FloatingOpera7 Wow. Looking back, this comedy show becomes a time capsule for humor and inside jokes of the early 90's. In Living Color is nothing more than reruns on Comedy Central now, and a reminder of how far its regular comic actors have come. Just look at Jamie Foxx, who is now nominated for Best Actor for Ray. He doesn't do "comedy" anymore as he is now a serious dramatic actor. But in this series, he played various comic personas in different skits. This was like an alternative form of Saturday Night Live, and a successful show on Fox which opened the doors to such other hits as Mad TV, which would only about four to five years later. The Wayans Brothers became household names of comedy, and this show launched their career on film and television. And Jim Carrey first gained attention as Fire Marshall Bill before he was Ace Ventura Pet Detective, or the hero in Truman Show or the character in the more serious "Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind." Jim Carrey stood out as the comic white guy in a primarily black cast. Also, the then unknown Jennifer Lopez was one of the chorus dancers known as the "Fly Girls" who danced in a choreographed early 90's music. The jokes are best seen as funny for its time- the early 90's. For those of us old enough to remember, and yes some of us were kids or growing up in the 90's and recall every thing in the media or TV- we recall such hilarious spoofs of such news events as Lorenna Bobbit, Heidi Flies the Hollywood Madam, the Melendez Brothers who killed their parents for their money, the Rodney King beating and ensuing Riots and many other things. The comedy in this show was pure hilarity thanks to the talents of the Wayans Brothers who morphed into such funny figures as Homey the Clown...."Homey don't play that!" he would say as he beat someone with his balloon. Kim Wayans as a funny, bum lady who gossiped "But you didn't hear that from me." She would say. A very funny and memorable show. I still like it, even if it's campy or old-fashioned now.

raysond "In Living Color",was without a doubt one of the funniest shows of the 1990's,when it came on Sunday nights and stayed there on that time slot for the next five seasons(1990-1995). This was in fact the show that was the opposite of Saturday Night Live,but more hilarious and more funny than ever before. "In Living Color",was one of the top line-up of shows that the FOX Network had on during the Sunday night hiatus,and this was before another hilarious show that came on after it.....the funny and hilarious as hell,"Married:With Children"...and to that extent the onslaught of comedy shows featuring black actors in prominent roles like "Living Single","Martin",and the non-comedical shows of "New York Undercover","21 Jump Street",and "Beverly Hills 90210",and "Melrose Place".Getting back to the series "In Living Color",this show was the one that brought open the Wayans empire,and its rise to the top of the Nielsens and brought the Wayans family from their beginnings as up and coming to one of the most powerful show-business families in Hollywood. With this show really featured the entire Wayans clan...Keenan Ivory-Wayans,Damon Wayans,Shaun Wayans,Marlon Wayans,and sister Kim Wayans and others. Not only was Keenan Ivory-Wayans the host of this series,but he also was behind the scenes as well,serving as the show's creator as well as executive producer and CEO in charge of production,which propelled the FOX network to new heights. Almost everyone that was associated with this show was discovered here and their careers really took off because of this series,including some who went on to become big time actors and producers in Hollywood,including some who went on to become Oscar nominees because of this show. From Jim Carrey,Jamie Foxx,Kim Coles, David Alan Grier,Tommy Davidson,T'Keyah "Crystal" Keymah,Jennifer Lopez, Kelly Coffield,Anne Marie-Johnson,Rosie Perez(who served as the show's choreographer of the dancing group "The Fly Girls"),rapper Heavy D,and others that were behind this successful series from the golden age of the 1990's.The show itself,in my opinion was way ahead of its time as far as the jokes were concerned. I find that even though this show began over a decade ago,actually begin the five-year hiatus journey almost ten years ago,and the show comes closer to celebrating the 10th anniversary of this series. Even with the overall jokes that were presented with a lot of comment about gays,the homeless,golddiggers,and others of minority was in fact very superb in the sense of the word when it came to providing the laughs and the Wayans did just that. In other words,it was just that damn hilarious. No wonder this show is a classic in its own right. However,related to the Fly Girl dancing sequences,they are really spectacular in there day,but it looks so out dated because of the dance moves and the dance craze that was the thing back in the day....The Roger Rabbit and The Running Man,as well as those Day-Glo costumes that were a little too skimpy for TV then,but in all the music they had back then was so demanding,and it was all hip-hop formatted as the dancers sway to the music of such acts as Public Enemy,Digital Underground,Kid N'Play,Salt N'Pepa,Big Daddy Kane,LL Cool J,Boyz II Men, En Vogue,and many more. It also had a lot...and I mean a lot of special musical guests that performed on the show including one episode where they had a special musical guest known as Jay-Z,and no one knew that this rapper would go on to the top of the world after this show and to launch his own empire...Rocafella.This show not only had the Wayans as one of the funniest families out there,but the rest of the cast were as hilarious as they were,and some of them were just as crazy as they come. Especially when it provided the hardest laughs from siblings Damon Wayans and Kim Wayans not to mention from David Alan Grier,Tommy Davidson,and T'Keyah "Crystal" Keymah,and the wackiest of them all.....Jim Carrey! One of most popular characters from that show was Homie The Clown,who is hilarious as hell and played to the hilt of hysteria by Damon Wayans. He played a character that was so realistic that it had me laughing crying in tears! The other character was Fire Marshall Bill and he was not only funny,but he was extremely crazy and wacko,and no other actor like Jim Carrey could pull this off with such ease and for one the character was one crazy "psycho" S.O.B.,and from the previous comment that I wouldn't want him near my house if it caught on fire! The other character was one that had the censors in an uproar along with several organization including the NAACP that tried to boycott this show,but what the hell,the show went on inspite of the threats made...the character featured two male African-Americans who were extremely gay as hell and they were as queer as they can be,and the characters portrayed by Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier not only provided the laughs and some of it was as funny and hilarious to the extent,but it was one episode during "Men On Film" where they did the unthinkable where the two men really were liplocking on the set when the majority of children were watching the show especially during the Sunday night hour,which had the censors really uptight! But in all,seeing these two comment on recent movie releases was indeed funny within itself,and it was a scream! The show itself did a lot of parodied of music videos and did it ever poke fun of it too from the likes of Michael Jackson,Crystal Waters, Vanilla Ice,MC Hammer,Stevie Nicks(portrayed by Kelly Coffield),Teena Marie,Rick James,Tracy Chapman(portrayed by Kim Wayans),James Brown,and others. Let's not forget the others like Jim Carrey's Captain Hazelwood,and the hilarious version of the Lassie,where Lassie is a pit bull is so naive that it was funny as hell.It also ultimately gave a cross section of the politics,the fashion,the trends,and the happenings that occurred in the 1990's in standard comedic form courtesy of Keenan Ivory-Wayans which remain until during the show's fourth season,the changes were about to be made. When the rest of the actors started to leave(in this case,the Wayans clan)the hilarity declined with each departure of the Wayans clan and the show's departure from its Sunday night timeslot to Wednesday nights which hurt the show badly. The jokes and the recurring characters were getting old,but so after that the series ended its five year run in May of 1995. However,the series can still be seen as reruns on FX,but lets face it... they can showed old episodes of Married:With Children during the day,but not In Living Color? Get With It! But because of the dated quality,you can tell that it went straight to DVD where the sheer brilliance of the first season of the series is a joy to watch.

