we gonna hit class. we gonna hit gender. to, can t we all just get along? the world don t move to the beat of just one drum what might be right for you, might not be right for some tracy: it was a dream. two kids in a ghetto get adopted by rich white man. beretta smith shomade: the white savior narrative in a, diff rent strokes is the basis of the whole series. philip: welcome, gentleman! arnold: how bout that willis, downtown two minutes and already were gentlemen. todd: it was about love and understanding and respect for each other s cultures. beretta smith shomade: and of course, gary coleman he s just this cherub, little black child who s making us laugh. willis: arnold, to collect unemployment, you gotta not be working at what you re working at before you stop working. arnold: what you talking bout willis. sarah rodman: diff rent strokes, makes us feel good. huh, we solved racism, thank goodness.
ali: it was a massive hit. lorraine ali: you know, it s the 80 s. it was like let s just, not think about that complicated stuff right now. malcolm-jamal warner: for the first time, the cosby show forced america to recognize the black middle class. bill: ninety -five dollars? theo, i don t have a ninety-five-dollar shirt and i have a job. beretta smith shomade: the reagan-esque narrative allowed everyone to not see race and just to see this all-american family that you could emulate. alice leppert: ronald reagan did say that cosby was his favorite show. so, go figure. tracy: where i come from, my neighborhood? i didn t buy that, because i had never seen a black doctor, so i didn t really identify and relate with that show. malcolm-jamal warner: because of everything going on with mr. cosby now. of course, the legacy s been tarnished.
but the show definitely inspired, generations of people of colour who pursued higher education. denise: i m going to hillman! i know my parents love me beretta smith shomade: and so then you have denise who is going to go to an hbcu, historically black college and university. jasmine guy: it s the story of leaving home for the first time. and i was the snotty bitch that messed with denise huxtable. whitley: do you know how to give foot massages? jasmine guy: when i found out dianne carroll was playing whitley gilbert s mother, i kind of freaked out. marion: how s my darling? jasmine guy: i felt like a truck driver around diane carroll. marion: oh whitley. what is that dress, it just screams first communion. jasmine guy: she was always the only black woman on the set of julia. but she let us know how special it was that we re on a set with all these black people.
its not unusual to be loved by anyone beretta smith shomade: and so when fox comes around and says, how can we gain audience? oh, black people. so they initiate a series of shows that target an audience that had not been targeted. malcolm venable: martin lawrence is this increasingly mega popular comedian on the scene. martin lawrence: i know big bird been out of business but what the fuck is up? jacqueline coley: if you want to just compare martin and the fresh prince, martin in no way ran away from its blackness. he hosted a black radio show. martin: what up? jacqueling coley: .he had gina, his live in girlfriend. tawny newsome: it was the blending of sketch with traditional narrative sitcom. cedric: martin lawrence played, many, many characters on that show. martin: jerome in the house! cedric: from jerome to roscoe. gina: what do you want? roscoe: i want you to get a smaller head but i ain t got no control over that.
storytelling, and identifying that, black comedians can tell these kind of stories. mr. abbott: so you re. chris. chris: yes sir. abbott: i m mr. abbott, your guidance counsellor. aramide tinubu: by the time everybody hates chris debuted in 2005, chris rock was a massive star. beretta smith shomade: everybody hates chris is a funny recalling of chris rock s childhood in 1980 s brooklyn. chris: my father always knew what everything cost. dad: that s $1.09 in the trash. that s two dollars on fire! todd bridges: it was an all black show in the home, and chris got bussed to an all white school. chris: was the junior high school across the street really that bad? [gun shots] [screaming] chris: much like rock and roll, school shootings were also invented by blacks and stolen by the white man. tinubu: and then, of course in 2006 upn merged with the wb to become what we now know as the cw.