Homey Don't Play That! : The Story of In Living Color and the Black Comedy Revolution

Intro; Epigraph; Preface; Chapter 1. "If You Ain't Helping Your Brother, Then 'I'm' Beating Your Ass"; Chapter 2. "Keenen Was Always the Pioneer"; Chapter 3. "This Is the Place"; Chapter 4. "Richard Was a God, So We Were Just Lucky to Be in His Orbit"; Chapter 5. "There's a New Sheriff in Town"; Chapter 6. "This Is What They Think of Us"; Chapter 7. "I Was Young, Black, and Angry"; Chapter 8. "Anybody Who Was Anybody Went There"; Chapter 9. "We're the Black Pack, Homey"; Chapter 10. "You Can't Kill This Movie"; Chapter 11. "The Bad Boys of Television.";"Discover the fascinating behind-the-scenes stories and lasting impact of the trailblazing sketch comedy show that upended television, launched the careers of some of our biggest stars, and changed the way we talk, think, and laugh about race: In Living Color."--Publisher's description. Intro Epigraph Preface Chapter 1. "If You Ain't Helping Your Brother, Then 'I'm' Beating Your Ass" Chapter 2. "Keenen Was Always the Pioneer" Chapter 3. "This Is the Place" Chapter 4. "Richard Was a God, So We Were Just Lucky to Be in His Orbit" Chapter 5. "There's a New Sheriff in Town" Chapter 6. "This Is What They Think of Us" Chapter 7. "I Was Young, Black, and Angry" Chapter 8. "Anybody Who Was Anybody Went There" Chapter 9. "We're the Black Pack, Homey" Chapter 10. "You Can't Kill This Movie" Chapter 11. "The Bad Boys of Television." Chapter 12. "The Running Joke Was If Your Last Name's Not Wayans, You Didn't Have a Shot"Chapter 13. "Is This Okay to Say?" Chapter 14. "If He Ain't Got No Jokes, I Don't Need Him" Chapter 15. "It Was Just This Overnight Sensation" Chapter 16. "Until It's Funny, I Can't Care" Chapter 17. "What They Thought Was Hip-Hop, Wasn't Hip-Hop" Chapter 18. "That's the Beauty of It. It's Dangerous and We Shouldn't Be Doing It" Chapter 19. "We Got a Problem. I Want the Other Girl." Chapter 20. "Some White Kid from Harvard Joking about Malcolm X-Lax-I Don't Think That Shit Is Funny." Chapter 21. "If You Don't Bring Your A Game, Other People Are Happy to Do It"Chapter 22. "All I Remember Is the Layer of Desperation That Hung in the Air" Chapter 23. "Jamie Fucking Scared Me" Chapter 24. "I'm Better Than Any of These Girls and You Know It!" Chapter 25. "We Were Horrible to the Censors" Chapter 26. "I Started Laughing So Hard That I Forgot to Do My Job" Chapter 27. "This Show Isn't Just a Money Spigot" Chapter 28. "It Just Seemed Like Nothing Was Ever Going to Be Funny Again" Chapter 29. "It Was a Really Cold, Destructive Place to Work." Chapter 30. "They Were Trying to Commandeer the Show"Chapter 31. "It Was a Bunch of Scared People Left Trying to Save a Sinking Ship" Chapter 32. "We Didn't Land on Chris Rock. Chris Rock Landed on Us." Chapter 33. "We Were Getting a Sense It Just Wasn't Working" Chapter 34. "It Was Time to Fold Up the Tent" Chapter 35. "Does Anybody Say NBC Has All This White Programming?" Chapter 36. "No Matter How Funny a Black Comic Is, It Doesn't Mean Shit Unless He Makes the Right White Man Laugh" Chapter 37. "How Does 'In Living Color' Fare in a World of 'Key and Peele?'" Chapter 38. "It's That Moment When It All Ignited"Acknowledgments Author Interviews About the Author Bibliography and Other Sources Index Copyright "A fascinating inside look at the trailblazing series" ( Entertainment Tonight )—discover the behind-the-scenes stories and lasting impact of the trailblazing sketch comedy show that upended television, launched the careers of some of our biggest stars, and changed the way we talk, think, and laugh about race: In Living Color . Few television shows revolutionized comedy as profoundly or have had such an enormous and continued impact on our culture as In Living Color . Inspired by Richard Pryor, Carol Burnett, and Eddie Murphy, Keenen Ivory Wayans created a television series unlike any that had come before it. Along the way, he introduced the world to Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, David Alan Grier, Rosie Perez, and Jennifer Lopez, not to mention his own brothers Damon, Marlon, and Shawn Wayans. In Living Color shaped American culture in ways both seen and unseen, and was part of a sea change that moved black comedy and hip-hop culture from the shadows into the spotlight. Now, the "in-depth, well-researched" ( Library Journal , starred review) Homey Don't Play That reveals the complete, captivating story of how In Living Color overcame enormous odds to become a major, zeitgeist-seizing hit. Through exclusive interviews with the cast, writers, producers, and network executives, this insightful and entertaining chronicle follows the show's ups and downs, friendships and feuds, tragedies and triumphs, sketches and scandals, the famous and the infamous, unveiling a vital piece of history in the evolution of comedy, television, and black culture. Discover the fascinating behind-the-scenes stories and lasting impact of the trailblazing sketch comedy show that upended television, launched the careers of some of our biggest stars, and changed the way we talk, think, and laugh about race: In Living Color . Few television shows revolutionized comedy as profoundly or have had such an enormous and continued impact on our culture as In Living Color . Inspired by Richard Pryor, Carol Burnett, and Eddie Murphy, Keenen Ivory Wayans created a television series unlike any that had come before it. Along the way, he introduced the world to Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, David Alan Grier, Rosie Perez, and Jennifer Lopez, not to mention his own brothers Damon, Marlon, and Shawn Wayans. In Living Color shaped American culture in ways both seen and unseen, and was part of a sea change that moved black comedy and hip-hop culture from the shadows into the spotlight. Now, Homey Don't Play That reveals the complete, captivating story of how In Living Color overcame enormous odds to become a major, zeitgeist-seizing hit. Through exclusive interviews with the cast, writers, producers, and network executives, this insightful and entertaining chronicle follows the show's ups and downs, friendships and feuds, tragedies and triumphs, sketches and scandals, the famous and the infamous, unveiling a vital piece of history in the evolution of comedy, television, and black culture