- instead of making us celebrate your holidays, why don t you celebrate some of ours? what about tupac s birthday? - and when you have so little, it means everything. all of those shows, they all matter so much. - it feels like there s been more of an ebb and flow and an evolution. - it is so important for us to have true authenticity. - why we always the only black people here? - that s why representation matters, black stories told by black people. - i m trying to tell you something. - [man] we set the pace for sit comedy. - you hear that, elizabeth? i m coming to join ya, honey? - from sanford and son to the other black shows. - what is this? - loved the jeffersons. - monogrammed shirt, brand new silk tie. - is that a tie? i thought your tongue was hanging out. - good times is one of my favorite sitcoms because you could not tell me that these people were not real. - dy-no-mite! - uncle phil! - fresh prince of bel-air was groundbreaking for me. it was a different depiction of
- fresh prince of bel-air became one of these landmark black sitcoms that you re gonna look at 100 years from now saying, this is one of the ones that changed things, - pssh. - and still is relevant today. (jazzy screams) (audience laughs) - in the 90s, there was one show that epitomized what it was to be young, funny, and black, and that show was martin. - martin lawrence is a standup comedian, and the martin show was based on all of the things that he would talk about onstage. - wassup? hell no! you wants to stomp with the big dog! - people really seem to gravitate to him. - jerome s in the house! - cause it was raw. i said jerome s in the hou-eh-ou-eh-ouse - he played at least 10 different characters within the sitcom, and you believed them all. - how you all doing? (audience laughs) party s my middle name! go, gina, go, gina! what s happening, baby? - martin lawrence was the one who said comedy has a way of bringing light into this dark world. black people, we do have
- i can t imagine what tv would be like now without atlanta. you don t get something like that without getting to trust the vision of someone like donald glover. - what you have with shows like atlanta is they don t even try to just be sitcoms. they re completely comfortable sort of straddling that line between comedy and drama. - where are your ancestors from? congo, ivory coast? - i don t know. this spooky thing called slavery happened, and my entire ethnic identity was erased. - i remember an episode i saw, and i was like, oh my god. he covered mental illness, black unemployment. - i m not asking for money. - you should be. aint you homeless? - not real homeless. i m not using a rat as a phone or something. - don t be racist, man. that make you schizophrenia. that don t make you homeless. - he covered so many topics in not even the whole episode. that was like the first few scenes. - and he gets to do it under a black lens while having that not be the only thing about the show
i think it s important. (mid-tempo r&b music) (muffled shouting) - the cosby show laid the groundwork for a lot of the sitcoms that we saw, and the most obvious is a different world, which was a spinoff of the series, and it followed denise huxtable when she went off to hillman college. - oh, you must be our new roommate. - the first year was different. you had a white character named maggie, and you had a show about a college that, while it was a historically black college, it was not necessarily black. i know my parents love me - in the second season of a different world, it became a whole different television show. i know my parents loved me - [ernie] brought in debbie allen. - they called me to come in and make it relevant, and when i got there, i had gone to howard university, so i didn t have to go on a field trip to see what a historically black college was. i had lived it. - debbie allen is a trailblazer. she really brought the authentic hbcu experience to television
- jerome in the house! - clear! - black-ish , insecure . - hey! - so many shows that are on now that are killing it in ratings. - we re living in a golden age of black television, especially when it comes to sitcoms. - we re finally starting to see ourselves represented in the world. (car whooshes past) (water sprays) - hell no! (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - as times change, we re beginning to see this evolution of black television. - this is rochester van jones. he s my butler. - we finally get to see a realistic depiction of ourselves. - issa, what s on fleek? - and the only way that that could be done was by changing the people who were telling the stories. - i don t know what that means. i know what that shit means. - by putting more seats at the table for black storytellers,