In Living Color
In Living Color | |
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Genre | Variety Sketch comedy |
Created by | Keenen Ivory Wayans |
Starring | Full list |
Theme music composer | Bosco Kante |
Opening theme | |
Composer | Tom Rizzo |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 5 |
No. of episodes | 127 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producers |
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Running time | 22–24 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | Fox |
Release | April 15, 1990 May 19, 1994 | –
In Living Color is an American
The title of the series was inspired by the NBC announcement of broadcasts being presented "in living color" during the 1960s, prior to mainstream color television. It also refers to the fact that most of the show's cast was Black, unlike other sketch comedy shows such as Saturday Night Live, whose casts were mostly White at the time. In Living Color portrayed a form of irreverent Black humor in a time when mainstream American tastes regarding Black comedy on television had been set by inoffensive family-friendly shows such as The Cosby Show, causing an eventual feud for control between Fox executives and the Wayans.
Other members of the
The series won the
Episodes
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | |||
1 | 13 | April 15, 1990 | September 9, 1990 | |
2 | 26 | September 23, 1990 | September 1, 1991 | |
3 | 30 | September 22, 1991 | May 17, 1992 | |
4 | 32 | September 27, 1992 | May 23, 1993 | |
5 | 26 | September 16, 1993 | May 19, 1994 |
Cast
Cast members
Cast member | Seasons | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||||
Jim Carrey | Starring | |||||||
Tommy Davidson | Starring | |||||||
David Alan Grier | Starring | |||||||
T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh | Starring | |||||||
Keenen Ivory Wayans | Starring | |||||||
Kim Wayans | Starring | |||||||
Kelly Coffield
|
Starring | |||||||
Damon Wayans | Starring | Recurring | ||||||
Kim Coles | Starring | |||||||
Shawn Wayans | Featured | |||||||
Jamie Foxx | Featured | Starring | ||||||
Steve Park | Featured | |||||||
DJ Twist | Featured | |||||||
Marlon Wayans | Featured | |||||||
Alexandra Wentworth | Featured | Starring | ||||||
Anne-Marie Johnson | Starring | |||||||
Jay Leggett | Starring | |||||||
Reggie McFadden | Starring | |||||||
Carol Rosenthal | Starring | |||||||
Marc Wilmore | Starring |
Fly Girl | Seasons | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
Deidre Lang | Dancer | ||||
Rosie Perez (choreographer) | Dancer | ||||
Cari French | Dancer | ||||
Carrie Ann Inaba | Dancer | ||||
Lisa Marie Todd | Dancer | ||||
Michelle Whitney-Morrison | Dancer | ||||
Carla Garrido[3] | Dancer | ||||
Jennifer Lopez | Dancer | ||||
Jossie Harris | Dancer | ||||
Lisa Joann Thompson | Dancer | ||||
Laurieann Gibson | Dancer | ||||
Masako Willis | Dancer |
Guest stars
Other recurring guest stars in the fifth season include
Production
Early history
Following Keenen Ivory Wayans' success with Hollywood Shuffle and I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Fox Broadcasting Company approached Wayans to offer him his own show.[4] Wayans wanted to produce a variety show similar to Saturday Night Live, but with a cast of people of color that took chances with its content.[5] Fox gave Wayans a lot of freedom with the show, although Fox executives were a bit concerned about the show's content prior to its television debut.[4]
In announcing its debut, Fox described In Living Color as a "contemporary comedy variety show".
The first episode aired on Sunday, April 15, 1990, following an episode of Married... with Children.[1] The first episode was watched by 22.7 million people,[8] making it the 29th-most-viewed show for the week.[9]
Description
The sketch comedy show helped launch the careers of comedians/actors Jim Carrey (then credited as "James Carrey"), one of only two white members of the original cast; Jamie Foxx, who joined the cast in the third season; and David Alan Grier (an established theater actor who had worked in Keenen Ivory Wayans' 1988 motion picture I'm Gonna Git You Sucka).
