Charles S. Dutton vs. Chi McBride
Battle of the Big, Bald, Righteous Black Men

Let's say you're David E. Kelley, and you're casting your new prime time show about a Boston public high school. You've assembled the inevitable grab-bag of familiarly "wacky" characters to populate the teachers's lounge: a young idealistic babe; a hotheaded stud; an airheaded football coach; a kvetching old Jewish teacher; an authoritarian Vice Principal conveniently named Guber; and an uptight nerd conveniently named Milton Buttle.

Now, who do you bring in to marshal this motley crew? Well, if this was 1975, you'd get Ed Asner to play the stubborn, wizened, anachronistic but good-hearted grump. If it was 1985, you'd get Richard Dysart, to play the twinkly, slightly befuddled but ultimately wise patriarch. But since it's the year 2000, what you really want to get is a large, imposing, fiery but righteous black man. Preferably bald. In other words, you'd get Charles S. Dutton.

Right?

Wrong.

See, if you're David E. Kelley, you'd get Chi McBride, otherwise known as Charles S. Dutton 2000. We're not sure whether Charles S. Dutton was even approached to play the role of Principal Stephen Harper in Boston Public. (By the way, Dutton, for our money, plays a large, imposing, fiery but righteous black man -- and is, as a bonus, very bald, and wears cool glasses to boot -- better than anyone.) But we are sure that, at some point in the casting process, the phrase "Charles S. Dutton-type" was uttered by somebody somewhere. And don't get us wrong: if the first two episodes are any indication, Chi McBride is more than up to the task of playing the bald and righteous principal -- a role that, so far, requires a lot of eye-rolling at the antics of his crazy staff; sighing before hefting himself out of his chair to go deal with said antics; sitting in his office with one of those olde-tyme headache bags on his head; and generally facing down various miscreants and yelling at them in an imposing but righteous way. We're not saying he's not good at it; we're just saying that he's treading ground on which Charles S. Dutton staked his claim way back when, during the time of Roc and Alien 3.

All of which is bad news for Charles S. Dutton, because there are only so many imposing-bald-black-man parts to go around. Of course, five years hence, when TV producers decide that the ideal person to babysit a cast full of squalling stereotypes is a tiny, wizened, sharp-talking old granny, it will be bad news for both Mr. Dutton and Mr. McBride, but very good news for Estelle Getty.

Advantage: Chi McBride (for now)