![]() The series won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series in 1990. The show was immensely popular in its first two seasons, capturing more than a 10-point Nielsen rating in the third and fourth seasons, ratings faltered as the Wayans brothers fell out with the Fox network's leadership over creative control and rights. The show introduced Jennifer Lopez and Carrie Ann Inaba as members of In Living Color's dance troupe The Fly Girls, with actress Rosie Perez serving as choreographer. The show also starred several previously unknown comedians and actors, including Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, Tommy Davidson, David Alan Grier, Kelly Coffield Park, and T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh. Other members of the Wayans family- Damon, Kim, Shawn, and Marlon-had regular roles, while brother Dwayne frequently appeared as an extra. ![]() In Living Color portrayed a form of irreverent Black humor in a time when mainstream American tastes regarding Black comedy on television had been set by inoffensive family-friendly shows such as The Cosby Show, causing an eventual feud for control between Fox executives and the Wayans. ![]() It also refers to the fact that most of the show's cast was Black, unlike other sketch comedy shows such as Saturday Night Live, whose casts were mostly White at the time. The title of the series was inspired by the NBC announcement of broadcasts being presented " in living color" during the 1960s, prior to mainstream color television. The show was produced by Ivory Way Productions in association with 20th Television and was taped at stage 7 at the Fox Television Center on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Keenen Ivory Wayans created, wrote and starred in the program. Read on to find out what the cast has been up to since this comedy classic, which launched the careers of Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, and former Fly Girl Jennifer Lopez, went off the air.In Living Color is an American sketch comedy television series that originally ran on Fox from April 15, 1990, to May 19, 1994. Reruns of the show have been extremely popular, Bruno Mars paid homage to the opening credits in his "Finesse" music video, and there were even talks of doing a reboot in 2012. In Living Color's impact would not be soon forgotten. By the end of season 4, the Wayans family was no longer involved, the quality suffered, and the show ended after season 5 in 1994. By season 3, creator and star Keenen Ivory Wayans was tired of the network's meddling and censorship efforts, his brother Damon Wayans had started exploring a movie career, and diminishing ratings took the edge off the comedy's impact. By the series' third season, it had so much clout that Fox ran a special episode as counterprogramming to the Super Bowl halftime show.īut the supernova status of In Living Color would only last for so long. In Living Color tapped into the burgeoning hip-hop culture and delivered laughs with edgy sketches that made Saturday Night Live look outdated in comparison. The fact that a predominantly Black and entirely irreverent variety show would propel the Fox network to new heights was ironic given that most Black comedies of the time were staid, family-friendly efforts. The show went on to win the Emmy for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Series for its first season. Premiering on Fox on April 15, 1990, and the sketch show immediately became a pop culture phenomenon when more than 22 million people watched the first episode. It's hard to imagine in today's fractured entertainment landscape, but In Living Color was the definition of an overnight success.
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