On This Day In Comedy… In 1994 ‘The Sinbad Show’ Premiered On FOX!
On this day in comedy on April 21, 1994, The Sinbad Show premiered on Fox.
Making its debut on September 16, 1993, this sitcom starred comedian, Sinbad as a foot-loose-and-fancy-free bachelor who adopts two issue-ridden orphans (Erin Davis, Ray J). If he doesn’t they’ll be split up. Can’t have that so Sinbad steps up and he helps them solve their problems, like relationships, pilfering, school, teenager life, the opposite sex, loyalty, inner-racial racism, cock-blocking, baby-sitter drama, life, etc., etc., etc.
Sinbad’s character designs video games and gets plenty of disrespect from the Ray J, but he knows it’s only because he’s protective of his younger sister, who likes, Sinbad and doesn’t want to go to another foster home. Sinbad’s buddy, Clarence (T KCarter) pops in to impart very little knowledge, mainly because he knows none. The show also featured Nancy Wilson and Hal Williams, with theme music by Chuck Brown.
The Sinbad Show was cancelled after one season, with two shows left unaired. There was controversy when Civil Rights Leader and former presidential candidate, Jesse Jackson protested the cancellation as racially motivated. He cited the fact Roc, SouthCentral and In Living Color were all cancelled the same season. Fox said it was low ratings. Race had nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, the sitcom did receive nominations Erin Davis (Young Artist Awards) and Sinbad (Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards).
On This Day In Comedy… In 1999 ‘The Boondocks’ Made It’s Debut!
On this day in comedy on April 19, 1999, The Boondocks made its national syndicated debut.
The original syndicated comic strip was created by animator, Aaron McGruder. It began as a daily for the online music site Hitlist.com in 1996 and then on The Diamondback. The latter paid McGruder $30 per strip; a boost from the usual compensation of $13. The high wages weren’t the problem with The Diamondback. They omitted running the strip and refused to run an apology after making it look as though it was McGruder’s fault. So he pulled The Boondocks from The Diamondback in 1997, the same year it made its first appearance monthly in the hip hop magazine, The Source. It wasn’t long before the popular strip was scooped up by Universal Press Syndicate and became a coast-to-coast hit. Satirizing popular culture and racism The Boondocks is seen from a black point of view.
The strip was plagued with controversy. McGruder was unyielding in his attacks on black culture and many of its absurdities. Targets such as BET music videos, Whitney Houston’s drug problems, Larry elder, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and politicians were ripe for ridicule. McGruder spared no none. The chief protagonist was the character of Huey, a pint-sized radical in a little boy’s body. He was too young to have learned how to bite his tongue. He and his brother Riley were moved out of South Side Chicago to a neighborhood surrounded by white folks. They’re with their World War II veteran grandfather who thinks Huey is too militant and Riley is too materialistic (he wants to be a gangsta). They live next to an interracial couple and their mixed and mixed up daughter, Jazmine, who likes Huey. There’s a standard issue friend of Huey’s named Michael who’s just as crazy as Huey, but with a dash of humor. Rounding out the principle characters is Uncle ruckus, a blatant Uncle Tom who hates everything Black (including himself) and loves everything white (including Ronald Reagan). The teachers and the principal have a similar dilemma – they love white, but fear black and rely on old stereotypes (some from Blaxploitation flicks) to figure out how to handle the two Black brothers.
During the course of its run, other artists helped illustrate The Boondocks to keep things on schedule as McGruder’s schedule became more and more crammed with commitments, but he always had his hand in the final product. Nevertheless, internal battles came to a head when McGruder put the strip on a six-month hiatus so he could work on the TV version. The Boondocks premiered as a fully animated cartoon on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim in late 2005. McGruder made his announcement in early 2006 about th temporary suspension. Well, after seeing some papers run provided reruns and others opting to move onto other strips, Universal Press cut their losses and informed papers that they shouldn’t count on a timely return and they canceled The Boondocks September 25, 2006.
On This Day In Comedy… In 2013 Cheech & Chong’s Animated Movie Made It’s Theatrical Debut!
On this day in comedy on April 18, 2013, Cheech & Chong’s Animated Movie made its theatrical debut, distributed by 20th Century Fox.
This cartoon version of legendary stoner comedians Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong was directed by Branden and Eric D. Chambers. The full length film was written by Cheech and Chong and starred their voices. It was released on Blue Ray five days later and is their only film on that format.
