Black T.V. Thread

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  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    I promise not to talk about The Adventures of Sonny Spoon.

    And while we're at it, I'll keep silent about Just Our Luck which featured black actor T.K. Carter as a genie in a bottle. The show lasted maybe a month or two in 1983 before NAACP protests forced it off the air.

  • asstroasstro 1,754 Posts

    More "successful" than The Cosby Show?

    MWC wasn't as highly rated, but it lasted 11 seasons on the air. The Cosby Show "only" ran for 8 years.

  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts

    More "successful" than The Cosby Show?

    MWC wasn't as highly rated, but it lasted 11 seasons on the air. The Cosby Show "only" ran for 8 years.

    How many seasons did The Wire run for?

    b/w

    Nielson Boxes arent in the African-American Community.

  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts
    A Man Called Hawk- *Nobody* remembers this one. Spencer for Hire spinoff starring Avery Brooks making neo-blaxploitation moves in the '80s. Bald heads, leather trenchcoats and .44 revolvers galore. Dig the moder soul action in the intro:

    I remember a Hawk. Modern Blaxploitation in Boston.......

  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts
    I would cop Tabitha(Bewitched spin-off) on DVD just for Tracy Reed.

  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts
    Im lookin for a Public Television show that came on in the early/mid 80's.

    It was a family that lived in the country. Most likely down south, or like right below the mason dixon.

    The kid's name was Kwame w/ a snake called Myron.

    The parents and grandmama were around on some preachey stuff.

    I would watch this at like 1pm on either 13 or 21.

    It was real "pro-Black" in a "homey" type of way. Not a sterilzed academic sense.

    The grandma would say old school/"voodoo"esque shit to Kwame that would contain the moral of the story.

  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts
    Getting To Know Me.

  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts
    Smoke/swallow somethin and watch this Bizarro shit.

    I have one episode from Pryor's Place on The World Of Sid & Marty Krofft.

    Shit is like Sigmund the Seamonster meets Everyone Hates Chris meets The Toy.

    Post-Burnt Pryor on some latter career "lets do it for the children" mess ala Ice Cube & Eddie Murphy.

    I remember when it came out. I was too "old" to be in the house watchin Saturday morning cartoons at 11:30am. But it was I still curious cause it was Richard.

    The Episode of have is called - Voyage To The Land Of The Dumb. Written by Paul Mooney!!!

    Kids play hookey - go to arcade - video game sucks them into another dimension where errybody is DUMB.

    Good ass C.O.R.N.Y. shit!!!



    ^same illustrator that did EPMD's third album cover. Bill Sien......whatever..

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Smoke/swallow somethin and watch this Bizarro shit.

    I have one episode from Pryor's Place on The World Of Sid & Marty Krofft.

    Shit is like Sigmund the Seamonster meets Everyone Hates Chris meets The Toy.

    Post-Burnt Pryor on some latter career "lets do it for the children" mess ala Ice Cube & Eddie Murphy.

    I remember when it came out. I was too "old" to be in the house watchin Saturday morning cartoons at 11:30am. But it was I still curious cause it was Richard.

    The Episode of have is called - Voyage To The Land Of The Dumb. Written by Paul Mooney!!!

    Kids play hookey - go to arcade - video game sucks them into another dimension where errybody is DUMB.

    Good ass C.O.R.N.Y. shit!!!


    You were far more tolerant of Pryor's Place than I was.

    I remember seeing one episode and shaking my head at how tame Pryor had gotten by then.

    Not that I didn't want to see him work clean - he did a couple of Sesame Street segments around '75 or so - but even by that standard, you could tell his edge was gone. The post-freebase years weren't good to him, sad to say.

  • Lucious_FoxLucious_Fox 2,479 Posts
    Smoke/swallow somethin and watch this Bizarro shit.

    I have one episode from Pryor's Place on The World Of Sid & Marty Krofft.

    Shit is like Sigmund the Seamonster meets Everyone Hates Chris meets The Toy.

    Post-Burnt Pryor on some latter career "lets do it for the children" mess ala Ice Cube & Eddie Murphy.

    I remember when it came out. I was too "old" to be in the house watchin Saturday morning cartoons at 11:30am. But it was I still curious cause it was Richard.

    The Episode of have is called - Voyage To The Land Of The Dumb. Written by Paul Mooney!!!

    Kids play hookey - go to arcade - video game sucks them into another dimension where errybody is DUMB.

