Episode Summary
On this episode, we are going to talk about a TV show that ran for five seasons on Fox from 1990 to 1994. Created by Keenen Ivory Wayans, it launched the careers of some of the biggest names in show business like Jennifer Lopez, Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, Shawn and Marlon Wayans, Rosie Perez and more.
Transcript
[Queuepoints Podcast Trailer]
Christina: Welcome back to They Reminisce Over You. I'm Christina.
Miguel: And I'm Miguel. On this episode, we are going to talk about a TV show that ran for five seasons on Fox from 1990 to 1994. It launched the careers of some of the biggest names in show business like Jennifer Lopez, Jim Carrey, the Wayans Brothers.
Christina: Yes all the Wayans brothers.
Miguel: Shawn, Marlon, Damon, Keenan. All of them.
Christina: Jamie Foxx.
Miguel: Jamie Foxx. People who've gone on as actors and actresses. We've got dancers. We've got a fake DJ. Just a, a wide range of talents on this show. We are talking about In Living Color.
Christina: "How you living?"
Miguel: "What!"
And they had Heavy D and the Boys doing the intro. So, this show had a little bit of everything and we are gonna talk about that on this episode of They Reminisce Over You. So, you wanna just get into it?
Christina: Let's do it. Go, go, go.
Miguel: Because everybody was "go-ing" in the '90s.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: Always had to "go." That that's when you knew the party was getting set off.
Christina: Yep. When you hear that, the dance break is coming.
Miguel: Exactly. So a quick bio and a little bit of background on In Living Color. It was created by Keenan Ivory Wayans, who was an actor, writer, producer, director in 1990. So, as you know, he is like, the head of the Wayans entertainment family.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: He's not the oldest, but he's the second oldest.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: But in terms of the entertainers—
Christina: Is the oldest in showbiz?
Miguel: Yeah. He, he's the top dog, basically.
Christina: No, no, no. Is the oldest Wayans in?
Miguel: Oh, is he? Um, I'm sure he works with them in some capacity because everybody does. But I don't think he's ever done anything in front of the camera.
Christina: What's his name?
Miguel: I don't know.
Christina: Okay. The oldest Keenan.
Miguel: The oldest Wayans.
Christina: I mean the oldest Keenan. Ha ha. The oldest Wayan…Wayans.
Miguel: But he got his start doing standup when he was in college. He was basically entertaining people on the quad at Tuskegee University. Or Tuskegee Institute. And somebody saw him and was like, you know what you need to do? You need to go to The Improv when you get back to New York. And he's like, what's The Improv? And this guy who was talking to him was actually from New York as well, so he told him what The Improv was. On a summer break, he goes back to New York, heads to The Improv checks it out, and he was like, it's crazy how I had to go down to Alabama to find out about a comedy club that was one mile from my house. So…
Christina: How did he not know about it?
Miguel: He just wasn't involved in comedy like that.
Christina: I guess.
Miguel: He said he was really shy and funny around his friends, but he didn't want to pursue it as a career at that point.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: But he met Robert Townsend in line for an audition there, and one thing led to another, they become friends. They decided to move to Los Angeles at some point, and while they were there, they decided to write a movie, a little film called Hollywood Shuffle.
Christina: That's a good little film. Considering this is—is it Robert Townsend's first movie too?
Miguel: Yeah. It was both of their first films[1]. They both wrote it. Robert directed it. They were both starring in it. And that started everything for pretty much the both of them.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: He went on to write for Eddie Murphy's Raw, which was again directed by Robert Townsend. And that led to him getting the opportunity to do his own movie, I'm Gonna Git' You Sucka. That leads him to getting the opportunity at Fox to do In Living Color.
Christina: For some reason, I always thought that movie came after the show was already on.
Miguel: Nope, it was out first.
Christina: Hmm.
Miguel: He actually screened the movie for some movie execs from all the other studios to say, hey, come check out this movie I did and then give me more money to make more movies. It didn't exactly work out the way that he thought. He ended up getting a callback from Fox, but it was the execs from the television division and not the movie division.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: It was when Fox was just starting out. At the time they only had four TV shows. It's funny to think about now.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: But back in 1987, '88, when they're doing the pilot and whatnot, they only had four shows. Married…with Children
Christina: Ah yes.
Miguel: Tracey Ullman Show, Cops and America's Most Wanted. That's all they had at the time.
Christina: So what did they show the rest of the time?
