed people on TV lately. Here’s a rundown:

“House” on Fox (episode 20, airdate 5/10): An Asian man (specifically Korean) is brought into the hospital and it turns out his life-threatening ailments are related to his deviant sexual fetishes, namely that he is the “slave” partner in an SM relationship with a white, blonde dominatrix, and he gets off on being almost asphyxiated. If that weren’t enough, his parents are portrayed as cold, heartless people who would rather see their son die b/c of his sexual behavior than give permission for him to have life-saving surgery. (Btw, John Cho who played Harold in “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” plays the Asian guy in this episode).

“24″ on Fox: I only started watching this show, but Reiko Aylesworth (who is 1/4 Japanese) plays Michelle Dessler on the show whose love interest is Latino. Both their characters and their relationship figure prominently throughout the season.

“The L Word” on Showtime: I don’t know if you guys watch this, but during the 2nd season, Jennifer Beals’ character, Bette, and her partner /ex-partner on the show, Tina, have a baby. If you didn’t follow the storyline, Tina was artificially inseminated by a friend of Bette’s who was black b/c Bette wanted to feel like the baby would be as close as possible to what an actual baby of hers and Tina’s would be like if they could have one together. In the first season, Tina had a miscarriage, but the 2nd season ends with the birth of a daughter who very clearly shown on the show as non-Caucasian looking.

Also, Ossie Davis’ last role (I believe) is as Bette’s father. His character dies during the 2nd season due to cancer, and there were moments where he’s delirious and he begins to think he’s talking to Bette’s mother and even mistakes Tina for her during one sad moment. Bette finds many photos of their mixed race family in his possessions as she cares for him.

“The 4400″ on USA: This show was originally on the Sci Fi channel but now airs on USA. The 2nd season began on Sun. If you don’t know the premise of the show, the 4400 refers to people who disappeared at different times and are “returned” at the same time many years later–some have returned with powers like seeing into the future or the ability to heal through touch or kill people through thought. No one knows if they were abducted by aliens or by people from the future. Anyway, there’s a couple who is one of the 4400: a black man, Richard, who was abducted in the 1950’s, and Lily, a young white woman, who was abducted in the 1990’s. It turns out Richard had actually dated her grandmother during his time. Anyway, they have a baby (born between season 1 and 2–during season 1, Lily was pregnant), I think her name is Isabelle, who has significant unknown powers and another 4400, Jordan Collier, is hunting them down trying to get her b/c he wants to use her for his own purposes–during the season opener, the baby actually kills these 4400-haters who are chasing the family and trying to kill them b/c they found out they’re part of the 4400. She “kills” them by making them kill themselves.