Best Black Sitcoms of all Time

Kenan and Kel.

The Cosby show and Martin.

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Martin.

Sister Sister, Moesha, Girlfriends.

In living color. I know it wasn't completely a black sitcom. But it was created by kenan wayne's from the famous wayne's family. It also gave Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Lopez, Rosie Perez, and Jim Carrey their big breaks in Hollywood. And the show was very urban based. Kinda like an urban Saturday night live for black,latino, and liberal whites in America.

The Jeffersons. It was the first show to feature a successful black family.

Why do we have to have a list of "black" sitcoms? I agree that The Jeffersons first few seasons hold up really well, black or white.

I did like Different World seaons 2 to 4 (it was ok seasons 1 and 5 and the last season was painful.)

I liked the Jeffersons as they were on All in the Family and in the early seasons of their show, but went on too long.

Good Times before it became the JJ Show (which was pretty early in the run).

I did not care for it, but Stanford and Son deserves a mention.

Cosby Show - I only liked for the first season then it was just Cosby mugging, but it was the top sitcom for years.

fresh Prince of bel air. It launched will smiths acting career which he still has till this day.

[quote]fresh Prince of bel air. It launched will smiths acting career which he still has till this day.

It was actually pretty funny at times and had some great supporting characters.

r5, In Living Color was not a sitcom, but a variety show.

Family matters was another successful black sitcom. I watched it as a kid.

r10, Fresh Prince was hilarious. Will Smith was comedic gold, as well as Uncle Phil and Carlton. The whole dam cast actually.

R11 I know that, I was looking at the overall view of it.

Another vote for Sanford and Son. It was underrated, just not for everyone.

The Bernie Mac Show. Especially the earlier seasons. I miss him so much.

I liked Living Single. I thought it was better than Friends and I'm white.

Amos 'N Andy.

Living Single is one of my favorite shows centered on single women. I would watch it over Sex and the City any day. It’s funnier.

The Bernie Mac Show. R16s post appeared just as I was composing my post.

r19 = Kim Cattrall

Also feel free to post gossip and juicy info that you might know about what went on these sets.

R22 Kim Coles said a few years ago that Livin Single was canceled out of nowhere by the new Execs and President of FOX cause they didn’t feel a series about single black women and their relationships “fit the network” any longer and what they wanted to do with it.

The show wasn’t canceled for ratings. The ratings were consistent.

R23 - that makes sense. I remember being surprised when it was cancelled.

Sanford and Son was one of the best. Some people claim it was Stepin Fetchit, but the characters weren't dummies, so I don't see it. And it's based on a British series where the characters were white anyway. Red Foxx was too much of a comedy legend to be denied. And Aunt Ester of course. I'm surprised Lamont's career completely evaporated after it ended.

227, Marys.

Demond Wilson became an ordained minister.

I love Jackee (Jacquee?), R26.

I thought Amen was hysterical.

The old guy on Amen was hilarious.

R28 If you are on Twitter, you should follow her. She is funny and she spills.

Growing up in the 70s, the whole family watched Sanford and Son and The Jeffersons. We watched Good Times for awhile, but it was a lot more uneven. Eventually I hated it when it become the Jimmy Walker clown show. Esther Rolle and John Amos hated his guts for ruining what they'd hope would be a quality sitcom. So I only watched that one on and off. Then I loved What's Happening, but that was the last black-centric sitcom I remember following.

I loved Sanford & Son and The Jeffersons, but I'm not sure if they rise to the level of the best "black" sitcoms of all time. I liked the "Cosby Show" because that actually seemed more in line with my family. We weren't in the ghetto and we weren't struggling.

I never missed The Jeffersons. Zara Cully was absolute gold!

OH PULEEEZE.

The best:

Loved the Jeffersons in its early years. Kind of went downhill when they brought on the Willis' son , and had Weezy working at that unfunny Help Center.

Absolutely hated Sanford and Son.