Miguel: It, it was just local programming.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: And they came to Keenan and said, Hey, we want you to do what you did with that movie for us every single week. But they explained to him how they were launching the network. They liked what he was doing. They were gonna give him carte blanche to do whatever he wants. And he is like, all right, cool. Sign me up.
Christina: Are you sure?
Miguel: He's like, are you sure this is what you want? So, that's how he ended up at Fox because they offered him the TV deal and the freedom to basically do what he wants.
Christina: And do what he want, he did?
Miguel: Yeah, that's basically it. So, the inspiration for the show obviously was Saturday Night Live.
Christina: Yep. But make it Black!
Miguel: Yes. He auditioned for it. Didn't get it. Damon was actually on SNL. Got fired, so…
Christina: Why was he acting up on SNL? He just wasn't happy with what they wanted from him?
Miguel: Yeah. He was doing something in a sketch and Lorne Michaels told him to change it and he decided he was just gonna act out and was fired. Like, during the show.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: I will post the video on the website because it's available on YouTube to see him being a complete asshole on stage. But yeah, he got fired[2].
Christina: Mm-hmm.
Miguel: But he was the number one choice for Keenan when he was starting his version of SNL up. Damon suggested that they bring their boy, Jim Carrey, who was on the standup circuit with them.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: He was like, hey, let's get this crazy white boy to join us.
Christina: Unknown James Carrey.
Miguel: Yes, he was an, an unknown at the time.
Christina: And going by James.
Miguel:And wasn't happy with the standup and the Vegas show he was doing, so he was like, let's give this TV thing a shot. They also brought in Kelly Coffield. Kim Coles. Tommy Davidson. David Allen Grier. Kim Wayans. T'Keyah Keymah. And that was the original cast for the first couple seasons.
Christina: And most of them stayed except for Kim Coles left after the first season.
Miguel: Yeah, she left after the first and everybody else stuck around for at least three.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: Because that's when they did the, the changeover.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: And also they had the Fly Girls.
Christina: The Fly Girls.
Miguel: Who would come out and dance at the beginning and during the commercial, or right before the commercial breaks and during the musical performances.
Christina: And as I've mentioned more than once on this show, I really thought that was something that I could be. "One day, I'm gonna be a Fly Girl." Ha!
Miguel: Hey, there's nothing stopping you from being a Fly Girl right now.
Christina: Mm. I could do those old school dances on TikTok?
Miguel: Exactly. Exactly. So, there were five Fly Girls, Cari, Michelle, Carrie Ann, Lisa, and Deidre. And the choreographer was who?
Christina: Rosie Perez!
Miguel: But I found out something.
Christina: What did you find out?
Miguel: The original choreographers for the show were Tisha Campbell and AJ Johnson.
Christina: Hmm. Coming off of House Party?
Miguel: House Party. Yep. They were the original choreographers. They did the pilot.
Christina: Uh huh.
Miguel: And then of course them being actresses got too busy.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: They had to bring Rosie in. She wasn't doing as much acting then, and she became the choreographer.
Christina: All right.
Miguel: And also, you know, throughout the years they would cycle the Fly Girls in and out as well. They brought in Jossie Harris, who was known for the, "Remember the Time" video.
Christina: And she was just sort of the IT video girl for a while.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: She was in a bunch of videos.
Miguel: So, she was brought in. Your girl, Laurie Anne Gibson. AKA Boom Kack.
Christina: Boom Kack!
Miguel: She was there for the last season and probably the most famous Fly Girl of all, Ms. Jennifer Lopez was there for the last two seasons.
Christina: Before she was J-Lo.
Miguel: Yes. Before the movies—
Christina: Before she was "Selenas.[3]"
Miguel: Before "Selenas," before the music. She was a Fly Girl.
Christina: So, I just took note of all the sketches just from the first episode[4], just so I could remember. They had Robin Givens and Mike Tyson on The Love Connection.
Miguel: Yes. That was the very first sketch.
Christina: That's pretty wild.
Miguel: It is.
Christina: Then they had a moon landing when they left a Black astronaut behind because they realized that they didn't have enough, I can't remember what it was, like air or something like that?
Miguel: Yeah. There wasn't enough fuel to like, get all four of them back, so they left him.
Christina: So they left Slick Johnson behind and scrubbed his existence from NASA.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And that was a moment in Black history. And then the Homeboy Shopping Network. And that's where the "Mo' money, mo' money, mo' money" came from. Some profiling in the store.
