Are you just about tired of all the hype that comes out of Hollywood about seemingly every single thing? I sure am. It never ceases to amaze me how easily our people, in and out of entertainment, can be, in the words of Malcolm: “Bamboozled, run amok, led astray…” The culprits can be anybody, including: “jack-legged” preachers, to “bootleg” politicians and even “shade tree” mechanics. The victims of these excessive hype salesman/women come from everywalk of life, too.
When you have a people that are as beaten up as we are, with hundreds of years of systemic bad breaks and institutionalized heartbreaks, you just want something in life to be good and true. We want it so bad, in fact, that sometimes we not only close our eyes to what’s real (“Can we talk about what’s real?” Shot out to my man E.L.), but we actually go as far as to ostracize the bearer of bad tidings i.e. we “kill the messenger.” I don’t want anybody killing me but I’m going to try to illustrate my point by using Hollywood as my backdrop.
IN LIVING COLOR A very important and groundbreaking show in the history of television and a key component in the development of Urban Comedy is Keenan Ivory Wayans’ “In Living Color.” Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock… or not in L.A., you know that it’s coming back to Fox, the then fledgling, new network that was itself built on the backs of shows like “In Living Color,” “Martin” and “Rock.” It’s kind of what America did on the Blacks, I mean backs of African Americans in this country both during and after slavery. I digress but after all, it is Black HistoryMonth!
Anyway, I’ve never seen such a feeding frenzy with so little actual red meat being thrown out to the piranhas. It seems like everybody who’s ever told three jokes in a row thinks they have a shot at getting on. The chatter has been something like this: “They want character reels.” “Wait! Now, they want to do a stand up showcase at The Comedy Store.” “Wait! The showcase is cancelled.” “No, wait!
It’s back
on, down the street at The Laugh Factory!” “So and so is casting it. Oooops, they’re not casting it anymore. It’s back at the network. Oooops, it’s with another casting person now.” Yada, yada, yada. Is it justme, or is it really that deep? Somemay argue that it is. Maybe it’s the only show in town.
I hope the show does well. I hope deserving performers get chosen. All I’m saying is that bowlers have a better chance of making it into the NBA. And also, all revival shows don’t always work, e.g. the almost forgotten attempted “rebooting” of Def Comedy Jam and Comic View. They just weren’t able to restore their former glory or catch lightening in a bottle a second time. Maybe we need to create more shows that lead tomore opportunities. I’mnot hatin’. I’mjust sayin’.
RED TAILS The Red Tails hype should still be super fresh in everyone’s mind. First of all, historical Black Heroes and their accomplishments should be celebrated and remembered.
It’s about time! Their contributions
should be taught in our schools. Shot out to George Lucas for doing what we should’ve gotten together and done.
Red Tails was going to single-handedly right all of the past wrongs we’ve endured at the hand of Hollywood, change the innately racist nature of the film industry and start an avalanche-a veritable cavalcade of historical Black films coming out of Hollywood. There may not be enough actors and competent directors to handle all of the demand. All we as Black people had to do was go out and see the movie in the first weekend, get everybody we know to do the same, and put it over the $100 million dollarmark. Really?
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