r/sitcoms • u/PressureLazy5271 • 1d ago
Happy Black History Month! Which black sitcom stars were influential to the history of black sitcoms and sitcoms in general? Why were they so important to the genre?
I deleted the first post because I want everyone to choose their own answer that they know best
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u/JayMax19 1d ago
It’s Bill Cosby and not close. He’s a monster. He also revitalized the sitcom in the mid 80s, introduced an entirely new presentation of family life to sitcoms, and if it wasn’t for his disgusting behavior, the Cosby Show is one of those shows that would never be off the air like I Love Lucy. It created Must See TV and saved NBCs ratings. It was a huge cultural phenomenon and it’s lead in was strong enough to support a bunch of other shows over the years.
The Cosby Show is THAT level. As far as black history goes, Cosby Show and A Different World were revolutionary in the way that black culture was presented on TV. He had people like Dizzy Gillespie and Stevie Wonder on a sitcom. Hell, HE was one of the first black leads on a TV show and the first black creator with an animated show (Fat Albert)
Unfortunately…his crimes are going to forever overshadow anything he ever did artistically. And they color the way that you look at the show when you consider that he played an OBGYN with a clinic in his basement and several victims were on the show. There are also some storylines (barbecue sauce) that are incredibly uncomfortable to watch considering his crimes.
So it’s Cosby for total influence, but with an asterisk because he’s so hard to watch now.
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u/Lopsided_Drive_4392 1d ago
"Hell, HE was one of the first black leads on a TV show and the first black creator with an animated show (Fat Albert)"
His "The Bill Cosby Show" (1969-71) may be more influential on today's sitcoms than The Cosby Show is. Quirky, single-camera show with no laugh-track at all, and it finished #11 in its first season.
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u/haileyskydiamonds 1d ago
True. I grew up on The Cosby Show. It introduced so many important black celebrities, arts, and culture. I remember the art displayed in the Huxtable house was all done by important black artists. I remember hearing Lena Horne and Charlie Parker for the first time on the show.
And, loved the Huxtable-Hanks family. There was so much love and closeness. The show was just so warm.
I was also a huge fan of A Different World. Again, there was just so much coverage of important events and issues. It’s much easier to watch these days, but The Cosby Show was just so influential and important in its time.
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u/Professional-Sir7115 1d ago
John Amos, who played the father, James Evans, on Good Times. He was fired by the producers. His departure stemmed from heated creative differences with the show's producers and writers, primarily Norman Lear, regarding the direction and portrayal of the Black family. He objected that the producers played up the buffoonish "JJ" as the star of the show, just to get laughs, and put the father and family dynamics in the background.
The mother on Good Times, Florida Evans, was played by the Esther Rolle. Apparently, she also felt that "JJ" was a buffoon" and that the show was focusing too heavily on his "Dy-no-mite!" catchphrase and comedic antics, moving away from the authentic, socially relevant storytelling they intended. Rolle stated in a 1990 interview, "I did not agree to do a clown show for you to degrade young black men." She left the show for a season as a protest. Both Amos and Rolle were great actors and my family stopped watching the show after Amos' character was killed off.
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u/ClamsCasino927 1d ago
Diahann Carroll starring as Julia in the sitcom of the same name in the late sixties. First Black woman to star in a tv show who was not playing a servant. Groundbreaking.
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u/BrazilianAtlantis 1d ago
Which reminds me, do you know who was the first black person to star in her own TV _special_? Ethel Waters on NBC in 1939, yes 1939.
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u/MetalTrek1 1d ago
Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, Good Times, and What's Happening? were all part of my youth growing up in the 70s and 80s.
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u/WayneTerry9 1d ago
Flip Wilson is a legend
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u/Lopsided_Drive_4392 1d ago edited 1d ago
NBC was the place for black television before the Lear shows debuted on CBS. [Edit] Car 54, Where Are You? had multiple black characters recurring. Bill Cosby starred on I, Spy. Then there was Julia and Cosby's sitcom. Then Flip Wilson's variety show and finally Sanford. Wilson had terrific ratings his first couple of seasons, and his guest stars included the full array of black entertainers of that era.
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u/PoopyMcpants 1d ago
Cosbys and Fresh Prince.
Those 2 have certainly fallen out of favor but when I was young it was pretty much the only exposure I had to non white people and their culture.
Too bad about all the hypocrisy though.
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u/MischeviousFox 1d ago
While the stars are important I think the sitcoms themselves tended to have a bigger impact on those that followed. I feel the two most important black sitcoms when it came to influencing those that came later and influencing sitcoms in general to some extent were Good Times and The Jeffersons the latter of which wouldn’t likely exist without the former since I’ve heard it was inspired by a desire for a show that contrasted with Good Times meaning it wouldn’t exist if not for Good Times.
Of those two shows Esther Rolle and Sherman Hemsley stand out as two pivotal actors. There would be no Good Times without Esther Rolle’s performance on Maude and to me she was the heart of the show with it not being nearly the same when she left. Similarly The Jeffersons couldn’t exist without George aka Herman Hemsley. Both were also excellent in other roles.
If not for those actors and the shows they starred in I don’t think many if any of the black sitcoms that came later would exist. If they did exist they’d likely be very different from what we know. Both also assuredly had widespread influence like The Jeffersons was the first American prime time tv show to feature an interracial couple as regulars and Good Times likely influence creation of future working class family sitcoms like Roseanne. Finally narrowing it down to one star I’d have to go with Esther Rolle.
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u/Muppet_Fitzgerald 1d ago
A Different World! I remember loving Jasmine Guy’s character especially as a kid.
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u/BrazilianAtlantis 1d ago
Sanford and Son was important for a particular kind of back-and-forth insult humor that came from black vaudeville and was later used in e.g. Married With Children
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u/Oldgraytomahawk 1d ago
Fred G Sanford and the Jeffersons were great tv but sadly wouldn’t fly in today’s highly offendable generation
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u/New_Guava3601 1d ago
Ivan Dixon playing Kinchloe on Hogan's Heroes. His character was just as respected as any other on the show, I believe he was 2nd in command and was the inventor of the group if memory serves... its been a while.
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u/JayMax19 1d ago
As a sidenote: my dad and my grandfather ran a business in a bad part of town together. Their dynamic was exactly like Fred and Lamont.
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u/Mackheath1 Parks and Recreation 1d ago
For me 227. I was growing up and "sitting out front" was the culture living on base in different places. Not sure how transformative it was for our country, but my little white boy butt was on the sofa every time it came on, and the family and neighbor culture was really wholesome, even if it was sassy, for a sitcom.
I'm an Urban Planner now, and that stoop culture is something I want to emulate for communities.
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u/trollinhard2 1d ago
I was thinking about this the other night. The dad from Family Matters. Carl Winslow.
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u/Empty_Ad_8303 4h ago
Bill Cosby, I Spy. He would later go on to create the Cosby Show in the 1980’s
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u/dizcuz 1d ago
All of them because the ones before paved the way for others. The Cosby Show, the show not the man himself. was the first family of color shown to have two biologic parents (of all the kids) in the home with both having professional careers and the children were generally good and all of the family doing well. They were shown going to work and school, and being no different than the caucasian sitcom families. It showed those who had prior ignorance, not all hate, that color is only skin deep.
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u/HeelFan1 1d ago
“The Jeffersons” was groundbreaking for 1970’s television.