Miguel: Oh yeah. That was great. The uh, Equity Express card commercial.
Christina: Yeah. And, uh, a Fred Sanford parody. And then of course, Men on Films. That's, that's a lot for a very first episode.
Miguel: It is. And that's how they came out the gate. So, it had to be successful. Because that's the kind of stuff that we weren't getting at the time.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: Kinda like we mentioned when we did the episode about Arsenio Hall, there was just things that we weren't getting as like, Black people and minorities, and this was helping to fill that void.
Christina: I think also a good thing about this show is there was no explanatory comma. If you didn't know who Fred Sanford were,
Miguel: Yeah. You weren't getting it.
Christina: Fred Sanford were, was.
Miguel: And they were not gonna break this down for you and say, well, he is this guy and this guy and this guy.
Christina: Yeah. And also like, even though it was, you know, very Black, they had a couple, you know, white cast members, but it didn't feel like, oh, we gotta force a couple white cast members in here. Although they might have just to make the network happy, but like, all the cast members fit together. They were able to write stories for everybody.
Miguel: Yeah. The interview[5] I watched with Keenan, it's from the Television Academy. And we'll link to it as well. But basically he was saying that they were just funny.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: Jim Carrey was somebody that was on the standup circuit with them.
Christina: Mm-hmm.
Miguel: I don't think he was like, a token. Him and Kelly Coffield weren't like, token white people.
Christina: Not at all.
Miguel: They were there because they were actually funny.
Christina: Yeah. because they, they fit in with the wackiness of the show.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: So, of course they had them play, you know, specific white characters too, but it wasn't like, all right, let's add the token in, or else America can't relate.
Miguel: Exactly.
Christina: It was just like, this is a wacky cast. We lean Black, but it's really just supposed to be funny.
Miguel: Yeah. So, since we've kind of mentioned Jim and Kelly, of the series, what were your favorite moments or sketches or characters even from the five year run?
Christina: Well, prior to us doing a research for this. I hadn't really watched the show—I don't think I've watched it since, you know, it aired except for maybe, clips and stuff that you just kind of see here and there. So I'm gonna say my favorites are the ones that I remember before we did a little bit of a rewatch.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And you know one of them. "Tighter than 10 toes in a sock."
Miguel: Ceephus And Reesie.
Christina: You see? "Twinkle, twinkle, little star-ruh.[6]"
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: "Where you been?"
Miguel: I love that. I love it. I didn't realize that it was season one either.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: Until I went back and watched it.
Christina: And how like, I didn't realize how much of this stuff we're always saying still despite us not watching it in like, 30 years now?
Miguel: Almost 30 years.
Christina: Yeah. because we say "tighter than 10 toes in a sock" all the time in this household.
Miguel: I love to say "star-ruh."
Christina: "Star-ruh." You say "star-ruh" all the time. And Calhoun Tubbs "Wrote a song about it. Like to hear it. Here it go."
Miguel: Yeah. So, all of these things are just everyday talk for us.
Christina: Yeah. Benita Butrell[7]. "I ain't one to gossip."
Miguel: Yeah. "You didn't hear it from me!"
Christina: "You didn't hear it from me."
Christina: And Fire Marshal Bill, of course. "Let me show you something![8]" So, those are things that we just, you know, just say all the time.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But oh yeah, "Hey Mon.[9]" "Tree jobs!" Like, we say that all the time too.
Miguel: "You only got tree jobs?"
Christina: So, those are the ones that I just remember because we say all the time. And then, we ended up rewatching all of season one. I watched a, a little bit of season two and I think I got a couple episodes in of season three just to—
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: 'Cause I wanted to see some of the new cast. So, of course Jamie Foxx's Wanda[10].
Miguel: Yeah. You can't go wrong with Wanda.
Christina: How does he hold his face like that?
Miguel: I don't know.
Christina: For a whole sketch?
Miguel: No idea.
Christina: And then Marlon did Mr. Ugly Man[11].
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: So terrible.
Miguel: The Shabba Ranks parody.
Christina: Yes. [singing] "Mr. Ugly Man." This was wild.
Miguel: I saw an interview with Marlon saying that for a while Shabba was after him.
Christina: I wonder why? But yeah, you know how we always talk about it was the '90s, things were different back then. Man, there was a sketch in season three with Rick James and a woman tied to the bed[12].
Miguel: Oh God.
Christina: Oh, they went for it.
