A Challenge:
Which UPN 'black' show is worst?
By Robert Bianco
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In 1966, after years of protests, black audiences finally forced "Amos and Andy" off the air. Thirty years later, Amos, Andy and their various cultural cousins are back--with new names and a new network home, the fledgling UPN. But this time, the shows are being pitched directly at the black "urban" audience.... Aren't the '90s great?
Can this really be what that audience wants? Look closely at the network's four new sitcoms,"Malcolm & Eddie," "Goode Behavior," "Sparks" and "Homeboys in Outer Space," and you'll see the same stereotypes that have haunted the black community for generations:"Amos'" gullible Andy and conniving Kingfish, "Porgy and Bess'" lecherous Sportin'Life, the cinema's cowardly Stepin Fetchit. The only significant difference is that the originals were better written and better acted.
Almost without exception, men in this UPN quartet are portrayed as sex-crazed idiots or stuffed shirts, women as shrews or sexpots. Any behavior that borders on the intellectual is mocked; any sign of "uppity" aspiration is crushed. On "Malcolm," a man is ridiculed for reading poetry--and he's a fat man, which is supposed to make it twice as funny. On "Goode," a college professor finds his tea party turned into a barbecue (ribs, of course). And so on.
As every viewer knows, exaggerations and stereotypes appear in all sitcoms; the dual problem here is the target and the cumulative effect. While these shows might not be the worst offenders (that would be HBO's "Def Comedy Jam"), they fit into a disturbing TV pattern:degrading images of black men and women coupled with a message that seems to encourage aberrant and antisocial behavior.
It has to have an impact. When Bill Cosby rails against the negative influence of morons and minstrels in black comedies, he's speaking out of self-interest: He wants people to watch his version of black comedy. He also happens to be right.
All we can hope is that the network, which clearly wanted to capitalize quickly on the success of "Moesha," just didn't have enough time to find shows that could match "Moesha's" quality. Still, how much time would it have taken to do better than this? So how awful are these shows? Well, in what had to be UPN's worst mightmare, critics at a UPN press function actually got into a heated discussion over which show was the absolute worst. See if you can pick the winner.
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