It’s funny how random thoughts pop into my head sometimes.
I know that I’ve mentioned reality TV’s supply and demand on here a time or two before. We en masse have a tendency to look for the things that are entertaining (ie drama, madness and mayhem), and, thus far, reality TV has provided that in spades. It is the same reason that we used to watch sitcoms back in the day – they provided us with entertainment value. The only difference is that actors and actresses are on sitcoms, while reality TV stars are…well…not acting.
Not really, anyway. But moving on.
Last night, I was watching My Wife and Kids reruns on Nick at Nite, you all remember, the one with Damon Wayans and Tisha Campbell-Martin? I don’t really watch TV much, but I do enjoy me some Nick at Nite. As I was watching the show, somewhere in between Damon Wayans’ character making his usual fatherly cracks at his TV son, it dawned on me…
Do we even have any shows like this anymore?
What do I mean by shows like this? Okok. Let’s think about this for a second. In general, the television sitcom ruled our late 70’s and early 80’s existence. Sitcoms were in rare form at the time, and actors and actresses such as Carroll O’Connor, Bill Cosby, Redd Foxx, Meredith Baxter-Birney, Phylicia Rashad, and countless others kept us glued to the TV with their biases and their thoughts – in an entertaining yet enlightening way. Oh, sure, it wasn’t always roses on their shows…but there was always a lesson to learn and something positive to get out of it. Delving deeper into the heart of the matter, the 80’s dawned powerhouse shows for African Americans such as The Cosby Show, A Different World, and 227, all shows that talked about the struggles of everyday African Americans, and how they overcame such obstacles. And, of course, they made us laugh. (To this day, I will never ever hide a piercing from my parents thanks to Theo Huxtable. And I’m an adult with a child of my own. LOL.)
In watching “My Wife and Kids”, though, I realized that we don’t have any shows like this anymore, at all. Think about it. I did. I went through the commercials I’d seen (in my head). I went through my Twitter timeline. I even posed the question on my Facebook page and to my cousins, who I affectionately call “The View”. Wanna see some of the responses? Look below…
From FB:
“The Cosby show..... even tho that was.....quite a long time ago... “
“Actually, I'm gonna raise my hand and say 'Friends' - Aisha Tyler, a great comedienne, played a short role as Ross' girlfriend, a scientist who had won the Nobel Prize *twice*…”
From “The View” (my cousins):
“There are none-not one.”
“No. I cannot think of one.”
“The Oprah show.. Oprah herself portrays black women in a positive way ,intelligent thought, imaginative. Behind the scenes at Oprah shows a brilliant black woman running Harpo.”
From Random Folk
“Damn…um…I dunno…wait, lemme think…”
“Define positive lololol…The last sitcom like reality show was runs house…That was positive…”
Are you sensing the pattern?
I’m a bit verklempt at this thought. No, seriously. In 2011…with an African American president…where one of the biggest media names in the business is an African American woman…why is it that the only television shows that we have on with a predominantly African American cast portray us as ghetto? Hood? Granted, my girl Carrie Pink pointed out that the VH1 reality show “Toya: A Family Affair” shows Antonia Carter, mother of Lil Wayne’s child, headed in a positive direction…and I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Chandra Wilson of ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” fame plays a no nonsense doctor on the hit series, written and produced by Shonda Rhimes, an African American woman…plus my other friend pointed out on FB that Blair Underwood plays the President of the United States on the NBC sitcom “The Event”.
But after those…then what?
I got an opportunity to go to the Celebrity Apprentice Live Finale this past weekend, and so I hobnobbed with the best while I watched all of the celebrities come back for the finale to talk about their experience. Of course, the most watched portion of the show was NeNe Leakes and Star Jones going back and forth…again. As much as what Nene said about Star was true, the point that Star valiantly tried to make was also true: Nene’s behavior bespoke of an inability to express herself in a professional manner without getting ghetto and trite, and it gave the impression that when backed into a corner, that’s all “we” do. Now, of course this isn’t true…and yes, much happens in the name of entertainment, but how can we prove it when that is our television ‘reality’?
I’m going to do a bit of research on this first, and come back with a part two, but for now, what do you think? Am I wrong?
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