Miguel: Yeah. There's a lot of stuff that definitely would not fly in 2023.
Christina: But what's interesting is [whispers] it's still funny though.
Miguel: It is.
Christina: Like you're like, I shouldn't be laughing. And maybe if I saw it now for the first time, it would feel different, but—
Miguel: Yeah, but rewatching it—
Christina: It actually— Yeah, it actually holds up pretty good. Even if it's problematic.
Miguel: Yeah, it does. Surprisingly it does because—
Christina: 'Cause it's still funny.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Even if it's, even if it's terrible, it's still funny.
Miguel: Because the things that they do, it doesn't really harm people. Like, it goes right up to the line before it becomes like, really offensive.
Christina: Yeah. It's hard to explain, and I guess this line is gonna be different for everybody, but it's hard to explain where that line from funny to too much.
Miguel: Yeah, and I think you had to be there too.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: Like, if you were hearing this for the first time today?
Christina: You, you're like, wow, that's terrible. Because like, when I was rewatching, we saw a few Men On… sketches, the Men on… series. Like, we saw, Men on Films, Men on Books.
Miguel: Men on Art.
Christina: Yeah. Like, I know it's terrible because it's extremely stereotypical, but it's hilarious.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But it doesn't feel malicious.
Miguel: Right. That's what it is.
Christina: And I think maybe that's like, I can understand if someone's offended by it because it is extremely stereotypical.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: But it doesn't feel, it feels like it's supposed to be funny and not mean.
Miguel: Yeah, that's basically what it is.
Christina: Because it doesn't feel like they're like, oh, we hate gay men.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: It's just like, this is, this is supposed to be silly.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But like I said, it would be different if it came out now.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: But yeah, like, we were just laughing. Those little hats, their little double entendres.
Miguel: Yeah, I saw one of the interviews where they were saying how they had a censor. A guy who was supposed to censor them on set, but he didn't understand all the slang that they were saying. So, that's how they got away with a lot of it.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: And then once they were starting to get the mail the following week, then he would come back and say, okay, you can't say that again. Because the, the one I remember is the Hey Mon stuff.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: Apparently for weeks they're just dropping bomboclaat and all other stuff in there, and he wasn't getting it until people started writing in and was like, you can't be saying this on TV. That, and the, the Men On stuff they did, Men On Cooking.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: And they were talking about something and he told them to take it out. So, they switched it to tossing salad and he didn't know what that meant. So, that actually aired.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: So, of course they got in trouble for it the following week, but it was able to get past the censors.
Christina: Right. It's weird—it's like I didn't feel cringy rewatching it. Like, I'm watching it and I know a lot of the stuff wouldn't fly now.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: But it wasn't like, cringe like, oh my God, I can't believe we laughed at this, because I'm like, I'm still laughing at it.
Miguel: I was laughing out loud at the Old Train[13] sketch. Don Cornelius couldn't remember his name. He couldn't remember the name of Fine Young Cannibals. All the guests were old. The Soul Train dancers were old, but I knew exactly who each of them were supposed to be because they came out with the Asian one with the long hair. But she's old and she's got a walker.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: So, stuff like that was just great.
Christina: Yeah. Because there's definitely some sketches that are just, they're just funny. Like, they don't offend anybody.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: I don't think Old Train should offend anybody?
Miguel: It shouldn't.
Christina: Maybe old, old people?
Miguel: I doubt it.
Christina: I doubt it too.
Miguel: I doubt it.
[Break]
Miguel: So, let's talk about the legacy of In Living Color. The first thing I want to bring up is In Living Color is the reason for the NFL having big celebrities at the halftime show.
Christina: Which is crazy when you think about it.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Because I mean, In Living Color was on the Fox TV network, so it's not like it was some little niche show. But it's still crazy that they had that much power though.
Miguel: Yeah. And if you're not aware for the 1993 Super Bowl, I think it was '93.
Christina: Something like that.
Miguel: '92 or '93.
Christina: Somewhere around there.
Miguel: They decided that they were gonna do a live airing of In Living Color, and they were gonna do it at halftime of the Super Bowl.
Christina: Mm-hmm.
Miguel: So, they wanted people to stop watching the Super Bowl, click over, watch them, and then switch back when the game was back on. They had a little timer in the bottom of the screen, so you weren't gonna miss anything. And at this point, the halftime show consisted of like bands and choirs.
Christina: Yeah, like school bands.
