The Rise and Fall of Black TV (feat. Erika Alexander)

The Nod

Gimlet

Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Arts

4.8 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2019

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Erika Alexander, who found fame as Maxine Shaw on the classic sitcom Living Single, details what it was really like to rise to fame with the Cosby Show in the 80s, ride the crest of the Golden Era of Black TV in the 90s, and navigate Hollywood as a Black actress after that Black entertainment boom went bust in the 2000s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	From Gimli Media, this is The Nod.
0:06.0	A podcast by Black Culture brought to you by Blackness's biggest fans.
0:10.0	I'm Eric Getting.
0:15.0	The past few years have felt like a renaissance for Black TV.
0:19.0	There's Blackish, Insecure, The Shy, Queen Sugar, Atlanta, Black Lightning,
0:24.0	and many, many more.
0:26.0	They're all just sprinkled out across network cable and streaming channels.
0:30.0	It's really, really exciting, even though I still feel like it's not nearly enough.
0:36.0	I feel this way because I remember a hallowed, glorious time when TV was Black as Hell.
0:45.0	In 1997, there were 15 Black TV comedies spread out over primetime network TV alone.
0:55.0	That's just comedy.
0:57.0	It was heaven.
0:58.0	On any given night, my family sat down to watch Martin.
1:04.0	Family Matters.
1:08.0	Sister, sister.
1:10.0	Boisha.
1:12.0	Hangin' with Mr. Cooper.
1:15.0	Smart guy, Malcolm and Eddie, living single.
1:18.0	I'm just going to stop because it was seriously take too long to listen them all.
1:23.0	This boom kicked off with the Cosby Show in 1984.
1:34.0	But by the early 2000s, Black TV had nearly been erased from our TV screens.
1:40.0	And the disappearance of those shows also meant the disappearance of the actors who starred in them.
	...

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