A video screening of a documentary movie examining the images of blacks on television will be presented at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the University of California, Davis. "Color Adjustment: Blacks in Prime Time" will be shown in the Cabernet Room, located on the second floor of the Silo. Following the screening, a question-and-answer session will be conducted by Patricia A. Turner, an assistant professor of African American Studies at UC Davis who served as a scholarly consultant for the movie. According to Turner, "Color Adjustment" analyzes the images of blacks in prime time television, starting with the introduction of the medium into American homes following World War II. The documentary begins with the first programs to portray black characters, such as "Amos 'n' Andy" and "Beulah," and moves on to more recent shows such as "The Cosby Show" and "Frank's Place." One theme explored in the show is how stereotypical images of blacks in pre-television entertainment formats -- minstrel shows, radio, films -- were embraced by television, and endured, Turner argues, until the creation of "Frank's Place," which was broadcast in the 1980s. "Frank's Place" was one of the best and first examples of a program that showed blacks as three-dimensional, intelligent characters," Turner said. Although "The Cosby Show" has enjoyed immense popularity, Turner said, it conveyed a somewhat unrealistic portrayal of black life and society at large. It appealed to whites, she said, because it communicated the message that the civil rights movement had succeeded, and that once blacks achieve a certain social and economic status, race ceases to be a factor in their lives, "a real misnomer." For blacks, Turner said, the show was attractive because it represented a fantasy or dream world in which a family has two parents with upscale, professional jobs, a home filled with tasteful art and other furnishings, and no problem so complicated that it cannot be resolved within half an hour. -more- 2-2-2 Color Adjustment "Color Adjustment" will be broadcast in June as the first installment of the new season for the PBS series "Point of View."