The series strove to produce comedy with a strong emphasis on modern
Prominent skits:
- "The Homeboy Shopping Network", featuring Damon and Keenan as streetwise criminals operating an unlicensed, Home Shopping Network-style shopping network out of the back of their van to sell stolen goods.
- "Fire Marshal Bill", featuring Carrey as an unhinged, dangerously incompetent fire marshal.
- "Men on Film", featuring Damon and Grier as effeminateBlack film critics with exaggerated physical motions, such as "two snaps up".
- "Homey D. Clown", featuring Damon as a misanthropic, verbally abusive clown doing demeaning entertainment gigs for low pay as part of his prison release program.
- "East Hollywood Squares", featuring many of the cast in a ghetto parody of the game show Hollywood Squares.
- "Benita Buttrell", featuring Kim Wayans as an untrustworthy neighborhood gossip.
- Parodies of Arsenio Hall (who was popular on his own show at the time) by Keenan Wayans.
- "Calhoun Tubbs", a blues singer (played by Grier) who sang extremely short songs (about 10 seconds each) at the slightest provocation.
Opening credits
For the first episode, an exotic-looking logo was used for the opening credits. However, after the band
In the first two seasons, the opening sequence was set in a room covered with painters' tarps. Each cast member, wearing black-and-white, played with brightly colored paint in a different way (throwing paintballs at the camera by hand, spray painting the lens, using a roller to cover the camera lens, etc.). The sequence ended with a segue to a set built to resemble the rooftop of an apartment building, where the show's dancers performed a routine and opened a door to let Keenen Ivory Wayans greet a live audience.
For the third and fourth seasons, an animated sequence and different logo were used. Cast members were superimposed over pictures hanging in an art gallery and interacted with them in different ways (spinning the canvas to put it right-side up, swinging the frame out as if it were a door, etc.). The final image was of the logo on a black canvas, which shattered to begin the show. The fifth season retained the logo, but depicted the cast members on various signs and billboards around a city (either New York or Chicago), ending with the logo displayed on a theater marquee. The main title sequences were created by Klasky Csupo and produced by Robert Jason with some graphics by Beau Tardy.
The
Live musical performances
In Living Color was known for its live music performances, which started in Season 2 with
The Fly Girls
The show employed an in-house dance troupe known as the "Fly Girls". The original lineup consisted of
Throughout the show's run, the Fly Girls frequently performed a dance routine to lead into commercial breaks and/or during the closing credits. In the first two seasons, they also performed a routine that immediately followed the opening sequence. Music was provided by an in-house DJ – Shawn Wayans (credited as SW-1) in the first two seasons, then DJ Twist from season 3 onward.
The Fly Girls would sometimes be used as extras in sketches, or as part of an opening gag. In one sketch, they were shown performing open-heart surgery (in the sketch, the girls are dancing in order to pay their way through medical school). Another routine featured the three original female cast members dancing off-beat during the introduction of the show, when it was revealed that the regular Fly Girls were all bound and gagged and breaking through the door where Keenan Ivory Wayans enters.
Three of the Fly Girls also appeared in the eleventh episode of Muppets Tonight's second season in 1997.
Wayans family departures
Keenen Ivory Wayans stopped appearing in sketches in 1992 after the end of the third season, over disputes with Fox about the network censoring the show's content and rerunning early episodes without his consultation. Wayans feared that Fox would ultimately decrease the syndication value of In Living Color.[17]
Damon went on to pursue a movie career around the same time, though he made occasional return appearances during the fourth season. During the fourth season (1992–1993), Keenen appeared only in the season opener, though he remained the executive producer and thus stayed in the opening credits until the thirteenth episode.[citation needed] Marlon, who joined the show that same year, left shortly after Keenen resigned as producer. Shawn and Kim tried to leave as well, but they were contractually obligated to stay. Both left at the end of the fourth season.[citation needed]
Broadcast and syndication
Originally produced by
Reruns have also aired on
Unlike past runs on FX and the
The Best of In Living Color aired on MyNetworkTV from April 16 to June 18, 2008. Hosted by David Alan Grier, it was a retrospective featuring classic sketches, along with cast interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. The show aired on Wednesdays at 8:30 pm Eastern/7:30 pm Central, after MyNetworkTV's sitcom Under One Roof.
