Fox to revive iconic 'In Living Color' sketch comedy show By Nick Valencia, CNN

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May 11, 2002
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(CNN) -- The landmark sketch comedy series "In Living Color" -- which became famous in the early 1990s thanks to characters like clumsy Fire Marshal Bill and the dour Homey D. Clown -- has been revived nearly two decades after it last aired, the Fox network announced Friday.

An updated version of the program will air as "two half-hour specials in the spring of 2012," the network said in a statement. The exact dates of these shows have not been released.

Keenen Ivory Wayans, the original series' creator and executive producer of the coming edition, will host the new episodes. Except for him, these shows will feature a new cast of "fresh, young talent," according to Fox.

The show was a jumping-off point for several now mainstream performers like Jamie Foxx and Jim Carrey, as well as Jennifer Lopez and "Dancing With the Stars" judge Carrie Ann Inaba -- who both were part of the "Fly Girls," the show's dance troupe. It also was a home base for several members of the Wayans family -- Keenen, Damon, Kim, Marlon and Shawn.

The half-hour show aired between 1990 and 1994, during which time it was widely seen as groundbreaking for having a nearly all-black cast of comedians.

"The iconic series put a hip, edgy spin on popular culture and featured characters and sketches that became part of the American vernacular," the Fox release said.
 
Feb 14, 2006
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Im not sure if it was on the dvd extras or what but im almost positive one of the Wayans guys said a lot of the original characters on the show were ideas they created growing up at home with each other just fuckin around. They grew up in a household where bringing laughter and tryin to be the funniest in the house was a big deal. Must have been a hell of a vibe in that place.
Theres somethin about the original show that cant be re-created. They can stamp the name on the new one but thats as far as itll get imo.

What is this shit theyre re-creating TV shows now? Fuckin movies werent enough?

Man I remember turning on my tv at 10pm on school nights and putting the volume on real low to watch that shit when i was supposed to be sleeping. I own the first 4 seasons on dvd i guess ill pop em in.
 
Apr 25, 2002
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What's going to happen is Fox will show the first episode and then you'll turn it on at the same time next week and it won't be on. You'll think, "I guess it was cancelled." Then, a couple of weeks later, they'll start promoting the hell out of the new episode, with commercials and the little advertisements at the bottom of other shows, but it will be on at a different time on a different day.

It seems like Fox does that with a lot of their shows, in particular Family Guy. They show a new episode and then you don't get a new episode until 3 weeks later. It annoys the shit out of me. How do you expect a show to succeed if it's not on consistently at the same time on the same day?
 
Mar 18, 2003
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Im not sure if it was on the dvd extras or what but im almost positive one of the Wayans guys said a lot of the original characters on the show were ideas they created growing up at home with each other just fuckin around. They grew up in a household where bringing laughter and tryin to be the funniest in the house was a big deal. Must have been a hell of a vibe in that place.
Theres somethin about the original show that cant be re-created. They can stamp the name on the new one but thats as far as itll get imo.
This right here. I've never in my life seen so much chemistry on a television show (maybe Saturday Night Live in the OLD days). These guys weren't under any pressure - they were just having fun recording a series, and it showed. Once things DID get politcal, then the Wayans' started leaving and show ultimately crumbled. It's too bad, really.

However, I will give the show a shot if/when it comes out. This was one of my favorite shows of all time. You never know what kind of talent they have lined up, who will help with the show, etc. It's worth a shot IMO.
 
Mar 18, 2003
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I'm willing to bet that Damon Wayan's son will be a cast member.
What I know about his sons situation is that he was actually working on 2 different major network television shows (Happy Endings & New Girl) and when both of them started to take off he was forced to leave one of them because they were on different networks. I watched the pilot for New Girl and saw him in it, then when more episodes were ordered they just casually cast another black guy in his role (thats how/why I know all of this) which I thought was very strange. Point of this cool story is, New Girl was a fox television show, so if this gets picked up by Fox then there would be a conflict of interest as his primary job is with ABC.