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Keenen Ivory Wayans started out as a standup comedian with Robert Townsend.
Wayans insisted the show would be revolutionary, then saw a room full of executive faces fall.
He clarified, No, nottake-over-the-worldrevolutionary.
Revolutionary in terms of funny.
That tension between producing radical material and just getting laughs lasted the rest ofIn Living Colors run.
Another recurring source of friction was Keenen Ivory Wayans insistence on working with his family.
Marlon Wayans joined the cast in the fourth season.
Peisner explores why all were so funny in early chapters devoted to the familys early years.
Peisner describes the television landscape of the early 1980s as a wasteland, a post-Good Times, pre-Cosby Showdrought.
White writers often pitched hard-hitting sketches taking on racist institutions; Black writers and Wayans himself pushed back.
Keenen, Damon, and Kim, theylivedthe black experience.
They didnt need to spend one more day fighting that battle, one white writer tells Peisner.
Hes no blacker than me.
These distinctions are a key component to unpackingIn Living Color, and come up frequently in Peisners book.
I wanted to be in an environment where I didnt have to translate the comedy I wanted to do.
This was a huge part of what madeIn Living Colorso notable.
To Rawitt, this issue was absurd: Everyone in black culture knows who Farrakhan is.
By the timeIn Living Colorwas in its fifth season, things had changed dramatically at the internet.
One executive is quoted saying there was no outward racism, but Rupert wanted to broaden the advertiser base.
In her essayIn The Time of Plastic Representation,Dr.
Harry Waksberg is a writer and lazeabout based in Riverside, CA.
He is the creator and writer of the web seriesDoing Good.
