In Living Color

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This article is about the television series. For the band, see Living Colour.

In Living Color
Image:InLivingColorlogo.jpg
The In Living Color logo.
Format Comedy, variety television series
Created by Keenen Ivory Wayans
Starring See List of In Living Color cast members.
Opening theme Both theme songs performed by
Heavy D & the Boyz
Country of origin Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
No. of episodes 127
Production
Running time 30 minutes
(with commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel FOX
Original run April 15, 1990 – May 19, 1994
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

In Living Color is a sketch comedy television series which ran on the FOX Network from April 15, 1990 to May 19, 1994. Executive producer Keenen Ivory Wayans created, wrote, and starred in the program.

Other members of the Wayans family—Damon, Kim, Shawn and Marlon—had regular roles, while brother Dwayne frequently appeared as an extra.

Contents

[edit] Description and history

The series strove to produce comedy with a strong emphasis on black subject matter. Its groundbreaking [1] sketch comedy helped launch the career of male comedians and actors Jim Carrey (one of the two only white members of the original cast, then credited as "James Carrey"), Jamie Foxx (a future Academy Award winner who joined the cast in the third season) and David Alan Grier (an established character actor who had worked in Keenen Ivory Wayans' 1988 motion picture I'm Gonna Git You Sucka). Its Fly Girl dance troupe helped launch careers of future actress/singer Jennifer Lopez (who was a Fly Girl dancer in the second and third seasons) and future actress and Academy Award Nominee Rosie Perez (the shows' choreographer 1990 to 1992).

[edit] Pilot episode

For the first episode, an exotic-looking black-and-white logo was used for the opening credits. After the band Living Colour claimed the show stole the logo from them and threatened to sue, the logo was changed to one with rather plain-type letters of three colors. Both versions of the theme song were performed by the hip-hop group Heavy D & the Boyz. The logo and opening sequence was derivative of the Memphis Movement art style.

[edit] Live musical performances

In Living Color was known for its live music performances, which started in Season 2 with Queen Latifah as their first performer (appearing again in the third season). Some of the other music acts who performed on the show were Public Enemy, Kris Kross, Eazy-E, Monie Love and Busta Rhymes (then with Leaders of the New School).

During a marathon of the show on BET, Rosie Perez stated that TLC was scheduled to perform on one episode, but when they were told to remove the condoms from their clothes, they refused, and left the studio. Perez stated how proud she was of the girls for staying true to themselves.

[edit] Departure of the Wayans

Keenen Ivory Wayans left the show in 1992 after the end of the third season, over disputes with FOX about the network censoring the show's content and rerunning early episodes without his consultation. Keenen feared that FOX would ultimately decrease the syndication value of In Living Color.[citation needed] During the fourth season in 1992, he appears only in the (1992-93) season opener, though he remains the executive producer and stays in the opening credits until the thirteenth episode. Marlon Wayans left with Keenen. Shawn Wayans and Kim Wayans both left the show at the end of the fourth season. Damon Wayans left at the end of the third season to pursue a movie career though he made a few "special guest appearances" in the fourth season.

[edit] Censorship

Fox started censoring the scripts more after In Living Color produced a live Super Bowl halftime special (branded by the network as The Doritos Zaptime/'In Living Color' Super Halftime Party). During the "Men on Football" sketch, Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier adlibs a suggestion that actor Richard Gere and track and field star Carl Lewis were homosexuals, much to Lewis' open chagrin. Also, in the originally aired version, there was a simulation of male facial ejaculation using a water bottle and a clever camera angle. These two segments have been cut from reruns and the DVD version. The programming stunt lured 20 million to 25 million viewers from CBS' telecast of the halftime festivities during Super Bowl XXVI.

When airing on BET, most curse words (such as "ass" and "bitch") have been muted out and one line ("drop the soap") was also muted for its implications of prison rape. The DVD version has the language intact (except for the "drop the soap" line from "Men on Film"), but numerous sketches have been cut, particularly the music video parodies due to copyright reasons.

On the May 5, 1990 broadcast, Keenen Ivory Wayans did a take-off on a Billy Dee Williams "Colt 45" commercial (in which the purpose of the beverage is to get your lady friend wasted) that ended with a woman (played by Kim Coles) passed out on her back on a dining table, and "Billy Dee" moving in on her unconscious body to have sex with her. The "Colt 45" sketch was seen only once during the original broadcast. The sketch was omitted from repeats because some felt it was making light of date rape.[citation needed] The Season 1 DVD set of ILC didn't include the "cut" sketch from the pilot. This skit was cut by FOX censors, and the necessary modifications were made to the master tape. But Keenen "accidentally" mixed up the masters, and the original master was broadcast. That segment has never been broadcast since, not even in syndication, on FX or BET. It has been replaced by "The Exxxon Family" (a fake promo for a sitcom about a clumsy Exxon boat captain) in syndication and DVD box sets.

[edit] Season 5

By the fifth and final season, none of the Wayans family had any involvement whatsoever with the show. The show's traditional reliance on the character-driven sketches featuring Damon and Keenan gave way to an increasing reliance upon walk-on cameos by "special guests" like James Brown, Rodney Dangerfield, Barry Bonds, Biz Markie, Ed O'Neill, Sherman Hemsley, Chris Rock, Tupac Shakur, En Vogue, and various stars of the NBA. Kelly Coffield, who, prior to Alexandra Wentworth's arrival in the fourth season, was the lone female white cast member, left prior to the final season. Jim Carrey, David Alan Grier, Tommy Davidson, T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh and Fly Girl Deidre Lang are the only cast members to remain on the show throughout all five seasons, although Carrey's presence during the fifth season was limited due to his rising movie career, while Tommy Davidson missed most of the fourth season for an unknown reason.

In Living Color was an Ivory Way Production (until Keenen Ivory Wayans left) in association with Twentieth Century Fox Television.

[edit] Syndication

It was in reruns on local affiliates and on the News Corporation owned FX Network, where it was distributed by Twentieth Television.

Reruns of the show currently air on the BET Network.

[edit] Popular recurring sketches

Main article: List of In Living Color sketches

[edit] Cast

Cast members came and went during the run of the show, and new members appeared were added. Note that some older cast members continued to appear in later seasons, so later casts also include some previous year's cast members.

Main article: List of In Living Color cast members

[edit] Crossovers

  • At the 2006 BET Awards when the show returned from one of its commercial breaks, the show's host Damon Wayans played a character very reminiscent to "Men on ..." critic Blaine Edwards.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of In Living Color episodes

[edit] DVD releases

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has released all five seasons of In Living Color on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. Unfortunately the sets have been edited due to music licensing issues, resulting in some shows having entire sketches removed.

DVD Name Ep # Release Date Additional Information
Season 1 13 April 6, 2004
Season 2 26 September 28, 2004
Season 3 30 May 10, 2005
Season 4 33 October 25, 2005
Season 5 26 April 11, 2006

[edit] References

  1. ^ Andy Patrizio (March 17, 2004). In Living Color Season One: The groundbreaking show looks mighty good on DVD. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2007-11-28.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://india.smashits.com/wikipedia/In_Living_Color"
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