No Wonder Primetime Sucks

[Bruno Diaz]

With the exception of The Cosby Show, The Bernie Mack Show and Everybody Hates Chris I have not much cared for the "black" comedy shows that have appeared in Primetime. They generally fall into the Tyler Perry vein and that is one that makes things worse for the rest of us. The smart black people are generally presented as uptight and "trying to be white" while the ghetto-fab blacks are presented as "real."

Really? I'm surprised Perry is talked about by so many as being positive, in that case. If this is the subtext to his material, it doesn't strike me as a good message. I'm only really interested in watching any of his shows because of the involvement of Mastrmynd from over on the HEF, but there's not much that appeals other than that.

We don't get a lot of Brit shows but...

BEING HUMAN

...

did LAW & Order: London ever happen?

...

is RED DWARF coming back?

The new series of Being Human is fantastic so far. Law & Order UK is on now, but I've not been tuning in. Red Dwarf did come back for 3 episodes last year, but they only had about 15-20 minutes of good material between them. Sad really.

Dude, shot it and just watch a minute of that shit. And I say shot it mainly because as pleasant as it's always to read you, it's always good idea when somebody [Perry] is throwing it all over the place. I can't speak about Tyler's movies, but he's awful TV. Awful, just awful. I don't know who the hell told you he's good (other than TBS), but internet and media are not fans of those shows either.

[COMALite J]

As I said years ago on the old vHive forum, if a (now late-)middle-aged Southern white man can chime in on this conversation, the best sitcom featuring a Black cast and characters (to the best of my knowledge) of all time was: Roc [Live] (link goes to Part 1 of an episode during the Live season that aired [live, natch] just prior to the 1992 Presidential Election).

That bit was funny, But the actors seem to speak "CLEAR, SLOW and ELOQUENTLY AS IF THE AUDIENCE WAS DEAF, MENTALLY CHALLENGED, TOO OLD OR TOO YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND THEM". THEN AGAIN, I mean, then again, so did most shows before the 90s, so that's ok. I meant the same about the Jeffersons, it had it's notorious shortcomings, but what can we expect?, it's the naivety of the era.

You mean they said the whooooooole wooooooorrds, liiiiiiiiike thiiiiiiiis?

Keep in mind, that was live. The first airing of each episode of that season was aired live. No re-takes. “Comedy without a net,” they billed it as. If an actor flubbed a line, it went out over the air that way (as happened a few times in that particular episode, though it was always covered up nicely and looked mostly like Roc’s Perot-promoting dad Andrew was having some minor “senior moments”).

The cast of this series were all consummate actors.

But my point was that this series portrayed an average black working-class family. Not ghetto. Not upper-crust. Average. With respect and dignity. There were no minstrel show buffoons as is all too common among black sitcoms of our time. Only slight exaggerations of character traits for comedic purposes (e.g. Roc’s cheapness).

[Bruno Diaz]

I think everything is valid in comedy... as long as it works. Average, guetto, upper class, etc, as lonmg as actors and writers understand the context and know how to make fun of it in a smart way it's ok. Everybody Hates Chris was not a masterpiece, but at least it present's a context extremely solid and believable (I ignore if Brooklyn was anything like that, but the 7th Avenue stop of the F train at 2ish reminded me some aspects of the setting).

[goldenbrowngod]

With the exception of The Cosby Show, The Bernie Mack Show and Everybody Hates Chris I have not much cared for the "black" comedy shows that have appeared in Primetime. They generally fall into the Tyler Perry vein and that is one that makes things worse for the rest of us. The smart black people are generally presented as uptight and "trying to be white" while the ghetto-fab blacks are presented as "real."

Really? I'm surprised Perry is talked about by so many as being positive, in that case. If this is the subtext to his material, it doesn't strike me as a good message. I'm only really interested in watching any of his shows because of the involvement of Mastrmynd from over on the HEF, but there's not much that appeals other than that.

You may want to take both the people that say Perry is positive and what Geoff said with a grain of salt.

But in a way both sides are right, if you big into Christianity or what not but the humor he uses can be low brow and it does rely a bit on current Black stereotypes (but it's pretty much the same level you would see in most Black comedies)

[lennoxV2]

Same youtube vid, but I though you all might be interrested in the posted comments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HYefA6RRlA

http://scifiwire.com/2010/02/why-sci-fi-tv-hates-black.php