    Good ass C.O.R.N.Y. shit!!!


    You were far more tolerant of Pryor's Place than I was.

    I remember seeing one episode and shaking my head at how tame Pryor had gotten by then.

    Not that I didn't want to see him work clean - he did a couple of Sesame Street segments around '75 or so - but even by that standard, you could tell his edge was gone. The post-freebase years weren't good to him, sad to say.

    Im sayin its now a guilty bizzaro pleasure.

    Post-Burnt Pryor on some latter career "lets do it for the children" mess

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts


    funkyass intro. me and the fam used to watch this every night

  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,905 Posts

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Phill With 2 Ls said:
    ROC was a GREAT show. Remember Jamie Foxx on there playing the special needs dude next door? Too funny.



  • For those who are interested, a whole grip of episodes of the second season of THE BILL COSBY SHOW just showed up on Youtube. I don't think these have been released on DVD yet.

    I'm not talking about the better-known 80s/90s show. This is the earlier series from 1969-71 where he played Chet Kincaid, a single gym teacher.

    Batmon, you once asked earlier about why most African-American teenagers' bedrooms on TV shows had a Hendrix poster on the wall, even though he wasn't exactly a 'hood favorite. There's a Hendrix reference in this episode at 8:10 that might be the most realistic thing anybody black ever said about him on prime-time television:



    And even though he's being talked about in the present tense, he was already dead by the time this actually aired.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    pickwick33 said:
    For those who are interested, a whole grip of episodes of the second season of THE BILL COSBY SHOW just showed up on Youtube. I don't think these have been released on DVD yet.

    I'm not talking about the better-known 80s/90s show. This is the earlier series from 1969-71 where he played Chet Kincaid, a single gym teacher.

    Batmon, you once asked earlier about why most African-American teenagers' bedrooms on TV shows had a Hendrix poster on the wall, even though he wasn't exactly a 'hood favorite. There's a Hendrix reference in this episode at 8:10 that might be the most realistic thing anybody black ever said about him on prime-time television:



    And even though he's being talked about in the present tense, he was already dead by the time this actually aired.

    I wonder if it was filmed earlier in 1970 before Jimi passed in September since the airdate is October.
    I think they might have filmed all summer iirc the commentaries.

    The mother has played in everything.
    She played two characters on Sanford & Son and played Mad Dog's momma on Good Times in that face-smack scene.

    I didnt know Season Two dropped. I own the first season and really dug it.

    If i had to "program/curate" a 24 hr A-A/Black TV Cable channel, this would be part of the line-up despite youngins probably not givin a fusk.

  • I wonder if it was filmed earlier in 1970 before Jimi passed in September since the airdate is October.

    I believe that was the case. I'm sure that was likely done during the summer and there was no time to delete or update that remark.

    The mother has played in everything.
    She played two characters on Sanford & Son and played Mad Dog's momma on Good Times in that face-smack scene.

    Lynn Hamilton. She was good at playing the grieving mother. I think her two Sanford & Son roles (as a battle-axe landlord and as Fred's girlfriend) were the only times I've seen her not carry any heavy weight on her shoulders.

    I didnt know Season Two (of The Bill Cosby Show) dropped.

    I didn't know it had, either. I thought somebody just randomly dumped all these second-season eps on Youtube.

    If i had to "program/curate" a 24 hr A-A/Black TV Cable channel, this would be part of the line-up despite youngins probably not givin a fusk.

    Gotta get Room 222 in there. Just copped the Season One DVD and was hooked enough to check the library for Season Two. Dated, yes, but that's part of the appeal.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    pickwick33 said:
    I wonder if it was filmed earlier in 1970 before Jimi passed in September since the airdate is October.

    I believe that was the case. I'm sure that was likely done during the summer and there was no time to delete or update that remark.

    Is that reference

    A)show that "hood" kids arent fam with Pop/Rock stars?
    B) Jimi wasnt in flavor by 1970 only three years after his debut?
    C) Black kids (not 17 to twenty-somethings) just didnt know who he was?
    D) Cosby was trying to rep the "Alt-Black" idea and this kid was stuck on some Motown shit.

  • SIRUSSIRUS 2,554 Posts
    what is everyones take on the resurrection of "in livin color"? i can't see it lasting. who's the 00's equiv of keenan wayans?

  • batmon said:
    pickwick33 said:
    I wonder if it was filmed earlier in 1970 before Jimi passed in September since the airdate is October.