Home media
DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
---|---|---|
Season 1 | 13 | April 6, 2004 |
Season 2 | 26 | September 28, 2004 |
Season 3 | 28 | May 10, 2005 |
Season 4 | 33 | October 25, 2005 |
Season 5 | 26 | April 11, 2006 |
Reception
Ratings
- 1990–91: #62 (10.5 rating)[18]
- 1991–92: #42 (12.2 rating)[19]
- 1992–93: #53 (10.4 rating)[20]
- 1993–94: #90 (7.6 rating)[21]
Awards
- Image Awards 1994 for Outstanding Variety Series
- Image Awards 1992 for Outstanding Comedy Series
- PGA Awards 1992 for Most Promising Producer in Television: Keenen Ivory Wayans
- People's Choice Award 1991 for Favorite New TV Comedy Series Tied with The Simpsons (1989)
- TV Land Awards 2012 for Groundbreaking Show: Shared with whole cast
- Primetime Emmy 1990 for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series
Crossovers
- At the 2006 BET Awards when the show returned from one of its commercial breaks, the show's host Damon Wayans played a character very reminiscent to "Men on ..." critic Blaine Edwards
- In Living Color alums Damon Wayans, Jim Carrey, and David Alan Grier reprised some of their In Living Color characters on Saturday Night Live:
- Damon Wayans, a featured player during that show's eleventh season, hosted an episode from SNL's 20th season in 1995, where he brought on two of his famous In Living Color characters: homeless wino Anton Jackson and gay film critic Blaine Edwards. In the latter sketch, David Alan Grier made a surprise on-set appearance as Antoine Merriweather; Grier himself would also host SNL on December 9, 1995 (season 21) and January 18, 1997 (season 22), but did not reprise any of his In Living Color characters during those respective episodes.
- Jim Carrey auditioned to be one of the repertory members on SNL's ill-fated Fire Marshal Bill during the monologue. Carrey's most recent hosting stint, in October 2014, involved a Carrey family reunion sketch in which Cecily Strong plays Carrey's aunt, who is modeled after Fire Marshal Bill.[22]
- Damon Wayans, a featured player during that show's
- Jamie Foxx reprised his role as Wanda in a short segment at the 2009 BET Awards.
- In 1997, three of the Fly Girls also appeared in the eleventh episode of Muppets Tonight's second season.
- In the 1997 film Liar Liar, Jim Carrey reprised his "Fire Marshal Bill" character (albeit with no lines) in the background of one of the closing scenes.
- The February 10, 2001 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Jennifer Lopez included a sketch where Lopez "reunited" with the Fly Girls (played by Rachel Dratch, Jerry Minor and Tracy Morgan).
Attempted revival
In 2011, there were plans to make a revival of the original series that featured a new cast, characters, and sketches.[23][24][25] The pilot episodes were hosted and executive produced by original series creator and cast member Keenen Ivory Wayans. In early 2012, Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo were hired as the choreographers.[26] They cast the new line-up of The Fly Girls[27] and shot pilot episodes for the show which were set to air on Fox, like the original. However, on January 8, 2013, Keenen Ivory Wayans confirmed the reboot had been canceled because he and Fox did not feel that the show was sustainable after one season.[28] Reported cast members included Cooper Barnes, Jennifer Bartels, Sydney Castillo, Josh Duvendeck, Jermaine Fowler, Ayana Hampton, Kali Hawk, and Lil Rel Howery.[25][29] In addition, featured cast members were Henry Cho, Melanie Minichino, and Chris Leidecker. Members of the new Fly Girls included Christina Chandler, Tera Perez, Lisa Rosenthal, Katee Shean, and Whitney Wiley.[25]
Many of the cast members of the revival (Bartels, Fowler, and Howery) went on to create the TruTV sketch show Friends of the People.
