TV's Fall Ratings Hit: Meet the Obamas

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Illustration by Francisco Caceres for TIME; Obamas: Stan Honda / AFP / Getty (2); Sasha & Malia: Jae C. Hong / AP

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Yes, it's all image. But images matter, not least to African Americans after years of O.J. Simpson and R. Kelly media frenzies. On Comedy Central's Chocolate News, David Alan Grier chided Obama for wearing a tracksuit the day after the election: "Barack, people voted for you because you're not Al Sharpton! Don't start dressing like him!"

There's the chance that all the well-meaning Obamamania can turn into Look Who's Coming to Washington fetishization. A New York Times article about the Obamas' school search described "little girls ... swooning over the prospect of White House sleepovers with the daughters of the nation's first black President," as if kids care about the race of the dad handing out the invites. There's a gaping tone to some of the coverage: Wow, just look at them.

On the other hand ... well, just look at them, on every channel and newsstand. And consider the context. This year the networks announced a schedule of new fall series without a single black lead character. Now America's biggest television show--a family comedy, a West Wing--style drama and true reality TV--has an African-American cast.

Yet part of the Obamas' appeal is their refusal to harp on their exceptionality, their emphasis (repeated to Kroft like a mantra) on giving their daughters a "normal" life. It's only fitting that Malia and Sasha are big fans of Hannah Montana (on which they were offered but haven't accepted a cameo): the Miley Cyrus show is a fantasy about a girl celebrity with a secret life as an ordinary kid.

Now the Obamas are bigger than the Cyruses, and the ironies are plenty. That fashion glossies, which once rarely had cover models of color, would be jockeying for photo shoots with Michelle. That a TV business with long-standing diversity issues would be fascinated with this family's values. And that a still white-dominated press would look to a black man to boost its bottom line, fix the economy and save the planet. But will he still have time to take the kids to school when he's done? Tune in next week and find out.

See pictures of Barack Obama's campaign behind the scenes.

See TIME's Pictures of the Week.