Miguel: The ribbon dancers who come out and do like, rhythmic dancing. But everybody switched over to Fox to watch In Living Color and basically the ratings were through the roof.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: It was numbers that had never been seen before for halftime of a football game, 'cause people are usually going to get food, they're going the bathroom and just getting up to stretch, ignoring everything that's going on.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: The following year, the NFL decides that we need somebody to keep eyes on the halftime show. So, they came with Michael Jackson.
Christina: Michael Jackson, who was huge at this time.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: They were like uh uh, nobody is changing the channel for this little sketch show.
Miguel: You will stay with the game the entire time. And since then there's been a big performer at the Super Bowl. And it only gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And that came directly from In Living Color.
Christina: I didn't realize they had, I mean I guess that makes sense, like someone to handle what they need to censor and stuff for the show, but they also had that for the halftime show as well. And they were supposed to be like, on a five, ten second delay. And I was reading an interview with, the guy who was like, who was in charge of that. Like, he was supposed to, I forgot his name[14] in exactly what he does, but he was supposed to alert the other guy who had actually like, the mute buttons and stuff.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: So, he said they worked it out that if he hears something that he thinks needs to be taken out, he would like, pound the guy on the back and then he would mute it. But the Men on Football sketch, there was like, two crazy jokes that they—
Miguel: Yeah that got through.
Christina: That got through because he said one, he was laughing and forgot to pound the guy, and the second one he did. But then the second guy decided, no, we'll keep it.
Miguel: Oh boy. Yeah. Like, listening to them. They weren't that bad.
Christina: Uh huh.
Miguel: But people were offended. Like, Richard Gere and Carl Lewis were both offended at what was said about them.
Christina: Yeah, so, the two jokes was there was, what do you call it, like not conspiracy theory, what is it…
Miguel: Just a long running tale.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: A, a fable.
Christina: A fable, if you will.
Miguel: Yeah. Of Richard Gere having to be rushed to the hospital because he had a gerbil up his butt.
Christina: Yeah. So, they made a—
Miguel: From some sex play.
Christina: Yeah, so they made a joke about that. And then they made a joke about Carl Lewis being gay.
Miguel: Yeah. And neither of them were happy with it. And yeah, from other viewings, it was taken out.
Christina: Yeah. It was edited on like, I guess replays, but they let it fly during the actual airing. The live airing[15].
Miguel: Yeah, but both of them weren't even scripted. Those were just off of Damon's dome, so it's not like they could do anything about it in rehearsals or anything because it just came out.
Christina: Well, I think the, the same article[14:1] I read, he said he, it wasn't scripted, but he said he knew he was going to do it.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: Because he figured, hey,
Miguel: I'm live, what can they do?
Christina: Let, let's, yeah, let's see if they'll let it go through or not.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: Because they knew that they were on the delay because, Keenan was saying like, hey, they had the option to mute it. So, it's not my problem if people are upset.
Miguel: Don't blame me because the censor didn't do his job.
Christina: Exactly. So, he's like, I'm not gonna be blamed for something I wasn't responsible for.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: Because I wasn't the one responsible for censoring it.
Miguel: Exactly. So be mad at him, not me.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: So, in 1993, December of '93. That's when Keenan was at the end of his rope with the execs at Fox. They had a show that came on before In Living Color that got canceled.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: He was supposed to get ownership of the show in 1994, and he was gonna put it into syndication so he can make some money off of it for himself and not split it with Fox.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: They started running reruns in the spot of the show that got canceled.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: Basically devaluing the show for him when he was ready to go and sell it the next year. So, that was kind of his last straw. He was having issues with the censors, like we mentioned before, with uh, some of the issues they had and just butting heads with the execs basically. And he was like, you know what, I'm out, I'm just gonna walk away from this.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: He was still executive producer, but he had stopped acting on the show earlier in '93 and walked away completely at the end of '93.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: Family solidarity, Damon and Marlon, they left when he did.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: Kim and Shawn tried to, but they were still under contract through the end of season four.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: So, they had to stick around. But at the end of season four, there were no more Wayans left on In Living Color.
Christina: Hmm. See, I don't remember none of that.
Miguel: I remember them leaving. I never knew the reason until like a couple years ago.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: Because this wasn't information we were privy to back in the'90s because no internet.
Christina: Nope.
[Break]
Miguel: Yeah. So, as we mentioned, there's a lot of talent that came through the doors at Fox from In Living Color. Like, huge stars. Some of the stars who have been the biggest at the box office, biggest selling records. So, there was a lot of talent there. Let's go down the list one more time, shall we?