Cheech & Chong’s Animated Movie is a collections of their famous album routines in animated form. Classics such as Sgt. Stedanko, Afghanistan, Earache My Eye, Ralph & Herbie, Trippin’ in Court, Acapulco Gold, Dave’s Not Here, Sister Mary Elephant, Let’s Make a Dope Deal and others all get the drawn up treatment. Tying them all together is a cartoon body crab desperately trying to get high off of Tommy Chong’s THC ridden scalp.
On This Day In Comedy… In 1965 Martin Lawrence Was Born!
On This day in comedy on April 16, 1965 Comedian, Actor, Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence was born in Frankfurt, West Germany.
Martin Lawrence almost became a boxer. He was a Mid-Atlantic Golden Gloves contender and was eyeing a professional career until an eye injury put a stop to those plans. His plan B turned out to be suitable for some of those same principles he’d learned in boxing and it wasn’t long before Lawrence knocked out some obstacles and chalked up an impressive record.
He found his gym in New York at the Improv. His first big bout was on the CBS competition show, Star Search. He fought his way to a title bout, but he was robbed. Didn’t matter. He got a good look and landed a part on the ABC rebooted sitcom, What’s Happening Now!! After it was canceled he played journeyman comedian / actor until he got another break in Spike Lee’s big screen smash hit Do the Right Thing. Lawrence was now in demand. He appeared in House Party (which became a franchise), Talkin’ Dirty After Dark and Boomerang.
Lawrence really showed what he could do when he was selected to host Def Comedy Jam on HBO. It was an instant hit and Lawrence was now TV’s latest champ. He not only defended his title week after week he went into another division when he got his own self-titled sitcom which was a giant hit on Fox. Lawrence followed in the tradition of playing multiple roles in a project. He did it on Martin, performing as his female neighbor, Shanaynay and other assorted characters. While doing the sitcom, Lawrence wrote, starred in and directed A Thin Line Between Love and Hate.
When Martin ended Lawrence went back to the big screen in a string of hits: Nothing to Lose, Bad Boys (another franchise) Life, Blue Streak, Big Momma’s House (also became a franchise), Wild Hogs, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins and Death at a Funeral. In 2014 Lawrence partnered with another TV standard bearer, Kelsey Grammer on the show Partners.
Despite his early brand of raunch (he’s banned from life from appearing on Saturday Night Live after making over the top remarks about female genitalia and hygiene) he’s done family content. Lawrence did the voice of an animated character in Open Season and starred in Disney’s College Road Trip.
Martin Lawrence has released two stand up albums and several specials. A multiple acting award nominee, Lawrence has won two NAACP Image awards and a BET Icon Award.
On This Day In Comedy… In 1990 ‘In Living Color’ Premiered On FOX!
On this day in comedy on April 15, 1990 In Living Color premiered on Fox.
The relationship between Fox network and the Wayans family started off fine. Following his back-to-back box office successes of Hollywood Shuffle and I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, Keenen Ivory Wayans was approached to do a show for the network. He said he wanted to create a variety sketch comedy show. They said fine. He said he wanted black cast members. They said fine. Then when the show blew up based on the formula set up by Keenen and his co-creator, brother, Daman Wayans, Fox wanted to step in and run the creative side and to the Wayans that wasn’t fine.
In Living Color was a golden goose for Fox. Kicking off with a quick snappy welcome from Keenen the show featured the Fly Girls, a group of house dancers choreographed by Rosie Perez and that was a spring board for the careers of Jennifer Lopez and Carrie Anne Inaba. The sketches showcased the talents of Damon Wayans, David Alan Grier, Jim Carrey, Kim Wayans, Tommy Davidson, Kim Coles, Shawn & Marlon Wayans, Kelly Coffield and T’Keyah Crystal Keymah. Jamie Foxx came on the third season. An amazing cast which created indelible characters such as Homey D. Clown, a fully made up circus dweller with a nasty attitude; The Homeboys Shopping Network, two thieves selling boosted goods on public access TV; Ugly Wanda, Jamie Foxx as a disgusting chick; Venus D’Milo, Jim Carrey as a disgusting chick; Fire Marshal Bill, Jim Carrey as a disgusting fire marshal with the catchphrase, “Lemme show ya something” and Men on Film, two flamboyantly gay movie critics.
Wayans dream of a variety show had to include musical acts. There were plenty. Live performances were rendered by Queen Latifah, Monie Love, Public Enemy, Kris Kross, Eazy-E, Tupac, Mary J. Blige,3rd Bass, Father MC, En Vogue, Us3, Gang Starr, MC Lyte, Onyx, Arrested Development, Leaders of the New School and Jodeci. There were guest stars and recurring players: Rodney Dangerfield, Chris Rock, Marc Wilmore, Barry Bond, James Brown, Peter Marshall, Ed O’Neill, Reggie McFadden, Sherman Hemsley and Biz Markie. The show also had powerhouses behind the scenes: a solid comedy writing team headed up by Paul Mooney and Heavy D and the Boyz performed the opening theme.
