that was sort of taking hold in the early 90s essentially got crippled. mara brock ali: when president obama was in office, those first four years, tyler perry shows and the game were the only black expression on television. i used to joke, i m like, oh, well, they don t need us anymore because (laughs) they ve got obama. malcolm venable: around 2014 conversations in hollywood about diversity were taking root, black creators like kenya barris were, finally given the agency to tell their stories. grandpa: police beating up on an unarmed black man? that s a story i been hearing allll my life. cedric: kenya was a new voice in comedy, of course, doing black-ish and all the spin off s grown-ish, you know, every ish. dre: this is serious stuff son. kids are dying in the street! girl: hold up, kids are dying. boy: we re kids! lorraine ali: he s tackling the trump administration. he s talking about black lives matter,
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.
clippers fan, you have been doing the struggle. lorraine ali: i remember one episode when kenya barris was tackling the uproar over colin kaepernick taking a knee. son: i m sorry, i can t sleep. dre: of course you d be afraid of the storm. son: it s not why i can t sleep. the school wants to suspend any athletes who take a knee during the national anthem. ali: abc finds it too hot. they want to shelf it and they do shelf it. and then he walks. malcolm venable: he goes over to netflix where he got a whopping hundreds of millions dollar deal to create new content. kenya: i don t know how to do it man. i feel like i really care what white people think. i feel like i-i like it a lot. tyler: that s really sad, man. that s a sad existence. kenya: it s not a great life. cedric: i loved kenya barris in the show black af with tyler perry, where he s lost and not knowing what to do. kenya: what about critics? tyler: i don t give a fuck.
malcolm venable: you saw a black man who was like, standing up to white people. george: who are you calling crazy, honky? peter casey: the shows had depth to them. and they tackled racial issues. instructor: very good, very good ladies. who s next? come on, now, who s next? we re all friends here. hereman: well, you may all be friends, but we don t touch anything that s been kissed by a nigger. helen: i hope you got on your best suit! jay moriarty: the flashback episode of what jeffersons were doing the day martin luther king was shot, it ends with martin luther king s speech. martin luther king: we ve got some difficulties ahead, but i want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the promised land. tim reid: but the fly in the ointment was that they were all written primarily by white executives who had a very myopic view of black america. norman lear: i feel qualified to do that as a human being who shared some of the same concerns.
malcolm venable: the mid -90s was a golden era for black sitcoms. michael schneider: as fox went with predominantly new ne check tworks in thit out! the mid- 90s was a golden era for black sitcoms. as fox went with a predominantly african-american cast you had new networks in the wb and upn that took that playbook and went with it. dad? mom? that girl has my face! sister sister was on wb. the wayans brothers. when the black sitcom was emerging on upn and wb, you were so joyful and excited that you get to express your culture through these shows. usher is there. kobe bryant is there. it was the rise in recognition of the black comedian. y all got kids, you know! i just do with mine up front!