It's the Help Centah!

Everybody Hates Chris is hysterical.

Roc

Living Single

Martin

Good Times with John Amos.

Blackish

r39, oh yes Roc, another underrated gem.

The Jeffersons owns this thread.

followed by Good Times, 227, Amen, Wht's Happening, and Living Single.

Beaulah

R23 That is fucked up. Sounds like some asshole wanted to put a bunch of successful black actors out of work.

I really liked Family matters, I have no taste

FatAlbert

For anyone interested, The Bernie Mac show is on Hulu. I just started re-watching it, and it's even funnier than I remember. You couldn't get away with it now, at least not the first season.

Black sitcoms remind me-- I miss seeing black love on tv. Yeah, we have blackish but thats about it. Every mainstream show has the black actors partnered with some nonblack person, especially if said characters are gay. And theres nothing wrong with that. But I miss all the black sitcoms showing us dating and loving each other.

The best TV Theme songs of all time are:

#1 tie between jeffersons/good times

#2 227

3. Maude (not a black show but the theme song was Pure Gospel!)

I'm guessing that most of you have never seen Chris Rock's Everyone Hates Chris because it's 10,000 x better that the shit you're listing.

Girlfriends, because of this scene

Here it is:

I would say The Jeffersons (love the Mother Jefferson compilation upthread) and What's Happening (Dee is hilarious). What's Happening had low production values, but it was hilarious to me.

Saw what you will about the date rape but Bill Cosby knew how to make a good sitcom.

Mother Jefferson was really the star of the show. She was truly missed when she died and it's terrible they didn't have a tribute show or acknowledge her death, save for a passing line later on.

Cosby Show was like a lot of 80s sitcoms, only good for a few seasons. By the end it was horrible.

The Jeffersons started out very good, quite caustic and wickedly funny. But near the end it had morphed into a conventional stereotypical black sitcom that relied too much on slapstick, pratfalls and George and Florence trading tiresome barbs at each other.

I have always thought that Damon Wayans is hilarious in most everything and I don't find a lot of black humor to my liking .

I did like 227

I always like My Wife and Kids until it’s final season or 2.

Martin still remains the gold standard of black sitcoms. So many colorful characters and it remained consistently funny until the last season.

Another vote for "Black-ish" with an honorable mention for "Everybody Hates Chris."

Martin was top notch comedy at the time.

So funny. I loved Pam.

Part 2 has Pam in it. One of the few times her and Martin get along. This stuff makes me cry laughing.

The Jeffersons

Bernie Mack

Blackish

227

Girlfriends! Man, I loved that show.

The Cosby Show but does Blackish count as a sitcom?

The PJs

The Parkers

Jimmy "DY NO MITE " Walker is a complete ASS A HOLE .He stayed at a Hotel, I worked at.They told us if we asked him to say the "D" word, he would report you to Corporate. Was rude, loud and demanding. Instead of Fucking Anne Coulter, could have been a good Match for Lisa Whelchel.

I miss “Girlfriends” soo much!!! The chemistry between the the original 4 was soo good! Every season the storylines and the fashions got better and right at it’s peek Jill Marie Jones left the show! The friendship circle wasn’t the same after bougie Toni!

Julia

Sanford and Son

R23 not true, Living Single, which I loved and which shit all over that crap called Friends, ranked a MISERABLE #117 in the ratings in it's final season with only about half the viewers if it's peak first season, which ranked #53 in the ratings

R71 Kim Coles says otherwise. Just saying what she said.

R72 GOOGLE the ratings for Living Single

Heather Locklear said the same thing when FOX cancelled Melrose Place in 1999, but the new head if programming at FOX said that's it's RIDICULOUS that a network would cancel any show that's still making significant money and profit for them since that's the whole point of business, Melrose Place was cancelled because it's ratings fell to an all time low for the last year and it was no longer making money for the network.

The Jeffersons, The Cosby Show, 227

Best theme song.