In Living Color

Bernadette Giacomazzo

doi:10.5771/9781538166581

In Living Color

A Cultural History

Published 2023

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doi.org/10.5771/9781538166581
ISBN print: 978-1-5381-6657-4
ISBN online: 978-1-5381-6658-1
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham

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Zusammenfassung

An entertaining yet candid examination of the popular sketch show In Living Color.

When the pilot for In Living Color aired for the first time on April 15, 1990, America had never seen anything like it. And they loved it. Over five seasons, the show broke racial, cultural, and comedy boundaries, creating unforgettable sketches that dealt almost exclusively with Black subject matter.

In Living Color: A Cultural History celebrates the iconic show and its creators, while also providing a conscientious examination of the sketches themselves. Bernadette Giacomazzo reveals how the show successfully tackled topics that are still salient today, from diversity in Hollywood and workplace racism to mass incarceration and “blackfishing,” while other sketches have not aged quite so well. Giacomazzo also looks at how the show helped break the careers of Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, and David Alan Grier, amongst others, and how its most infamous sketches—such as Fire Marshall Bill, Homey the Clown, East Hollywood Squares, and Men on Film—helped shape comedy in the twenty-first century.

In Living Color was one of the few sketch shows of the 1990s that effectively tackled racial and social issues with humor. It did so more successfully than Saturday Night Live ever did, because, unlike the long-standing late-night show, In Living Color had a largely Black writer's room. This cultural history finally gives the influential show and its creators the recognition they deserve for their role in changing the face of television.

Schlagworte

TV Diversity Comedy Queer Black Lives Matter Hollywood LGBTQ+ social commentary tv show social issues television show In Living Color David Alan Grier Jamie Foxx BIPOC Jim Carrey Black actors Black culture sketch comedy sketch show racial issues comedy show comedy sketch show

Keywords

television race

Chapter Expand | CollapsePage
Titelei/Inhaltsverzeichnis
1–18 CHAPTER 1 In the Beginning 1–18
19–30 CHAPTER 2 You Can Do What You Want to Do 19–30
31–74 CHAPTER 3 For the Culture 31–74
75–92 CHAPTER 4 Shades of Richard Pryor 75–92
93–98 CHAPTER 5 The Super Bowl Halftime Show That Changed History 93–98
99–104 CHAPTER 6 “Men on Film” 99–104
105–112 CHAPTER 7 Keenen’s Departure 105–112
113–124 CHAPTER 8 The End—and the Beginning—of an Era 113–124
125–130 CHAPTER 9 Black Ownership in the Hour of Chaos 125–130
131–136 Conclusion 131–136
137–142 APPENDIX 137–142
143–182 Notes 143–182
183–196 Bibliography 183–196
197–200 Index 197–200
201–202 About the Author 201–202

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