I was talking to my friend about the amount of black shows in the US and we were trying to count the ones that have been screened here

One on one, Steve Harvey Show, Damon, Wayans Brothers, My Wife and Kids, Fresh Prince, Moesha, Parkers, Girlfriends, Hanging with Mr Cooper, Different World, Cosby Show, Malcolm and Eddie, Eve. Sister Sister, Smart Guy, etc, etc

what do they have in common, !) there all comedies, 2) with the possible exception of parkers, there al about well to do black families

Now, lets compare that to the amount of black dramas I've seen from the US

The Corner, Platinum......................

Slight difference isnt there. So what I want to know from our US Cousins is why?

1. Why are there so many comedies when dramas are at a premium
2.)Why in the comedies that are shown are they all about affluent/succesful black families. There are lots of affluent black families but there is also lots of struggling black families. Are producers scared to depict poor families due to it not being deemed funny, or is there a risk of it being receievd badly by our community( stereotypical, racist?) as someone suggested on jumptheshark.com

All opinions are welcome

Mmmm....good question Cash Money. I'll come back to this one after I've had a think.

CashMoney wrote:

So what I want to know from our US Cousins is why?

There are a number of reasons why Cash. First networks will argue that they go with what works. Comedies starring black actors tend to do better than dramas in the ratings. As I have told you in the past, we have had a number of black dramas to bow and get cancelled before establishing an audience (Under One Roof, City Of Angels) just to name a few. The audience wasn't there and when the audience isn't there, there isn't any money to be made. Soul Food the series thrived (ran 5 years)because it was on pay cable...and cablestations tend to give shows a chance to find an audience before giving them the ax unlike regular television networks who look for a quick hit...remember top numbers equal top dollars. Many of our shows come against a lot of hurdles, one poor scheduling/timeslot...they will throw them on at time when the audience isn't there and turn around say, see I told you nobody will watch an hour show about your people and your experiences plus they will then not give these shows the type of promotion that it takes to get the word out that they are on, and what they are really about. If no one knows you exist...they won't know to check for you.

Thirdly...you are seeing more comedies versus dramas because dramas cost more to produce...for a really good show, we're talking upwards of a million dollars or more. Now you see a lot of production taking place in countries like Canada as Soul Food did because it costs less there. Now comedies tend to be cheaper to produce than a one hour drama, unless you are on a show like Friends whichwas a very expensive showin part due to the enormous salaries the cast was making towards the end of its run.

Now you asked why the change in the type of comedy featuring the black experience? Well for years we had to endure a very unbalanced portrayal...the characters were usually poor or blue collar, doing generally stereotypical things. Then the Cosby show hit the tube and took everyone by storm plus changedthe landscape in televisionfor many years to come.It wasn't the fact that with this show, you had both parents in the home because past shows had that element too...it's just that now mom and dad were professional and there was none of that shucking and jiving that you saw so much of in previous shows.

Personally I look for balance...there is nothing wrong with showing affluent black people as there was nothing wrong with portrayals of struggling blacks...it's just that we were only getting that one experience for so long and we know what this leads to, ....stereotyping. You will be amazedat how people in general get their impressions of other people via television...so imagine if you only saw those same people doing the same thing all the time, you're going to believe that all of them are that way in real life.

On a related note....check for Taye Diggs this fall on UPN in a new series titled Kevin Hill...its a drama about an L.A.bachelor attorney who suddenly finds himself raising a recently diseased relative's newborn baby. The reviews have been pretty good. niceone.gif

clp)clp)@ ashanti, well put

Like ypu said there has to bea balance.. I dont expect there to be a comparable level of dramas to comedies thats just unrealistic. However, I wuld expect to name more than two dramas when I can reel off 20 comedies without even thinking abut it

Your point about Cosby show is valid. Bill at first wanted to play a struggling plumber but he wife suggested that they become 'professional' and bada bing bada boom.
I hear what your saying about the unbalanced portrayol but is the solution to take it to the other extreme which still leaves the portrayol as unbalanced as b4.