    I believe that was the case. I'm sure that was likely done during the summer and there was no time to delete or update that remark.

    Is that reference

    A)show that "hood" kids arent fam with Pop/Rock stars?
    B) Jimi wasnt in flavor by 1970 only three years after his debut?
    C) Black kids (not 17 to twenty-somethings) just didnt know who he was?
    D) Cosby was trying to rep the "Alt-Black" idea and this kid was stuck on some Motown shit.

    I'd guess that A and C were the answers. Even though the kid was running away to San Francisco, like a lot of other kids during that era, he probably just wanted an excuse to escape his home situation. He doesn't appear to be an aspiring weekend hippie.

    As far as B, I highly doubt it. Jimi was just as popular towards the end of his life as he was in the three years prior. Even though he didn't have a new album in '69 (just a best-of), his popularity wasn't waning.

    Now D is the wild card. Even as a younger man, Cosby didn't seem like the type to be hanging with white hippies, even to see a black performer. I think Richard Pryor hung in those circles, but not Cosby the jazz fan. I think that's why this episode shocked me so when I first saw it in the 80s. Neither Cosby nor the kid came off as particularly "countercultural." That'd be like Gomer Pyle going to see Thelonious Monk.

    Plus, that was an extremely hip reference for a prime-time sitcom back then. Usually, when TV shows name-dropped rock bands back then, either they stuck to the obvious (Beatles, Rolling Stones) or made up a fake name. Even though Hendrix was famous enough, just mentioning him was a very surreal move.

    BTW, the same kid - probably playing the same character - was on a Season One episode, as well. Again, Chet is spending the day hanging out with him; at one point, they go to Chet's apartment and the kid asks about the upright bass in the living room. Chet gets on the bass, plays some atonal mess. The kid responds: "well, you're no Charlie Mingus."

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    SIRUS said:
    what is everyones take on the resurrection of "in livin color"? i can't see it lasting. who's the 00's equiv of keenan wayans?

    Tyler Perry.......i hatt to say it. But he talking to a "specific" demographic.

    Keenans strength is in writing. Plus he had Damon In his prime to rock the skits.

    Black ensemble comedy can be done now but im not seeing the live Hip Hop being as good as the OG era.

    I wonder who is gonna be on the new team? Some up and comers and hopefully some vets.

    LC had the Wayans family i dont know who the core writers will be this time around.

    Dave Chapelle already kinda took the format to the next level. I dont know if regular tv can get the dirty.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    pickwick33 said:
    batmon said:
    pickwick33 said:
    I wonder if it was filmed earlier in 1970 before Jimi passed in September since the airdate is October.

    I believe that was the case. I'm sure that was likely done during the summer and there was no time to delete or update that remark.

    Is that reference

    A)show that "hood" kids arent fam with Pop/Rock stars?
    B) Jimi wasnt in flavor by 1970 only three years after his debut?
    C) Black kids (not 17 to twenty-somethings) just didnt know who he was?
    D) Cosby was trying to rep the "Alt-Black" idea and this kid was stuck on some Motown shit.

    I'd guess that A and C were the answers. Even though the kid was running away to San Francisco, like a lot of other kids during that era, he probably just wanted an excuse to escape his home situation. He doesn't appear to be an aspiring weekend hippie.

    As far as B, I highly doubt it. Jimi was just as popular towards the end of his life as he was in the three years prior. Even though he didn't have a new album in '69 (just a best-of), his popularity wasn't waning.

    Now D is the wild card. Even as a younger man, Cosby didn't seem like the type to be hanging with white hippies, even to see a black performer. I think Richard Pryor hung in those circles, but not Cosby the jazz fan. I think that's why this episode shocked me so when I first saw it in the 80s. Neither Cosby nor the kid came off as particularly "countercultural." That'd be like Gomer Pyle going to see Thelonious Monk.

    Plus, that was an extremely hip reference for a prime-time sitcom back then. Usually, when TV shows name-dropped rock bands back then, either they stuck to the obvious (Beatles, Rolling Stones) or made up a fake name. Even though Hendrix was famous enough, just mentioning him was a very surreal move.

    BTW, the same kid - probably playing the same character - was on a Season One episode, as well. Again, Chet is spending the day hanging out with him; at one point, they go to Chet's apartment and the kid asks about the upright bass in the living room. Chet gets on the bass, plays some atonal mess. The kid responds: "well, you're no Charlie Mingus."

    In that Jimi doc they state that he had a problem with not being fully embraced by the hood. The Ghetto Twins state this.

