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Sic) i m gonna be successful - [male reporter] fubu means for us by us. - fubu. - [female reporter] blacks are watching more tv, 70 hours a week, say the nielsen numbers. - these networks understand that when they re trying to get a foothold in the industry, the first thing they do is go to an underserved audience because they can get a lot of eyeballs. - in the 1990s, you had all these fledgling networks coming up, upn, the wb, who were specifically targeting black audiences. - [man over loudspeaker] attention, stars at the wb. - that strategy did enable a rap of black shows, black actors, black creators to shoot their shot. unforgettable (audience laughs) (upbeat music) - he used to hang with me with me and my band, the high tops, perform for the queen of england. - i love that entire era of television, ....
- so you ve got upn, and you ve got the wb. they come together to create the cw. beautiful, right? not if you re a black sitcom. black shows disappear. - we felt the shift of the shows trickling away. - some of the hits started coming in that were more like smallville, gilmore girls. you only have so many hours you program. something has to give. - and they just canceled us. everybody was just, oh, we re done. thanks. - i will never forgive the cw for what they did to upn. they really had a good run. we did get great writers like mara brock akil and kenya barris out of that. mara went from writing for moesha to creating the influential sitcom girlfriends. - hey, girl. - hey! - the vision i had for girlfriends is i wanted to document our existence as black women. i was a big fan of sex and the city, and i appreciated that it wasn t centered around a man s opinion about how women were. - i ll be on my way and leave you to your hot lesbian action. ....
- fubu. - [female reporter] blacks are watching more tv, 70 hours a week, say the nielsen numbers. - these networks understand that when they re trying to get a foothold in the industry, the first thing they do is go to an underserved audience because they can get a lot of eyeballs. - in the 1990s, you had all these fledgling networks coming up, upn, the wb, who were specifically targeting black audiences. - [man over loudspeaker] attention, stars at the wb. - that strategy did enable a rap of black shows, black actors, black creators to shoot their shot. unforgettable (audience laughs) (upbeat music) - he used to hang with me with me and my band, the high tops, perform for the queen of england. - i love that entire era of television, the show, sister, sister, half & half, smart guy, one on one, wayans brothers, cause i literally saw myself in those characters. - moesha was something that i wanted to do ....
Because i wanted to see a story about a black teenage girl, and i did not see that on tv. - she don t know who i am by now. she better ask somebody! - [unison] baby! - moesha was my first staff writing job. it was a groundbreaking time. it was a place where we all belonged. it was a place that you could actually launch a dream. - they introduced nikki parker on the last episode of moesha, which was the pilot for the parkers. on this slot, it was moesha, the parkers, the wayans brothers. so can you imagine what that parking lot looked like, sound like, and smelled like. it was incredible. - and while some of these shows may be popular in african american households, they may not have enough crossover appeal to survive. - so you ve got upn, and you ve got the wb. they come together to create the cw. beautiful, right? not if you re a black sitcom. black shows disappear. - we felt the shift of the shows trickling away. ....
- some of the hits started coming in that were more like smallville, gilmore girls. you only have so many hours you program. something has to give. - and they just canceled us. everybody was just, oh, we re done. thanks. - i will never forgive the cw for what they did to upn. they really had a good run. we did get great writers like mara brock akil and kenya barris out of that. mara went from writing for moesha to creating the influential sitcom girlfriends. - hey, girl. - hey! - the vision i had for girlfriends is i wanted to document our existence as black women. i was a big fan of sex and the city, and i appreciated that it wasn t centered around a man s opinion about how women were. - i ll be on my way and leave you to your hot lesbian action. - we were trying to figure out if we could have it all. all my black girlfriends were wondering that, too. we wanted it all. we wanted it all. (upbeat music) (bernie whistles) - give me a chance. (men laugh) i ll take wb. i ll ....