It’s a good thing when a T.V. show has: Lynn’s white sister (the wigger) stopped traffic by singing Jay-Z’s “Izzo” (I was shouting at the T.V. “It’s a freakin’ song. Why the f-- are all you niggas buggin?”) and William, an honorary “girlfriend” told who told the girlfriends how he was sick of “black women” (You had to see the show to understand how this could be funny). It is MHO that this show (like Bernie Mac’s show) speaks to everyone–except with a decidedly black accent.
It’s number two and five among black households in June and 88 amongst all households.
Most of the time I could see why people, white or black, stayed away from UPN. Their shows were awful. I found Martin excruciating and the less said about Homeboys From Outer Space the better. Sure we had The Jaime Fox Show and In the House, but there was also Living Single and Moisha.
Why won’t white people watch? Black people watch the awful 7th Heaven. Even though they complain about there not being any black Friends, they still watch.
I think my mind is boggling how absolute these numbers are. According to my calculations (which are spotty at best, me and numbers have an adversarial relationship) and with much rounding about 2 million black households watched Girlfriends and 300,000 others. According to BET’s nielsons the top rated black household show is Bernie Mac. It doesn’t make the top 40 in overall households.
Why? Does my kinky hair and brown skin have that much affect on my remote control finger? I’m still boggled.
For precisely the reason you mentioned (and one you didn’t, but might have been thinking). To wit: since it’s inception, the shows on UPN have consistently, and with few exceptions, sucked. Not like occasional, run-of-the mill, “Hello Larry” kind of suckage–truly abysmal dreck.
So why don’t blacks avoid it too?
Because of the other reason. UPN is considered by Joe Sixpack (black as well as white)to be a young, urbanish, black network. The impression is that most of its primetime shows star young, hip African-americans, and that the jokes, gags, and music are oriented toward black people. So after shows like “Martin,” which was totally incomprehensible to any white person over 30, working-class white America decided it was just a Black Thing and turned back to ER.
I image a lot of black viewers were more likely to cut the UPN slack because it’s sometimes worth it to sit through the crap just to see a sitcom with a black cast anywhere on television. (And whatever else I might think of him, Martin Lawrence spoke for and to a lot of young black people.)
:shrug:
But that’s all whistling in the dark, really. Take it for what it’s worth.
That is the one show that finally, after many years, unseated Mama’s Family as the show that I would prefer a prostate massage over having to watch.
As for the rest of your OP, I don’t watch much television anymore, but now you’ve piqued my interest, so I’ll give Girlfriends a shot. I’ll get back to you on this white-boy’s review.
For what it’s worth, my dad’s an over 40 white guy, pretty conservative borderline redneck, and he loves the Bernie Mac show. I don’t usually watch much television, but I enjoyed it the few times that I’ve watched it also. I’ve also seen him watching Martin when it used to be on.
I don’t watch stuff like Girlfriends because I don’t watch shows like Friends. If it’s not funny to me, it’s not funny.
That Bernie Mac guy, he is funny. I also think the kid actors they have on that show are great… not completely obnoxious like they tend to be on those sorts of shows.
I remember in the 1980’s and early 1990’s there were several mostly black shows, not only with Bill Cosby, but also “The Jeffersons”, “Amen”, “A DIfferent World”, “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper”, and “227” and so on that seemed to be aimed at a ‘general audience’*. I mean they weren’t presented as ‘black shows’…just sitcoms with a lot more black people than “Kate and Allie”.
When was it that television started to ‘resegregate’? I am thinking “Martin” may have been the first to really target a black audience and often attempt go over the heads of everyone else. Even when a show like the “Hughleys” or “My Wife and Kids” attempts to break that mold…people still call it a ‘black show’.
Not to mention the odd “precocious black midget in a rich lily white family” subgenre of that period.
White male here, and I’ve watched parts of it. Only speaking for myself here.
It’s not bad, but it seems like a skinnier, less funny version of Living Single, a show which I actually liked. I realize I’m oversimplifiying it and maybe even marginalizing it, but that’s my gut reaction from watching it.
Looking at the UPN network schedule, there’s not anything on there I’ll watch on a weekly basis, even now. Never got into Buffy, I didn’t have access to it until the past year. Enterprise puts me to sleep, a hard thing for any show to do, and I like science fiction. I quit watching wrestling years ago, so Smackdown holds no interest for me. Their TV movies are dreadful, and the theatrical films they show are played out from cable and syndication. No thanks.
Of UPN’s sitcoms only Girlfriends seems worth a damn. Most of the other past sitcoms mentioned in the OP were painfully bad or just plain irritating to me (Jamie Foxx, Moesha). Does anyone like The Parkers? What the hell is the deal with that show? I’ll admit I liked looking at Jenna Van Oy, but the acting and writing is like some mutant combination of The Nanny, Saved By The Bell, and That’s My Momma!
So my problem is with UPN in general, not any particular show, regardless of the color of its voice. I’ll give Girlfriends another shot, maybe it’ll make a stronger impression. If it’s as good as you say it is, it’s a shame the show is being neglected because it stuck on one of the Jr. networks with lots of dreck.
My wife watched about half of it last night, and after doing my level best not to pay attention, I said to her, “Well, at least blacks have achieved some equal rights. They now have sitcoms that are equally as cliched and predictable as whites do.” But 99% of all sitcoms are pretty crappy, so given the rather brief list of those with an all- or primarily-black cast, it’s not a surprise.
Bernie Mac is one funny guy (loved him as Jangle Leg in Life), but I don’t watch his show because I don’t watch most sitcoms.