Brian Washington When this show first premiered it was a runaway success. Not only did it have great writing, but as with Laugh In and Saturday Night Live it proved to be the springboard for several comedians who would make their mark in film and television. Damon Wayans and Jim Carey may have been the most brightest star, but comic talents like Tommy Davidson, David Allen Grier as well as later additions Shawn and Marlin Wayans and Jamie Foxx all got their big breaks by appearing on this show. Unfortunately, like its forerunners when the best talent left, the show lost momentum and went downhill. However, this show will always be fondly remembered as the show that launched so many of the great talents of the 1990's as well as the next century.

elliotrupert I was 12 when this show came on Sunday nights (after The Simpsons maybe, I'm not sure), and this show was the talk of junior high school on Monday morning (I even remembered when they had to change their logo after getting sued by black rockers Living Color who had a similar logo). Keenan Ivory Wayans was a comedic genius and he brought his family and friends to bring us an urban version of "Saturday Night Live". Many careers started from this show (i.e., Fly Girl dancers Jennifer Lopez and Rosie Perez, Jamie Foxx, James "Jim" Carrey, Damon Wayans) as well as many catch phrases ("Homey don't play that", "I'll rock your world", "Hated it", "Lemme show you something!!", and the list goes on)."In Living Color" made fun of American culture and while there are too many standout sketches to name, one example is a play off of a sitcom called "A Different World" named "A Different Message" (Kim Wayans sang the theme song: "It's a different message/And we'll shove it down your throat!"). Here, whenever a character said a "black power"-type message, everyone around him/her would applaud. You had to watch "A Different World" to get the jokes.As with all sketch comedies, the laughter didn't last. Actors start leaving (in this case, the Wayans clan) and the hilarity declined with each Wayans' departure. The jokes and the recurring characters were getting old, especially Jamie Foxx's "Wanda" who became more a bathroom break during the course of the show, and the series ended. You used to be able to see reruns on FX, but perhaps due to its dated quality, that stopped also.