Color by Fox: The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television (The W.E.B. Du Bois Institute)

By Kristal Brent Zook

Book Overview

Following the success of "The Cosby Show" in the 1980s, an unprecedented shift took place in television history: white executives turned to black dollars as a way of salvaging network profits lost to video cassettes and cable T.V. Not only were African-American viewers watching disproportionately more network television than the general population but, as Nielsen realized, they preferred black shows. As a result, African-American producers, writers, directors, and stars were given an unusual degree of creative control over shows such as "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air", "Roe", and "Living Single". What emerged were radical representations of African-American memory and experience.

Offering a fascinating examination of the explosion of black programming in the 1980s and 1990s, this book provides, for the first time ever, an interpretation of black TV based in both journalism and critical theory. Locating a persistent black nationalist desire -- a yearning for home and community -- in the shows produced by and for African-Americans, Kristal Brent Zook shows how the Fox hip-hop sitcom both reinforced and rebelled against earlier black sitcoms from the sixties and seventies. Incorporating interviews with such prominent executives, producers, and stars as Keenen Ivory Wayans, Sinbad, Quincy Jones, Robert Townsend, Charles Dutton, Yvette Lee Bowser, and Ralph Farquhar, this study looks at both production and reception among African-American viewers, providing nuanced readings of the shows themselves as wee as the sociopolitical contexts in which they emerged.

While black TV during this period may seem trivial or buffoonish to some, color by Fox reveals its deep-rooted ties toAfrican-American literature and autobiography, and a desire for social transformation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195106121
• ISBN13: 9780195106121
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

A Must for Followers of Black Television

Bravo to Kristal! I have had a tremendous interest in the behind-the-scenes events of Black television. I read tv credits with a microscope (figuratively speaking) and it was a joy to read excerpts of Kristal's interviews with the likes of Ralph Farquhar, Robert Townsend and Yvette Lee Bowser. These are my role models and now Kristal Brent Zook is one as well.We are short on critics with the type of sensibilities Kristal clearly has for the black community, political viewpoints and scholarship.I look forward to more from Dr. Zook. Color by Fox is a great start. Don't miss out on the first publication from someone from which we are sure to hear more.

Race and Media: the Real Deal

This is a seriously important book. Zook makes a strong claim for the appeal of such Black-produced shows like In Living Color, Roc, South Central, The Fresh Prince of Bell Air, Living Single, Martin, and New York Undercover to a largely Black audience. Zook argues and illustrates how these shows were built off a Black autobiographical tradition of Black writers, producers, and actors. As I remember watching the shows, they often dealt with intraracial group issues that though not always easily understood by white viewers were nevertheless both entertaining and culturally important to Black viewers. I'm not sure if there are similiar or better works published that deal with Zook's claims and analysis. Many of the shows listed above delt with complicated issues of race, class, and gender surely not found in mainstream shows. In her analysis, she explores four common traits that reappear in these shows: "these can be summarized as: autobiography, meaning a tendacy toward collective and individual authorship of black experience; improvisation, the practice of inventing and ad-libbing unscripted dialogue or action; aeasthetics, a certain pride in visual signifiers of blackness; and drama, a marked desire for complex characterization and emotionally challenging subject."An entire media literacy course could be built around this book. Probably at no other time or in the near future will we see Black representation as culturally sensistive as it was during the time these shows were cast on Fox. It's important that we use these shows as case studies for the future of Black representation in the media.I would love to dialogue with others who choose to read this book. Write me not at the above address, but at BChavanu@excite.com.