    The Wild Card is true but even if Bill was on some conservative Jazz type stuff, I wouldnt write him off as not being connected or knowing what was going down with the Jimi crowd. There is that one high school dance episode in season one where the kids are rocking to some psychadelic lite which isnt to far away from Jimi steez.
    And Bill as the writer/producer is responsible for introducing Lisa Bonet and Cree Summer (Alt-Black/Boho) architypes to mainstream tv. That could be his real daughters influence on that shit as well.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Just picked up Maude. While its not Black TV, i copped for the roots of Florida Evans.

    Im looking for continuity mistakes. Florida mentions she has three kids and her husband is a Fireman.

    Thier neighbor who moved on to be Mr Drummond on Diff Strokes is actually quite funny as the conservative to Maudes liberal.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    batmon said:
    Just picked up Maude. While its not Black TV, i copped for the roots of Florida Evans.

    Im looking for continuity mistakes. Florida mentions she has three kids and her husband is a Fireman.


    The Evans family resided in Chicago. I forget where Maude Findlay lived, but it was nowhere near Chitown. Florida was doing some long-distance commuting for a house-cleaning gig.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    ACCIDENTAL REPOST

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    pickwick33 said:
    batmon said:
    Just picked up Maude. While its not Black TV, i copped for the roots of Florida Evans.

    Im looking for continuity mistakes. Florida mentions she has three kids and her husband is a Fireman.


    The Evans family resided in Chicago. I forget where Maude Findlay lived, but it was nowhere near Chitown. Florida was doing some long-distance commuting for a house-cleaning gig.

    Good Time was in Chicago and they show the Sears Tower during the Maude opening, but Florida says shes from Harlem.

    When Maude visits Archie i think she was from outta town, but there are shot of what looks like Queens in Maude.
    Like she was farther out than Astoria. Wiki says she s in Westchester. Flo musta took the Metro North from 125.

    Does Florida leave NYC to go to Chicago? The never allude to live anywhere but Cabrini Green, except when James and her met down South.
    Or at least thats where he was from.



    "As portrayed by Esther Rolle, the character of Florida proved so popular that, in 1974, she became the star of her own spin-off series entitled Good Times. In the storyline of Maude, Florida's husband, Henry (later James), received a raise at his job, and she quit to be a full-time housewife and mother. Good Times is based on the childhood of its creator, Mike Evans, who starred as Lionel Jefferson on All in the Family and The Jeffersons. Whereas Maude took place in New York, the setting for Good Times was Chicago."

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    I ran through Maude and they had John Amos on as Floridas husband.

    Its interesting that he was a Fireman on Maude. When shit got spun off he no longer had that and was habitually unemployed for the series.


    Copped the Shaft Bluray and they have one episode of seven of the series and its not bad at all.
    Janet Dubios aka Willona from Good Times plays Shaft friend. One year before Good Timed debuted.

  • parallaxparallax no-style-having mf'er 1,266 Posts


    Hahahahah!!

    Kindly,
    parallax

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Watchin What's Happening Season One and Roger had guitar wielding Curtis Mayfield on his bedroom wall in '76.

  • batmon said:
    Watchin What's Happening Season One and Roger had guitar wielding Curtis Mayfield on his bedroom wall in '76.

    Even though Curtis' popularity was waning by then, that just might have been more on point than Hendrix on the wall.

    By the way, on The Partridge Family Keith Partridge had a Hendrix wall poster as well. Too bad this didn't carry over to his music.

    BTW, have you ever seen the Maude episodes where she has a troubled teenaged black girl staying with her, for some obscure reason? Maude goes out of her way to redecorate the guest room that the girl is staying in...right down to hanging up an Isaac Hayes poster.

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    pickwick33 said:
    batmon said:
    Watchin What's Happening Season One and Roger had guitar wielding Curtis Mayfield on his bedroom wall in '76.

    Even though Curtis' popularity was waning by then, that just might have been more on point than Hendrix on the wall.

    By the way, on The Partridge Family Keith Partridge had a Hendrix wall poster as well. Too bad this didn't carry over to his music.

    BTW, have you ever seen the Maude episodes where she has a troubled teenaged black girl staying with her, for some obscure reason? Maude goes out of her way to redecorate the guest room that the girl is staying in...right down to hanging up an Isaac Hayes poster.

    Season One is 72. It ran until 78. Wouldnt Hayes be safe to use by white writers at least up until 74/75?
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