Publisher Description

Following the overwhelming 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 in the war against video cassettes and cable T.V. Not only were African-American viewers watching disproportionately more network television than the general population but, as Nielsen finally realized, they preferred black shows. As a result, African-Americanproducers, writers, directors, and stars were given an unusual degree of creative control over shows such as "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," "Roc," "Living Single," and "New York Undercover". Whatemerged were radical representations of African-American memory and experience. Offering a fascinating examination of the explosion of black television 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 in this period, Kristal BrentZook 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, andstars 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 well 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 to African-American protestliterature and autobiography, and a desire for social transformation.

Author Biography

Freelance writer and independent scholar.

Review

Zook's analysis is both judicious and fascinating. A journalist by profession, Zook integrates a decade's worth of behind-the-scenes reporting and interviews into a cogent and fluid writing style ... Zook arrays a wealth of material and admirably struggles with the polysemy of black television. * Dale A Bertelsen, Critical Studies in Mass Communication 16 (1999) *

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A fascinating look at the explosion of black television programming in the 1980s and 1990s

Kirkus US Review

Zook, a television and film columnist with the hip-hop magazine The Source, details how in American television, ethnicity, gender, and race are marketable commodities just like beer and apple pie. Take the Fox Network. Seizing on the popularity of NBC's The Cosby Show, Fox, then a fledgling network launched in 1986, targeted a black viewership - "the Nike and Doritos audience," as someone in Zook's book put it. It flooded the airwaves with shows like Martin, Living Single, New York Undercover, Roc, and many more. And through those programs it reaped a bonanza. But then it decided to go mainstream, and these shows with largely black audiences, some of which were becoming "issue-oriented," had to go. Besides, baseball and football not only guaranteed a larger audience but provided a better mix, according to Zook. Fox was not alone. Others tried to "outfox Fox." Warner Bros.(WB) and United Paramount (UPN) have launched their networks using the Fox formula, the author says. This is by and large a splendid effort, and one hates to quibble. But there are at least two places where weaknesses show. Zook's book began as a doctoral dissertation and thus with some high-minded notions of what so-called black television was trying to do. Suffice it to say that Zook is on far more solid ground when she sticks to straight reporting as opposed to when she tries to apply literary theories to workaday situations in television. Also, Zook seems to have had unusually good access to virtually all the stars and top production personnel for all of the shows. Most of the staffers are black, and those who are not and are quoted are inclined to agree with Zook's basic thesis. Zook could, for example, have reached out to Fox owner Rupert Murdoch. At worst he would have said "no comment." Sometimes no comment is worth a thousand words. (Kirkus Reviews)

Long Description

Following the overwhelming 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 in the war against video cassettes and cable T.V. Not only were African-American viewers watching disproportionately more network television than the general population but, as Nielsen finally 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," "Roc," "Living Single," and "New York Undercover". What emerged were radical representations of African-American memory and experience.
Offering a fascinating examination of the explosion of black television 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 in this period, 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 well 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 to African-American protest literature and autobiography, and a desire for social transformation.

Review Quote

Zook's analysis is both judicious and fascinating. A journalist by profession, Zook integrates a decade's worth of behind-the-scenes reporting and interviews into a cogent and fluid writing style ... Zook arrays a wealth of material and admirably struggles with the polysemy of black television.

Details