The lack of black-people in non black-centered sit coms

nohaynicklibre

Seriously,when was the last time you saw a black guy in How I Met your Mother or Modern Family?

IanExMachina

Well it is because they are scary and white middle class can't relate to black people as they are so incomparably different! /sarcasm

Scrye2

The_Edge

And if they ever do have a black character on the show, they are there to represent the black community. They are never just a character who is of a different skin color.

ANd another thing, how come on the black sit-coms (Cosby, Sister-Sister, Family Matters, Good Times) everything only happens in the living room of the home? I remember one episode of Sister-Sister, where they held a piano recital... IN THE LIVING ROOM!

Scrye2

30Rock has black people.

Also, the Black Crusaders.

Beholderess

Thing is, even if author intends black character not not be representative of black community, and simply be  a character who happened to have a dark skin colour, viewers will assume that the statement is meant about black people in general.

This one suspects that it is one of the main reasons minority characters are rarely featured. If the story has nothing to do with issues of  minorities, it simply happens to have some minority characters, people will make it about minority. And author would be forced to think about implications of any action they assign to their minority character, instead  of, you know, simply assigning whatever they like.

So many would find it easier to not bother at all. And honestly, this one sometimes understands them.

inkblot

It makes sense sometimes.

Do you expect, for instance, that a group of upper-middle class white people from New York City are going to have a lot of black friends?

The_Edge

That's a pretty good point. The authors aren't to blame then, it's the audience. Yeah, American society (at least) still hasn't moved past differences. Better than it used to be though. However, I kind of dislike it when a work will try too hard and have an obvious Planeteer cast.

All Nines

Meh, the only sitcom I've enjoyed was That '70s Show, and that had at least one black guy.

Scrye2

^Yeah, like 7 seasons in.

Y'all need to watch Hogan's Heroes.

The_Edge

Sit-coms of the 70s where kind of painful to watch. Take the "All in the Family" verse. Anytime Archie was around black characters, he put his foot in his mouth cue those characters mocking him by overacting a stereotype. Then, look at the spin-off, Maude. Anytime something black happened, Maude has to overcompensate being the limo-liberal she was. Then, look at Maude's spin-off, Good Times. Anytime someone white comes along, that character overcompensates and then the main characters overact a stereotype. A vicious circle of bad writing indeed.

Noimporta

Scrubs has several black guys... only one of them is a main character, though.

MillerCross

Arrested Develoopment, the greatesst sitcom in all of history had...ummmmm...

Steve?

Scrye2

And Annyeong.

The_Edge

For me though, the ultimate black sit-com has going to be the Fresh Prince of-

Damn it, Will!

Icalasari

^ At least he didn't break into the theme song

The_Edge

Everyone knows it at this point.

Icalasari

^ The full version that usually isn't shown at the start of episodes?

The_Edge

Nope. It's weird when it is though.