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: Jim Carrey, one of the highest grossing actors ever got his start, well, his big break was In Living Color. He was working previously, but this is what got him in the door.
Christina: Right.
Miguel: Jamie Foxx, who is currently one of the biggest box office draws, as well as one of the bigger R&B singers of our time.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: Jennifer Lopez, who's always selling out movies at the box office and singing at Presidential inaugurations.
Christina: Let, let's get loud!
Miguel: And Super Bowls herself. She started off as one of the Fly Girls and now look at her.
Christina: And I think she was only around for like a season or two as well.
Miguel: I think she did the last two. Carrie Ann Inaba, who left in season three, I believe. Going on tour with Janet Jackson and Madonna and has been on Dancing With the Stars for like 20 years or whatever.
Christina: Yeah. She was a judge on one of these dancing shows too, I think.
Miguel: Yeah. Dancing with the Stars.
Christina: Oh, oh, I thought you meant she was like a contestant.
Miguel: And of course Shawn and Marlon Wayans who had their own show and they've done multiple movies that they've written and directed. Tommy Davidson, who is still out here acting a fool with his standup. He's been on multiple TV shows. Kim Coles went on to do Living Single and other things as well. There was a lot of talent that came out of this. Who do you think, and this is, I'm putting you on the spot here.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: Who is the biggest alumnus of In Living Color?
Christina: Rosie Perez!
Miguel: I forgot Rosie Perez, who was the choreographer of the Fly Girls.
Christina: She's pretty big. But you know what, I'm going to go with Jim slash James Carrey just because of the, uh, "crossover appeal."
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Like I was saying, it's not like this was some niche little show, but I think the more general public knows Jim Carrey more than they would know, or maybe even Jennifer Lopez, that than they would know…
Miguel: That's what I was gonna say, J-Lo.
Christina: Yeah, I think it's a toss up between her and Jim Carrey.
Miguel: Because J-Lo hit 'em with the music and the movies.
Christina: Yeah. But— actually, I was gonna say, I feel like more, people know Jim Carrey as coming from In Living Color, but I think there's still a lot of people, like, she was a Fly Girl?
Miguel: Right.
Christina: But I could be wrong.
Miguel: Yeah. I'm going with Jennifer.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: As the, the biggest star from In Living Color.
Christina: 'Cause she's pretty big in music and movies.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Whereas Jim does movies and political commentary art.
Miguel: Yes. And Jamie Foxx as a close third.
Christina: Yeah, he's pretty close.
Miguel: And it's not like the rest of them are nobodies. They've been successful in their own right as well.
Christina: Yes. So, since all of these people have gone off to do other things, of course that meant more movies.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Um, I guess stemming from The Homeboy Network, even though the plot isn't the same at all. But then there was the Mo' Money movie.
Miguel: Yes, Damon and Marlon.
Christina: Yes. And also another thing I tend to say all the time, "Keith Haring told me that joke!"
Miguel: Yes. I probably haven't seen that movie since 1992 and I love to say that.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: "Ha!"
Christina: "Ha! Ha! Ha! Keith Haring told me that joke!" There was, A Low Down Dirty Shame, Above The Rim and—
Miguel: One of my favorite movies,
Christina: Uh Huh.
Miguel: Blankman.
Christina: Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
Miguel: You got Blankman, and "you plotting on me ass eyes?" from Major Payne. And of course, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.
Christina: Yes. White Chicks, which I have never watched.
Miguel: Really?
Christina: Really.
Miguel: That's funny.
Christina: I know the movie because people always talk about it, and I know bits of the movie I think like, if you don't watch a movie at, you know, a certain time, then you just don't get to it.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Until you consciously make an effort to watch it later, but like, if I didn't watch it within six months of it coming out or whatever, it just kind of passes you by, and that was one of those movies, even though people talk about it all the time. I think especially Marlon Wayans, like, that seems to be what he's known for. Like, every time I see an article about him or something, it's always like, White Chicks.
Miguel: Why do they go for White Chicks though?
Christina: I don't know.
Miguel: That's random. Not even the Scary Movie stuff?
Christina: I feel like I see him associated with that most often.
Miguel: Huh. Interesting.
Christina: But I don't have any, you know, statistical counts. It just, I feel like that's always what he's associated with.
