Page 72 - Blackness News Today

Family is losing touch with their roots, and he wants them to sort of know their heritage. >> i just want at least one of my kids to end up being black so i could love it. >> whereas "the cosby show" was a much more safe heres us living every day, the "black-ish" family is very unapologetic about their blackness in ways that hadnt been seen like on primetime television before. >> so next saturday, when you turn 13, youre becoming a man too. a black man. because im throwing you an african rites o...

- you cant get sight, you gotta get hip to what you are. - and paul mooney told him, "you come out, you do your thing, you be black, you go for it." without paul mooney, there is no richard pryor. - comedy before that and comedy after that is never the same. - richards appearance in 1975 on "saturday night live" kind of showed what black comedy could be. - you got to get down and say things like, "excuse me." (audience laughing) "would you move out of my way?" and you walk like this, check this ...

To be a consultant on the show. so when we would write out a storyline, wed send that off to dr. poussaint, and that would come back with all his notes on it, and alvin poussaint was the guy that grounded us to make sure that we were always representing this black family in the best light. - in the 1980s, "the cosby show" gave a vision of blackness that was comfortable. - were here to say goodbye to lamont goldfish. - the way that it conveyed blackness specifically was often quite subtle. it was...

Escape, theres also this a grounding reality that this is who you are. and there is inherent value in who you are. and in the place that you come from, regardless of where it is that you go next. >> and i think thats part of the blackness of the play. when i first decided to write the play, i decided this is a play that is made by a black woman and it is for black people. but i do know that some black women artists have poured into this play to keep the blackness very true. and so part of the bl...

Happens around the choice of whether or not the person chooses to have an abortion. >> the night that i saw flex, there was a black woman in the audience who in the middle of a scene, said its the blackness for me. that that was the element of the show that was so resonant for her, that she felt she was a drawn to explain it in the middle of a show. oh, thats the point. the point is that you were in the audience and that you are getting to see some version of your own truth reflected back at you...

George: couple a what? diane: a maid and a butler. you two. marsha: were talking people who are living above their station. george: hold it, diane. we are the jeffersons. diane: you right, louise, he is a great joker. louise: hes not joking diane. marsha: really aside from wardrobe and in the places, they lived, they were still black. because no matter how much money you have, no matter where you live, blackness is its own class. diane: how can you afford to live in a place like this? you aint t...

Without paul mooney, there is no richard pryor. - comedy before that and comedy after that is never the same. - richards appearance in 1975 on "saturday night live" kind of showed what black comedy could be. - you got to get down and say things like, "excuse me." (audience laughing) "would you move out of my way?" and you walk like this, check this walk. (audience laughing) - what people dont know is that richard pryor insisted upon writing a lot of his own material for that show. so he didnt re...

- you got to get down and say things like, "excuse me." (audience laughing) "would you move out of my way?" and you walk like this, check this walk. (audience laughing) - what people dont know is that richard pryor insisted upon writing a lot of his own material for that show. so he didnt rely on the white writers to write his skits. he said, "im gonna do it myself. im gonna bring paul mooney in to come in and help me write this." so they write these amazing sketches that are talking about what ...

Diane: you right, louise, he is a great joker. louise: hes not joking diane. marsha: really aside from wardrobe and in the places, they lived, they were still black. because no matter how much money you have, no matter where you live, blackness is its own class. diane: how can you afford to live in a place like this? you aint tall enough to be no basketball player. [ applause ] >> the day you get your clearchoice dental implants makes every day a confident day... a never-hide-my-smile day... a l...

- it was also a family that was doing very well for themselves, that was upper middle class where family values in the most traditional of senses was a core of the series. - mr. cosby brought in dr. alvin poussaint to be a consultant on the show. so when we would write out a storyline, wed send that off to dr. poussaint, and that would come back with all his notes on it, and alvin poussaint was the guy that grounded us to make sure that we were always representing this black family in the best l...