As lines continue to blur in entertainment AMPAS looks to TV talent to help diversify its ranks

Going to television once meant your film career was over. Now, it can mean you will be bestowed one of the highest honors in Hollywood: an invitation to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In a move to diversify the 90-year-old organization's mainly white, mainly male ranks, and perhaps render the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag obsolete, the academy invited an unprecedented 774 new members to join last Wednesday. And television, it appears, provided many of those names. Robot"), Debbie Allen ("Grey's Anatomy"), Priyanka Chopra ("Quantico"), Sharon Gless ("Cagney & Lacey") and Lou Ferrigno (yes, you read that right -- the TV "Hulk" of 1970s fame) and TV legend Betty White, are among this year's class of invitees. Who was invited to join the film academy's largest class of all? Sure, they've all done work in major motion pictures, but that's not where their success or notoriety lives. Just try to name an indelible Betty White film role without turning to Google.