All these comedies I find funny and I guess bttomline thats the point. I hear about US struggle but watching these shows I wqould think everything is hunky dory. Am I reading too much into it, most definately, I guess I'll shut up now

Back to the title, isnt the problem with black dramas the fact that people have been conditioned to not take us seriously due to the proliferation of black comedies along with those 'interesting rap videos;. . So is the solution to spend more effort and time on dramas because otherwise we're nothing but glorified court jesters

@ CM - Ashanti covered the topic beautifully and so there is not much more to add.

Actually the only thing I wanted to add to Ashnati's post(and Ashanti, please address this as well if you would) - was that the Cosby Show depicted not only a middle class black family but a middle class, black, educated and well-spoken black family. The types of show that followed the Cosby Show were on that vein.

Frankly the new stuff shows apparently middle-class affluent blacks...who talk like they have just walked in fromthe ghetto.I suppose they are the nouveau richewho became wealthy through entertainment/sports venture rather than formal education as in the Cosby Show. (doctor,lawyer etc...)

Frankly, I dont want to see shows about struggling black families...we see enough of that on the news!

happiness, your last sentance nailed it. I CANT COME BACK FROM THAT


clp)clp)clp)clp)

@ Happiness

Good observationclp)....especially with the crop we currently see...it could be an attempt by the writers to stay connected to the primary audience of these shows which is us.

....but there were several that were in the cosby vein.. clean, witty and intelligently done that didn't last as long as they perhaps should have...there was Frank's Place starring Tim Reid (WKRP in Cincinnati), the late Gregory Hines starred in the Gregory Hines show as a widower raising a pre-teen son...good positive show never did find an audience.

Well personally I would of prefered Bill as he is in the Cosby show and ANOTHER "Bill" as a struggling plumber. (Although I dont know that many plumbers who are struggling!)

But the excuse of ratings is to me a poor excuse. It like when you curse an music artist for putting out negativity and people say "But he/she is making money though/ they are running things". Bull..complete bull. Tabloid headlines in the Black media for ratings..Yes its a business but make money at all costs?

These people are prostitutes.

We are still smiling and joking and acting fool for these people. Chris Tucker is a prime example. In his stand up fine. In films all he does is roll his eyes and act the fool. Im fed up with it.

I would say the problem is Universal. No Black drama that portrays blacks in a positive light is going to be promoted by white networks. It goes against the interest of western media anyway.

And in missing drama we neglect the crucial role of drama in enforcing cultural values and sharing of common experience. The Cosby show is not common experience for most Blacks in the West full stop. Cornation Street for UK whites is though. Most can identify with that. All I can identify with in the Cosby show is the sense of humour.

We need to stop aping and be truly original.Who says a cheap drama cant be shot using local areas etc. up and coming Black actors. The Carribean countries seem to be able to produce dramas/ regardless of how rubbish the script is.

Nah your right cash money..most of them shows are court jestesting for real.. the teenage shows are even worse..pure foolishness.

I hear what you saying@ mansamusa, but check out this article

Cedric the Entertainer had the No.1 show among blacks, so why
wasn't that good enough to keep him on TV?
BY DAVID HOCHMAN

YOU CAN'T BLAME CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER FOR being upset. The comedian's variety show, Cedric the Enter- tainer Presents, was the highest-rated TV program among African-American viewers; regularly outranking Friends, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and such buzzworthy black comedies as The Bernie Mac Show. So when Fox pulled the plug on Cedric late last month, it felt like a slap in the face.

"It disregards what's popular among a culture of people", Cedric says in an exclusive interview. "The decision borders on some very blatant racism. We were the No.1 show" Fox won't comment, but a network executive close to Cedric says, "The network did not feel the show was the best showcase for Cedric's talents. We were willing to find another vehicle for him, but his representatives wanted him to focus on feature films"

But here's the real bottom line: Just because a program scores with black audiences doesn't mean it satisfies the network. Although black and white viewers watch many of the same dramas, the comedies' ratings gap is a total joke. Cedric ranked 94th in the overall Nielsen ratings this season. The second-place show among black viewers-UPN's One on One, a sitcom most white viewers have never heard of...finished 146th overall.