From the very first show, In Living Color was praised for its rawness, inventiveness and edgy point of view. For two seasons it enjoyed immense popularity and public adoration. That’s about the time the tampering comes in and Fox was no different. With a proven winner in their laps they decided to stand up for their right to do the show their way. Big mistake. In those latter seasons executive interference was too much for the Wayans and they walked. The once brilliant television landmark went off the air on May 19, 1994.
Over its five season run, in Living Color amassed 2 Image Awards (Outstanding Variety Series. Outstanding Comedy Series), a PGA Most Promising Producer in T0elevision (Keenen Ivory Wayans), A People’s Choice Award, a Primetime Emmy and a TV Land Award for Groundbreaking Show.
On This Day In Comedy… In 2006 The Bernie Mac Show Aired Its Final Episode!
On this day in comedy on April 14, 2006 The Bernie Mac Show aired its final episode on Fox.
Shortened to Bernie Mac in syndication, this sitcom was created by Larry Wilmore and based loosely on comedian, Bernie Mac’s stand-up act. The premise is Mac is a married, but childless stand-up comedian. When his sister goes into rehab he takes her three kids (Vanessa, Jordan and Bryana) in and raises them old school style; with plenty of discipline and a whole lot of tough love.
The show used the device of Mac talking directly into the camera. These addresses to “America” gave Mac the opportunity to voice what was really on his mind before returning to the action of the actual show. Another opportunity was capitalized on by having Mac as a stand-up comedian. It allowed multiple unforced cameos from talents such as Don Cheadle, Chris Rock, Dom DeLuise, Angela Bassett, Billy Crystal, Ellen DeGeneres, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Shaq, Hugh Hefner, Sugar Ray Leonard and Wesley Snipes. The show also featured recurring comedians, Reginald Ballard, Carlos Mencia and Anthony Anderson.
Co-starring Kellita Smith (Wanda, the wife), Dee Davis (Bryana, the youngest niece). Jeremy Suarez, (Jordan, the nephew) and Camille Winbush (Vanessa, the eldest niece), the show had behind the scenes drama which led to its demise. After a ratings decline due to stiff competition from Damon Wayans ABC sitcom, My Wife and Kids, executive producer, Larry Wilmore was fired. Fox didn’t like the direction he was taking the show and Wilmore didn’t care for the interference Fox kept implementing. The ratings continued to drop and the show was moved to follow American Idol. The ratings leaped back up, but that wasn’t good enough for Fox, who moved it around even more. Eventually the audience grew tired of trying to find which night The Bernie Mac Show was on and lost interest. On April 14, 2006, Fox aired the final episode.
The Bernie Mac Show won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, a Peabody Award and three NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series. Bernie Mac, the actor, was honored by the Television Critics Association for Individual Achievement in a Comedy and four NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series (2003-2006).
Katt Williams Arrested AGAIN After Assaulting Restaurant Manager In Atlanta!
How many times will we write this story? Well, we have no idea… But it seems that it seems to keep happening; Katt Williams gets arrested again.
According to our sources, Katt Williams was seen in the Atlanta Resturant known as Spondivits, which is a well-known seafood restaurant demanding his own private area. When he wasn’t accommodated, Williams demanded to speak to a manager and after the manager of the restaurant was unable to comply to his request, Williams was then seen by several by-standers to hit him in the face causing the manager to get a bloody nose.
Our sources tell us that the police was then summoned and Williams was arrested AGAIN. No word yet on if Williams posted bail.
Stay tuned as this story is developing.
Kenya Barris Of ‘Black-ish’ Gets A Set Visit (And More) From Norman Lear!
“Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris has made no secret of his love for the work of TV legend Norman Lear.
What’s less well known is that Lear, 93, actually spent a day in the “Black-ish” writers room a few months ago.
“It was surreal,” Barris says of that day. “I just sat there saying, ‘Is Norman Lear at the front of my writers’ table pitching stories? This is crazy.’ He was as sharp as anybody else in the room, regardless of his age.”
One of the conversations that Lear kicked off among the writers that day lasted “for weeks,” reports Barris. The topic — how issues of financial insecurity can play out between married people — influenced the April 27 episode, titled “The Johnson Show.”