Legacy
Singer Bruno Mars paid tribute to the television program in the music video, "Finesse".[30]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Green, Tom (April 12, 1990). "Wayans Gets Even". USA Today.
- ^ "Goal of spectacle colors NFL's thinking about Super Bowl halftime show". Chicago Tribune. 6 February 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-399-51702-0
- ^ a b "New Fox Show Pokes Fun at Black Stereotypes". Greensboro, North Carolina: Greensboro News & Record. Associated Press. April 12, 1990. p. B6.
- ^ Laurence, Robert P. (April 13, 1990). "Is prime time ready for rudeness? Fox's new comedy 'In Living Color' will offend some, tickle others". The San Diego Union. p. E1.
- ^ Mann, Virginia (April 1, 1990). "Back to the Drawing Board". The Record. New Jersey. p. E1.
- ^ Bunce, Alan (April 11, 1990). "Worth Noting on TV". Christian Science Monitor. p. 14.
- ^ Drew, Mike (April 19, 1990). "Upstart Fox Has Pounced, and the Networks Are Getting Jumpy". The Milwaukee Journal.
- ^ Krupnick, Jerry (April 18, 1990). "ABC Ends Ratings Race with Strong Finish". The Star-Ledger. Newark, New Jersey.
- ^ Boedeker, Hal (April 21, 1990). "TV's Living Color Brightens Spectrum". The Miami Herald. p. 1E.
- ^ Storm, Jonathan (April 21, 1990). "From Fox, Bold Satire By Blacks". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. C1.
- ^ Voorhees, John (April 21, 1990). "'In Living Color' Makes This 'Sunset' Look Pretty Pale". The Seattle Times. p. C3.
- ^ Keller, Julia (April 22, 1990). "Quality Shows Offer Respectable Change". The Columbus Dispatch. p. 5F.
- ^ Arar, Yardena (April 15, 1990). "Humor is in 'Living Color': Writers Plan to Capitalize on Funny Cultural Stereotypes". Daily News of Los Angeles. p. L25.
- ^ "Living Colour band sues Fox". Los Angeles Times. May 8, 1990. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
- ^ NBC Peacock clips (posted to YouTube on Nov 4, 2011)
- ISBN 978-0-345-49773-4.
- ^ "1990–91 Nielsen ratings – Sitcoms Online Message Boards – Forums".
- ^ "The 1991–92 Season FULL Nielsen Ratings...and other interesting tidbits – Sitcoms Online Message Boards – Forums".
- ^ "The TV Ratings Guide: 1992–93 Ratings History".
- ^ "Full Nielsen Ratings from the 1993–94 TV Season – Sitcoms Online Message Boards – Forums".
- ^ Kurp, Josh (October 26, 2014). "Did You Get Every Jim Carrey Reference In 'SNL's 'Family Reunion' Sketch?". Uproxx.
- ^ "Fox to Reboot 'In Living Color' with Keenan Ivory Wayans". Deadline.com. October 28, 2011. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
- ^ "New 'In Living Color'". Fox44.com. February 29, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
- ^ a b c "'In Living Color'". Fox.com. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
- ^ "WOD 2012 Industry Awards: Decade of Dance – Nappytabs". WorldOfDance.com. February 22, 2012. Archived from the original on February 23, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
- ^ Fuhrer, Margaret (March 1, 2012). "The Fly Girls Are BACK". Dance Spirit. Archived from the original on March 5, 2012. Retrieved April 8, 2012.
- ^ "In Living Color' reboot is dead". New York Post. January 8, 2013. Archived from the original on February 18, 2013. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
- Huffington Post. April 3, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2013.
- ^ Scott, Sydney (January 5, 2018), "The 'In Living Color' Cast Had The Sweetest Reaction To Bruno Mars' 'Finesse' Video", Essence, retrieved 2019-05-22