Miguel: I liked My Wife and Kids when it was on.
Christina: I didn't really watch that. Like, I think I've probably seen a couple episodes, but, when did it come out? Was it like early 2000s?
Miguel: Yeah, it was like, early to mid 2000s.
Christina: I wasn't watching a lot of cable TV because I didn't have cable.
Miguel: Well, it wasn't on cable. Well, probably here it was.
Christina: I don't know.
Miguel: It was on UPN I believe.
Christina: Did we have UPN? I can't remember. Anyways, pretty much TV got spotty for me around the university years.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: Well, he wasn't one of the main characters, but he was a memorable character. But Jamie Foxx in Horrible Bosses.
Miguel: Yes. Motherfucker Jones.
Christina: Yes, Dean Motherfucker Jones, who, they thought he was a hitman, right?
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: Yes. They were trying to hire him as a hitman and he—
Miguel: When all he was, was a Black dude in a bar.
Christina: Yep. Didn't he have like a head tattoo or something like that?
Miguel: He did. He had a tattoo on his head and wore a leather jacket, and they just assumed that he was a criminal.
Christina: Like, he's a mean looking motherfucker. He must be a criminal.
Miguel: Yeah. And of course he saw what they were up to and was like, let me scam these white dudes.
Christina: Yep.
Miguel: And that's basically what he did in two different movies.
Christina: When I was looking at the IMDb for The Wayans Bros., you know how it shows you the years that it's been running?
Miguel: Right.
Christina: So, it was like, whatever the start year was to 2023. And I'm like, what? So, I looked at it and it says that there's an episode called "Long Vacation."
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: The last episode, which is supposed to air on July 30th, 2023. And I'm like,
Miguel: Ok then. That's interesting.
Christina: But I, yeah, so I tried to do some kind of search for it, like Wayans Brothers 2023, new episode, something. I can't find anything about it except for this IMDb page that says it's called "Long Vacation.[16]"
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: So, I don't know. Keep an eye out for that, in a month?
Miguel: I guess. All right.
Christina: July 30th, 2023, according to IMDb.
Miguel: All right, so, we are a month away from a new episode of The Wayans Bros.
Christina: But they have it tacked on as the last episode of the last season. So, I don't know.
Miguel: I don't know either.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: So, like I said, one month away.
Christina: Yeah. So we'll, we'll see. We'll report back on July 30th.
Miguel: Oh man. For people who haven't watched In Living Color or any of the movies or TV shows from people who were on In Living Color, since they've left the show, is there anything that you would recommend?
Christina: You know what? I feel like watching The Truman Show would be interesting—because we watched it, I wouldn't say recently, maybe like a year or two ago?
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: But watching The Truman Show in the now, is really different than watching it in 1998 because like, reality TV and influencers and YouTube families is such a normal thing now.
Miguel: Right.
Christina: That I think watching that show now feels really different. I mean, that movie now feels really different. So, I guess I would recommend that. Watching it from a 2020 something lens.
Miguel: For me, I'm gonna choose the one that started it all, like, you gotta go all the way back to 1987. If you haven't seen this Hollywood Shuffle.
Christina: Yes, definitely.
Miguel: Hollywood Shuffle is a definite must watch. And also, after the success of Hollywood Shuffle, Robert Townsend used to do these specials on HBO like, once a year, called Robert Townsend's Partners in Crime, and they are hilarious. If you can find Partners in Crime, I'm sure there's a couple videos on YouTube. Check those out because they are definitely worth the watch. A lot of the skits and sketches that they do in that kind of made its way into, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and on, what are we talking about? In Living Color as well. Had a brain fart there for a second. But there's—
Christina: "He needs some milk![17]"
Miguel: Yeah, I need some milk. But there's a lot of stuff from that era that kind of trickled down to other things and it was hilarious. It, it was basically a variety show, kind of like In Living Color, but on HBO. So, those are really good as well. And Major Payne, because Damon is ridiculous in this movie, and I love it.
Christina: Yes, you—well, both of us are always talking about "you looking at me ass eyes." What are "ass eyes"?
Miguel: I don't know. It just sounds good. It just sounds good.
Christina: Yeah. Basically a lot of like the older. Like, the 90s-ish movies with any of the Wayans is if you really like, silly dumb—
Miguel: Over the top comedy.
Christina: Over the top.
Miguel: That's what you want
Christina: 'Cause I would like to rewatch Mo' Money. It's been a while.
