On The White Shadow, which ran three seasons from 1978 to 1981, Carter played James Hayward, a troubled teenager with an extremely negative attitude who has to take care of his mom, Roberta, along with his younger brother, Jackie.
After having an outstanding freshman year in basketball at Carver, Hayward had an opportunity to attend college, and later a chance for a summer job at a law firm.
The series had a multi-ethnic cast; Carter later noted to Mark Gunther that, "I look in television and I don’t see myself,"[3] in reference to the lack of diverse roles for African-American actors.
Carter went on to produce the series about an American family, Under One Roof (1995), starring James Earl Jones, Joe Morton, and Vanessa Bell Calloway.
The drama dealt with the real life complications, stress, and dilemmas of a multi-generational African American family residing in Seattle, Washington.