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Post by Lance Uppercut on Aug 8, 2013 12:48:33 GMT -5
You know how back in the day, they had those sitcoms where the cast was pretty much all black and not a bunch of multi-ethnic people or whole bunch of white people with the token black friends or that one black girlfriend to show that guy "wasn't racist" for only dating white women the other 99%.
I'm talking like Fox thursday, or the entire UPN line up or the WB when it first started.
Sure there's TBS's Tyler perry offerings, but I'm a 80's/90's kid so I prefer things in the vein of:
Family matters Fresh Prince Living Single Martin
For some reason, the family sitcom didn't seem quit as annoying and preachy as the the white ones a la Full house.
btw. I never saw the end to Martin. Did they ever reveal what Tommy's Job was?
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Post by Cyno on Aug 8, 2013 13:41:41 GMT -5
Family Matters got f***ing weird in its last seasons.
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Post by SHAKEMASTER TV9 is Don Knotts on Aug 8, 2013 13:44:20 GMT -5
The Cosby Show and Different World too.
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Bub (BLM)
Patti Mayonnaise
advocates duck on rodent violence
Fed. Up.
Posts: 37,742
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Post by Bub (BLM) on Aug 8, 2013 13:47:11 GMT -5
The thing is, the good ones weren't "black" sitcoms. They were family sitcoms where the main cast just happened to be black. The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, Family Matters. Those shows could have worked exactly the same with a family of any color, and that's what made them great. They were easy to relate to for everyone. Pretty much the exact opposite of Tyler Perry's stuff.
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Post by Clash, Never a Meter Maid on Aug 8, 2013 13:52:22 GMT -5
The thing is, the good ones weren't "black" sitcoms. They were family sitcoms where the main cast just happened to be black. The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, Family Matters. Those shows could have worked exactly the same with a family of any color, and that's what made them great. They were easy to relate to for everyone. Pretty much the exact opposite of Tyler Perry's stuff. Tyler Perry's sticoms probably would be able to appeal to a wide ranging audience if he wasn't so hamfisted with his moralizing. I don't think them having a focus on black issues is so much their problem than that the writing is just clunky.
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Post by Young Game on Aug 8, 2013 14:01:54 GMT -5
No more inappropriate than my missing "Good Times" and "The Jeffersons".
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Arrow
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 5,122
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Post by Arrow on Aug 8, 2013 14:43:11 GMT -5
The thing is, the good ones weren't "black" sitcoms. They were family sitcoms where the main cast just happened to be black. The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, Family Matters. Those shows could have worked exactly the same with a family of any color, and that's what made them great. They were easy to relate to for everyone. Pretty much the exact opposite of Tyler Perry's stuff. Tyler Perry's sticoms probably would be able to appeal to a wide ranging audience if he wasn't so hamfisted with his moralizing. I don't think them having a focus on black issues is so much their problem than that the writing is just clunky. I've seen House of Payne/ Meet the Browns more than a few times. The writing is atrocious in both of them, but I think that's only one part of it. There's not a single likable character in either series, the acting is often embarrassing, the sets look cheap, and the switch between "light-hearted family comedy" and "very special episode" territory within the same episode (e.g. whatever that episode is when some kid brings a gun into his class) is jarring. There's just a noticeable lack of effort on every level. I honestly think those two shows rank amongst the worst sitcoms I've ever seen. FWIW - I still mourn the loss of Everybody Hates Chris. That was a funny, modern show with a black cast. As far as the older ones go, even as a black person myself, I don't remember watching a lot of them. Fresh Prince was pretty funny, though. It stands apart from some the other listed here ( Family Matters, for example) in that it actually seems like a sitcom tailored to blacks rather than a regular show that happens to feature a black cast.
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nate5054
Hank Scorpio
Lucky to be alive in the Chris Jericho Era
Posts: 7,013
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Post by nate5054 on Aug 8, 2013 14:47:27 GMT -5
Only if it isn't inappropriate to say that I think Martin sucked hard.
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Post by Lance Uppercut on Aug 8, 2013 14:57:05 GMT -5
Only if it isn't inappropriate to say that I think Martin sucked hard. DAMN GINA!
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Post by Nerdkiller the threadkiller on Aug 8, 2013 15:11:21 GMT -5
Should I mention The Cleveland Show and how unfortunate that it got cancelled when it was hitting its stride?
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Post by Cela on Aug 8, 2013 15:16:42 GMT -5
The thing is, the good ones weren't "black" sitcoms. They were family sitcoms where the main cast just happened to be black. The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, Family Matters. Those shows could have worked exactly the same with a family of any color, and that's what made them great. They were easy to relate to for everyone. Pretty much the exact opposite of Tyler Perry's stuff. Fresh Prince wasn't a "black" sitcom? Will Smith was pretty stereotypical.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2013 16:47:37 GMT -5
The thing is, the good ones weren't "black" sitcoms. They were family sitcoms where the main cast just happened to be black. The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire, Family Matters. Those shows could have worked exactly the same with a family of any color, and that's what made them great. They were easy to relate to for everyone. Pretty much the exact opposite of Tyler Perry's stuff. No, no, no...They were Black sitcoms. Even The Cosby Show, which some people hated on. There was a good bit of subject matter in those shows that wasn't interchangeable with anyone, shit specific to Black people. The thing is it worked and everyone else watched anyway, because they had decent writing, character arcs and all that stuff you'd expect from a good sitcom. I thought that was the point. Black people having different experiences, even within the confines of the "traditional" middle and upper class experience in the shows you mentioned. Hell, just in Fresh Prince alone for a long time the driving conflict behind Fresh Prince was Will Smith's Black working class background clashing with the Black upper class of Uncle Phil and Aunt Vivian. That stuff reared its head again (The Banks Parents worrying about Will's influence on Ashley) and again (Jazz vs. Uncle Phil) and again. You definitely had episodes that centered around shit happening to them that was specific to Black people, even though Uncle Phil was a revered judge and had all the money. And I've long made peace with Tyler Perry, because he's catering to an audience Hollywood doesn't give a shit about, Christian Conservative Black Folks. TP's definitely has his own issues when it comes to portrayals of Black women and his shitty writing, but it ain't like anyone else in Hollywood is trying to court his audience. They got their one with Tyler Perry. I just wish we didn't have this shit where it feels like Hollywood saw these multiple shows where Black people were just people, as a damn trend. Like Swatches.