Miguel: Yeah. I don't remember the last time I seen it so we can check it out.
Christina: If we can find it. I don't know if it's playing—
Miguel: I don't know.
Christina: On any of our services.
Miguel: Maybe the streets have tried to scrub Stacey Dash from the internet.
Christina: This was when Stacey Dash was still one of the cousins.
Miguel: Yes.
Christina: But now she's…somewhere else.
Miguel: She's just weird now.
Christina: Back when you were still crushing on her and following her around the mall.
Miguel: I was not following her around the mall. We just happened to end up in the same store at the same time.
Christina: Okay.
Miguel: That's all. And we just happened to end up in the same parts of the store at the same time.
Christina: All right.
Miguel: Okay. Is there anything else you would like to add about In Living Color and our quick weekend rewatch of some of the episodes?
Christina: Um, it doesn't seem to be available anywhere for streaming and I don't think that's just in Canada. But we did find some lovely people on YouTube who uploaded pretty much all of the episodes.
Miguel: So, we'll link to that on the website.
Christina: Yes. So, I would, recommend just watching them because I'm gonna go through the rest of it.
Miguel: Yeah, me too.
Christina: Because like I said, it's still funny.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: And you know what? I do have something to add.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: You know how we were talking about how like the early '90s there was this wave of just like, Black music, Black TV, Black movies that were able to like, get a push that wasn't available before, right?
Miguel: Right.
Christina: But these things kind of like, the pendulum swings back and forth. You get like, this influx and then it kind of, it's quiet for a while. And then it, you get an influx again. It's quiet for a while. I think that we're in that influx again right now.
Miguel: Okay.
Christina: That while a lot of these sketches are a little dated, a lot of it works for now, again.
Miguel: Yeah. A lot of the -isms are still around that they were discussing in 1990, are still happening today.
Christina: Yeah, so, it's not all bad. Like, some of it is like, no, this, this can still fly today.
Miguel: A Black man trying to use a credit card in a store and being profiled is still happening in 2023.
Christina: Yeah, so it's definitely still relevant and the stuff that might be a little off color is still funny.
Miguel: Yeah.
Christina: Just, you know, maybe be careful where you watch it and who you watch it with.
Miguel: Exactly. We're all of the same age group, so you know what you're getting into.
Christina: Yeah.
Miguel: Most of us are. If you're going in blind, ask a friend if you don't trust us.
Christina: Yes.
Miguel: That's what I'm gonna say.
Christina: Mm-hmm.
Miguel: All right. I have nothing else I wanted to add, so we can wrap this up here. Thank you again for listening to They Reminisce Over You. Make sure to follow us on social media at @troypodcast, on the bird, on the 'gram and your mama's Facebook. We are on Facebook now, so make sure to follow us everywhere.
Also, check out troypodcast.com. That's where we'll be posting links to the stuff we talked about in this episode. We're gonna put together playlists from this episode so you can listen to the music that was out at the time and get your groove on with Heavy D and Queen Latifah and people like that. Also, troypodcast.com/newsletter. We do a monthly newsletter. Sign up for that. There's tons of goodness in there.
Christina: You should.
Miguel: If you had signed up for the newsletter, then you would already know that this episode was coming out.
Christina: If you've already signed up, then you need to forward it to a friend.
Miguel: Yes. Tell a friend to tell a friend about troypodcast.com/newsletter.
Christina: Miguel works really hard on them, so…
Miguel: I do. And I want people to read it.
Christina: Yeah, and it's good. And I'm not just saying that because it's you. I actually like it.
Miguel: Thank you.
Christina: I would tell you if it wasn't good.
Miguel: Also, if you wanna buy some merch, go to teethang.com. Nuthin' but a Tee Thang is our store. That's T E E T H A N G .com. We got t-shirts, we got hats, we got socks, we got backpacks, we got mugs, we got cups, we got everything. You can even buy a puppy there if you wanted to. Okay. Maybe not a puppy.
Christina: No you can't.
Miguel: But you can buy all that other stuff that I talked about at teethang.com. We will link to that in the show notes as well as on the website. And that's all I got. So, I'm getting hot.
Christina: Me too.
Miguel: And we need to turn this AC back on. So…
Christina: All right.
Miguel: We'll talk to y'all in two weeks.
Christina: "Homey don't play that!"
Miguel: "Homey don't play that!" All right, Anton Jackson, I'll talk to you later.
Christina: Bye.
Miguel: Bye.