In the episode, Dre (Anthony Anderson) becomes concerned about possible layoffs where he works. He and Bow (Tracee Ellis Ross) discuss what would happen if only her income — and not his — was carrying the Johnson family, even temporarily. That conversation is constructive, but then Pops (Laurence Fishburne) has a talk with Dre, and in typically blunt Pops fashion, he tells Dre he thinks it would set a bad precedent for Bow’s paycheck to carry the family, even for a little while. The whole situation delves — comedically, of course — into Dre’s assumptions and insecurities about being the family breadwinner.
“For a proud guy like Dre who really saw himself as the main provider of the house,” thinking about relying on his spouse’s income is a scary thought, Barris says. “He starts questioning himself — ‘Who am I within this tableau of my family?’”
As pitched by Lear and explored by the ABC comedy’s writers, these issues are not“contrived” sources of conflict, Barris notes. “It’s really more about how that affects you, in terms of your picture of what your family was going to be.”
“A lot of the way he broke story and approached character was indicative of the way we approach character and story,” Barris says — which is to say, the jokes have to come from the characters’ personalities, histories and quirks.
Barris’ admiration of Lear’s work will kick into high gear later this season. The season finale of “Black-ish,” which is titled “Good-ish Times,” is an extensive homage to the classic ‘70s Lear sitcom about a working-class African-American family in Chicago. (Barris is also working on the script for a “Good Times” movie.)
“He’s beyond an influence for me,” says Barris. “I feel like I am so derivative of Norman Lear and what he was doing and what he was about. It’s hard to even think about being a writer without him having been there. He talked about things. He was talking about real people and real specific character arcs and traits. I really just try to do that today.”
Even though there are obvious socioeconomic differences between the well-to-do Johnsons and the Evans family of Lear’s “Good Times,” for Barris, the connection between the two TV clans is clear.
“That family, in a lot of ways, spoke so heavily to what a lot of black families related to,” Barris says. “It still has resonance today. Even though they were living in the projects, and that’s not what the Johnsons are doing, the specificity of [‘Good Times’] speaks to this family — and a lot of families, black or white — today.”
As Lear’s show did, “Black-ish” has used comedy and well-constructed family dynamics to take on big topics and complex social problems. The February episode “Hope,” in which the family talked about the effects of police brutality on African-Americans, was very much in the Lear tradition, and even though a few months have passed since it aired, Barris says he’s still surprised by how well it was received.
“I am very, very pleased with how it went,” Barris says. “I definitely feel like it was bigger than I ever would have imagined. I couldn’t see that coming. Even for me, in editing, it affected me in ways I did not expect. Just to get a chance to do a piece of television that feels like it mattered — it was such an amazing opportunity.”
Source: Variety
WATCH: The New ‘Jason Bourne’ Official Trailer Released!
Matt Damon returns to the Bourne franchise as the title character, who is now trying to uncover hidden truths about his past after remembering his identity, according to IMDb.
Paul Greengrass, who directed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, also rejoins the franchise. Following the release of Ultimatum in 2007, both men announced they planned to walk away from the series.
Jeremy Renner starred in the franchise’s fourth film, 2012’s The Bourne Legacy, which was directed by Tony Gilroy.
The upcoming film also stars Julia Stiles, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, and Tommy Lee Jones.
Jason Bourne, which debuts on July 29, was written by Greengrass and Christopher Rouse.
Wayne Brady Set To Host The Golden Trailer Awards!
Wayne Brady has been set to host the 17th annual Golden Trailer Awards, which tubthump the work of film and TV marketers and the advertising agencies that create trailers, commercials and one-sheets. The awards ceremony is set for May 4 at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills.
Brady is a lynchpin of the Whose Line Is It Anyway franchise and current host of CBS’ just-renewed Let’s Make A Deal. His comedy gifts will come in handy for the night’s most popular award: The Golden Fleece, bestowed on the best trailer for the film where the marketing was considered better than the movie.
Judges for the event include Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper, Deadpool helmer Tim Miller, Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon, Star Wars: The Force Awakenseditors Mary Jo Markey and Maryann Brandon, Woody Allen’s longtime editor Alisa Lepselter, Poverty Inc director Michael Miller, Linda Kaplan-Thaler (Advertising Hall of Fame honoree), actresses Khandi Alexander (CSI: Miami) and Molly Tarlov (MTV’s Awkward), and Marvel Studios exec Victoria Alonso.
Universal leads all studios with 46 noms this year including The Huntsman: Winter’s War in the action trailer category. Fox, led by Deadpool, has 44 noms, followed by Warner Bros with 37, Disney with 36 including for The Force Awakens and Lionsgate with 34. Among trailer houses, Trailer Park leads with 28 noms.
