Black sitcom

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Not to be confused with Black comedy.

A black sitcom is a sitcom in American culture that features a primarily or entirely black cast or an African American in the lead role.[1] Although sitcoms with primarily black characters had been present since the earliest days of network television (and indeed predate network television, as popular radio sitcoms included Beulah and Amos 'n' Andy),[2] this genre rose to prominence in the 1990s.[1][3]

Contents

History [edit]

The favorite programs of television audiences tend to reflect their different ethnic origins/affinities. The exposure of the black community on US TV has been greater than that of other minorities but continues to reflect racial divisions within American society. (To date there has been a scarcity of Latinos and Asians on American TV and "Latino sitcoms" or "Asian sitcoms.")[4][5]

Since US networks were criticized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for allegedly failing to portray the racial diversity of real world settings, drama shows such as The West Wing have cast more black characters.[6] However few hit television shows achieve a crossover audience. Black and white Americans still have very different viewing preferences.[6] Dramas with a strong non-white theme and cast are seen as not commanding a financially viable prime-time audience. Nevertheless the black audience is able to sustain targeted programming.[6][7] Black households make up over 20 percent of regular TV viewers.[4]

Black sitcoms feature highly in the black audience's top 10 programs but have limited success with white audiences, attributed by Doug Alligood, senior vice-president at the advertising agency BBDO which has analyzed ratings figures, to the failure of humor to translate. The high ratings achieved by Bill Cosby have been ascribed to humor that has appealed to both whites and blacks.[6]

In the early days of television, black actors were often cast in stereotypical roles, often as comic clowns in a tradition tracing back to the genre of black minstrelsy popular in the early 20th century. The first all-black television sitcom, the Amos 'n Andy show, was widely popular among diverse audiences and the show portrayed black businesspeople, judges, lawyers and policemen. After over 70-odd episodes had been broadcast, it was taken off the air after protests from specific groups including the NAACP, who alleged that the show engaged in stereotyping.[4] Afterwards, there were no all-black sitcoms shown in the U.S. until the 1970s.

Subsequent black sitcoms have been criticized as fostering an image of segregation and helping to perpetuate a belief that black and white cultures are so different that integration is undesirable and unworkable.[4]

A series of popular black sitcoms appeared in the 1970s, including That's My Mama, Good Times, Sanford and Son, What's Happening?, and The Jeffersons. In the 1980s sitcoms such as The Cosby Show, A Different World, and Frank's Place, challenged stereotypical portrayals of blacks but were nevertheless seen as "black" (segregated) despite appearances by white actors.[4]

After the 1980s, the major US television networks appeared to lose interest in black sitcoms, due in part to the success of series such as Seinfeld and Friends with a predominantly white cast. In the 1990s, newer networks such as Fox, The WB and UPN, anxious to establish themselves with a black audience, featured black sitcoms such as Martin and Living Single which drew high ratings among black households and were profitable even with a limited white viewership.[4][8][9][10]

More recently the Fox network has "gone mainstream" with sitcoms and shows designed to attract the larger white audience. Civil rights organizations have accused networks of denying minorities equal opportunity as well as a broader participation in general television programming.[4] From 1997 to 2001, the number of black sitcoms on US television declined from 15 to 6,[11] and that decline has generally continued.[12]

In the early 2010s, black sitcoms have faded away on broadcast/network television (ABC, The CW, NBC, CBS, and FOX) but there are signs of a comeback on cable such as The Game canceled in 2009 and then renewed on BET, A.N.T. Farm on Disney Channel, Are We There Yet? and Tyler Perry's For Better Or Worse on TBS, Love That Girl! on TV One, Let's Stay Together and Reed Between the Lines, on BET. Also, there have been a return of reruns of popular 1990s black sitcoms on BET, Centric, Bounce TV, TV Land, TV One and TBS.[4]

On August 10, 2012, Tyler Perry's House of Payne surpassed The Jeffersons and became the longest-running sitcom with a predominantly African American cast in the history of American television.[4]