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Post by Piccolo on Aug 8, 2013 17:31:10 GMT -5
I grew up loving those shows. I was a white kid in a white rural county, and everyone I knew watched Family Matters, Fresh Prince, and The Cosby Show. I remember my folks, middle-class white folks who didn't really care about learning about other races whatsoever, loved a show called Amen. I don't even know what the modern-day equivalent of those shows would be, which makes me wonder if there's some marginalization of primarily-black shows now... it used to feel very integrated into everything else we watched. You didn't have to seek it out, it came on right before or right after something else, so you got into it (the same way you got into any other show).
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Surfer Sandman
Bubba Ho-Tep
You had to be a big shot, didn't cha
Posts: 506
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Post by Surfer Sandman on Aug 8, 2013 20:19:20 GMT -5
Not inappropriate at all.
Hell, I loved both "Family Matters" and the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" when I was younger.
I grew up in a town with practically NO black people whatsoever. It was the writing that hooked me. The shows had talented people too to boot. Sure, "Family Matters" got silly but it never failed to deliver the laughs.
I still prefer both of those shows over whatever else was airing at the time ("Boy Meets World", "Full House", "Step by Step", etc).
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Post by Wolf Hurricane on Aug 8, 2013 21:33:28 GMT -5
Tyler Perry's sticoms probably would be able to appeal to a wide ranging audience if he wasn't so hamfisted with his moralizing. I don't think them having a focus on black issues is so much their problem than that the writing is just clunky. I've seen House of Payne/ Meet the Browns more than a few times. The writing is atrocious in both of them, but I think that's only one part of it. There's not a single likable character in either series, the acting is often embarrassing, the sets look cheap, and the switch between "light-hearted family comedy" and "very special episode" territory within the same episode (e.g. whatever that episode is when some kid brings a gun into his class) is jarring. There's just a noticeable lack of effort on every level. I honestly think those two shows rank amongst the worst sitcoms I've ever seen. Dear sweet Cobb, yes. I'm pretty sure that was the first episode I had ever seen of Meet the Browns and if I have any power over it, it will damn sure be the last. There is literally a scene near the end where they go from an anvilicious, after school special monologue about how bullying students leads to school shootings to, with no lapse between, joking about the bully pissing himself in the ordeal. I cringed. HARD. The Haves and the Have Nots isn't any better. There isn't a single likable character among the bunch; they have zero depth and are transparent as all hell. Somehow, this crap gets ratings too. If I live to be 100, I'll never understand why or how.
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Post by Red Impact on Aug 8, 2013 21:50:38 GMT -5
Fresh Prince dealt with race a few times a season, it seemed. Racism was a go-to plot device to them whenever they wanted a special episode. Cosby Show did deal with it, but much less often. It was closer to a family sitcom rather than a black one and hit things less black-specific most of the time, but it did tread there a few times.
As for the Tyler Perry shows, they're just awful, plain and simple. Posters above hit it on the head with terrible writing and unlikable characters.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,467
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Aug 8, 2013 22:06:50 GMT -5
I've seen House of Payne/ Meet the Browns more than a few times. The writing is atrocious in both of them, but I think that's only one part of it. There's not a single likable character in either series, the acting is often embarrassing, the sets look cheap, and the switch between "light-hearted family comedy" and "very special episode" territory within the same episode (e.g. whatever that episode is when some kid brings a gun into his class) is jarring. There's just a noticeable lack of effort on every level. I honestly think those two shows rank amongst the worst sitcoms I've ever seen. Dear sweet Cobb, yes. I'm pretty sure that was the first episode I had ever seen of Meet the Browns and if I have any power over it, it will damn sure be the last. There is literally a scene near the end where they go from an anvilicious, after school special monologue about how bullying students leads to school shootings to, with no lapse between, joking about the bully pissing himself in the ordeal. I cringed. HARD. The Haves and the Have Nots isn't any better. There isn't a single likable character among the bunch; they have zero depth and are transparent as all hell. Somehow, this crap gets ratings too. If I live to be 100, I'll never understand why or how. People seem to like bland boring stuff. How else did crap like Friends stay on the air so long.
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agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 21,263
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Post by agent817 on Aug 8, 2013 22:20:14 GMT -5
You guys want something that's a little off, trying watching "Mr. Box Office" or "The First Family." I actually can admit that I can see how bad those two shows are, yet for some odd reason, I am drawn to them. I really don't know why, either. They have their moments, but they're not good, either.
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Post by CATCH_US IS the Conversation on Aug 9, 2013 1:22:56 GMT -5
I like/liked :
Family Matters Martin Living Single The Wayans Bros. The Steve Harvey Show The Jamie Foxx Show In The House occasionally watched Malcolm & Eddie occasionally watched All of Us occasionally watched One on One Cuts Girlfriends The Parkers
Currently, I like The Game and Real Husbands of Hollywood.
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Post by DSR on Aug 9, 2013 1:28:23 GMT -5
I liked a lot of those shows growing up, Living Single, Martin, Fresh Prince, Cosby, Family Matters, as well as Hangin' With Mr. Cooper.
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