Where Are All of the Black Sitcoms?

The passing of two legends over the weekend has many people in the entertainment industry reeling this week.

Both Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes died over the weekend. Bernie was 50 years of age, and Isaac was 65. And coincidentally enough, the death of these two entertainment geniuses comes just months after the two shared the movie set of Soul Men, set to release in October.

Isaac will long be remembered as a great singer by his contemporaries, and as one of the great voices of Southpark to a younger generation.

Bernie who brought laughter to so many as a comedian, will also be remembered as a pioneer of both sitcom and cinema successes. Bernie, despite being one of the more heralded comedians of his time—especially with people of color—had a hard time getting television and movie roles until he was into his 40’s!

That first major success came with the Kings of Comedy, where he essentially had to make his own success, touting off at the mouth with some of the big dawgs in comedy. That led to his well-renowned show on Fox, “The Bernie Mac Show,” which Bernie had a lot of fun with, and was very, very, proud of.

That show led to numerous opportunities in cinema, that included films like Ocean’s Eleven, Mr. 3000, and Guess Who.

That type of on-screen success is rare for a black man, especially for it to last as long as it did and as long as it was probably going to. Nobody ever got tired of Bernie Mac.

But where has Bernie’s success gotten us?

Where are all the black sitcoms?

Right now, here in 2008, if you’re to ask me what I think the best sitcoms on television are, outside of Bernie Mac’s show that originated in 2001, I have to go all the way back to the 90’s re-runs before I can even come up with a decent name. There’s the populous Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Martin, and The Cosby Show. But that’s it.

Sure, there is Everybody Hates Chris, The Game, and the recently ended Girlfriends. But all of those are one network, which isn’t even one of the 4 major broadcasters in the U.S. And outside of Girlfriends, neither of them, nor any other post 1995 black sitcom, has passed the 100-episode mark—the mark of greatness and more importantly, the threshold for syndication.

And with Girlfriends now off the air, there is now no long running black television series out there. So why is that?

It all goes back to Bernie Mac.

The same things that made it so difficult for Bernie to get his face on television are prevent other blacks from their fair. One of those things is that black sit-com stars appear to need a higher level of fame or fame-backing to get their shows on the air. Bernie had to sell out movie theaters with the Kings of Comedy to prove he deserved a show. Will Smith had to go platinum to get the backing of Andy Borowitz. Martin had to be the face of Def-Jam Comedy before getting his show. Today’s Everybody Hates Chris is the creation of none other than Chris Rock. And even Girlfriends is the creation of super-TV star Kelsey Grammar.

While that’s the case for many black sitcoms, their white counterparts of much more mediocre levels of fame snatch up sitcoms and television shows left and right. Look at shows like Scrubs, Everybody Loves Raymond, My Name Is Earl, Weeds, and According to Jim. All very good shows that are relevant and will probably remain relevant years from now, but for the most part, they were launched with relatively unknown stars at the outset of the series.

So all I’m saying is let’s give the unknown actors and actresses of the black community some good shows too. And if at all possible, can we please put them on a network other than the CW?

~ by Uzo Ometu on August 12, 2008.