On August 23 & 24, 2012, Debbie Allen, the former chief creative force of A Different World from 1988 to 1993, wrote on Twitter that she wants to reboot A Different World. Over a million people on Facebook, Twitter, and blogs reacted to the tweet and approve the potential reboot.[4]

Top 40 longest-running black sitcoms [edit]

1. Tyler Perry's House of Payne (254 episodes)

2. The Jeffersons (253 episodes)

3. Family Matters (215 episodes)

4. The Cosby Show (202 episodes)

5. Diff'rent Strokes (189 episodes)

6. Girlfriends (172 episodes)

7. Benson (158 episodes)

8. Webster (150 episodes)

9. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (148 episodes)

10. A Different World (144 episodes)

11. Meet the Browns (140 episodes)

12. Gimme a Break (137 episodes)

13. Sanford and Son (136 episodes)

14. Good Times (133 episodes)

15. Martin (132 episodes)

16. Moesha (127 episodes)

17. My Wife and Kids (122 episodes)

18. The Steve Harvey Show (122 episodes)

19. Sister, Sister (119 episodes)

20. Living Single (118 episodes)

21. 227 (116 episodes)

22. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (114 episodes)

23. One on One (113 episodes)

24. Amen (110 episodes)

25. The Parkers (110 episodes)

26. City Guys (105 episodes)

27. The Bernie Mac Show (104 episodes)

28. Hangin' with Mr. Cooper (101 episodes)

29. The Wayans Bros. (101 episodes)

30. Are We There Yet? (100 episodes)

31. That's So Raven (100 episodes)

32. The Jamie Foxx Show (100 episodes)

33. The Game (99 episodes)

34. Cosby (95 episodes)

35. Half & Half (91 episodes)

36. The Parent 'Hood (90 episodes)

37. Malcolm & Eddie (89 episodes)

38. The Hughleys (89 episodes)

39. All of Us (88 episodes)

40. Everybody Hates Chris (88 episodes)

List of black sitcoms [edit]

 This section may contain excessive, poor, or irrelevant examples. Please improve the article by adding more descriptive text and removing less pertinent examples. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for further suggestions. (April 2011)

1950s [edit]

1960s [edit]

1970s [edit]

1980s [edit]

1990s [edit]

2000s [edit]

2010s [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b Dalton, Mary M.; Laura R. Linder (2005). The sitcom reader: America viewed and skewed. Suny Press. p. 142. ISBN 0-7914-6569-1. 
  2. ^ Bogle, Donald (2001). Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television. Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN 0-374-12720-4. 
  3. ^ Moss, Robert F. (February 25, 2001). "TELEVISION/RADIO; The Shrinking Life Span of the Black Sitcom". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-11-09. 
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Why Is TV So Segregated?, Alvin Poussaint, M.D., FamilyEducation.com, Retrieved February 18, 2010
  5. ^ Coleman, Robin R. Means. African American viewers and the Black situation comedy: situating racial humor (Routledge 1998) (ISBN 978-0815331254)
  6. ^ a b c d Duncan Campbell (February 6, 2003). "US watches TV in black and white". London: The Guardian. Retrieved February 18, 2010. 
  7. ^ Howard Rosenberg (January 30, 1998). "Hope, but Still No Guardian Angel for Black Dramas". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 18, 2010. 
  8. ^ Joyce Millman (January 25, 1999). "Movin' on down". Salon.com. Retrieved February 18, 2010. 
  9. ^ Suzanne C. Ryan (May 10, 2006). "Black sitcoms may lose home". The Boston Globe. Retrieved February 18, 2010. 
  10. ^ Nancy Hass (February 22, 1998). "A TV Generation Is Seeing Beyond Color". The New York Times. Retrieved February 18, 2010. ("In fact, over all, there is astonishingly little overlap between the most-watched shows among blacks and those among whites.")
  11. ^ Robert F. Moss (February 25, 2001). "The Shrinking Life Span of the Black Sitcom". The New York Times. Retrieved February 18, 2010. 
  12. ^ Aaron Barnhart (September 29, 2009). ""Brothers": Last of the black network sitcoms". The Kansas City Star. Retrieved February 18, 2010. [dead link]
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