"How do I say this the 'correct' way?" asks Whoopi Goldberg. "It's not much different than it's ever been.
Black folks are still looking for real representation on television, and we haven't figured out where to find it yet."
Make no mistake: TV runs on ratings and advertising dollars, and when shows don't have either, they generally don't stay on the air. But what happens when an important segment of the viewing public gets lost in the numbers race?

After all, African-American households make up 12 percent of the 106.7 million television homes in the U.S. and watch an estimated 76.8 hours of TV per week, almost 24 more than non-blacks.
Four years after television networks came under fire from the NAACP for minority underrepresentation in prime time, five of the six broadcast channels are slating comedies with black stars in their 2003-04 lineups. (Interestingly, CBS, the most popular network overall among blacks, is the lone exception.)
For the most part, these won't be your mother's black sitcoms, ala Good Times and Sanford and Son, which had exclusively black casts. The mantra: diversity, diversity, diversity. Like Family, with Holly Robinson Peete, is a new WB comedy about a white mother and son who move in with the family of her best friend, who is black. After introducing the first black recurring character this season on Friends, NBC will launch Whoopi, starring Goldberg as a Manhattan hotelier in a sitcom she says will "reflect all the races and faces of New York City." Meanwhile, Eve, UPN's new comedy starring rapper Eve and Ali Landry, teams a black fashion designer with an ex-supermodel, who is white.

Returning programs are also diversifying. "The black show as we've known it is dead," says One on One executive producer Eunetta Boone. "We're all being encouraged to be multicultural." That explains why a main black character started dating a cute white guy last season. A step forward for race relations? Not exactly. "The main point," Boone says with a laugh, "is to have a broad appeal so we can stay on the air:"

That explains the schedule scramble. Last season UPN turned Monday night into "black comedy night:' To put it plainly, not enough people watched. "When the so-called black shows are clustered:' says Doug Alligood of the advertising firm BBDO, "it sends a message to the larger audiences that these shows aren't for them" And so UPN will shift One on One to Tuesday next season, leading off what some have called a "fade to white" strategy. Each of the four comedies that night, including All of Us, based loosely on the lives of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, will progressively add more white cast members.

CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER, whose last six shows will air this fall, says Fox was pushing him in a similar direction by asking him to add famous faces to his variety hour, something he decided not to do. "They wanted your Matt Damons and Brad Pitts" he says. "It was always, 'Hey, don't you know George Clooney? You just did a movie with him'" Cedric says he was also urged to poke fun at big-name celebrities, like In Living Color did. Again, he balked: "I'm not going to make jokes about Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher that will be totally out of style next month."

Not so long ago, blacks and whites laughed at the same shows, including those with all-black casts. The Cosby Show was a hit from 1984 to 1992. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air carried on through 1996. Sure, there were fewer channels then, but the comedies were more traditionally character-driven. "What we're seeing on black sitcoms today is more buffoonish, slapstick-type comedy, rather than a whole view of what it means to be African-American" says Robin R. Means Coleman, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. "Maybe if the writing improves, everybody will tune in"

Or maybe we'll just have to watch The Cosby Show in syndication.

(end of article)

Dang, i thought the writer was with us until the very end there...that last line was a bit of a shot. But there is a lot of truth in what was said. I remember when "Living Single" was at it's peak, number one among blacks...yet charted at about 105 for the week.

Hello Cash Money.

I believe that they powers that be do not produce poor black families on TV, shows like: Good Times: James Amos, Jimmie Walker, Esthelle Role, etc, because everyone doesn't want to think that poverty exists. It's the "Out of sight, out of mind" mentality

Everyone is hyper political correct now a days, and even black people that protest about the lack of black actors and actresses on television, will be the first ones to protest against showing a poor black family. You know it's true.

There's a novel called "Life Is Amazing" on Traffrod.com, and it's by a black male writer who talks about all this polical correctness. He talks about everyone, including himself, and his black community. It's a funny, controversial, and bold book.

You should read it, and spread the word, because I haven't heard of a male black writer since Donald Goines, Ice Berg Slim, and Langston Hughes. The black books that are out now, will inevitably be more to do withblack male bashing.

Peace & Love

Majestic.

INTERESTING POINT@ MAJESTIC