In Living Color – Season One (Boxed Set)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B- Episodes: B
The
original In Living Color was the
mastermind of Keenan Ivory Wayans, and its initial seasons were some of the
most daring and groundbreaking sketch comedy since the original years of Saturday Night Live. Besides being the big break for the Wayans,
Jim Carrey, David Alan Grier, Kim Coles, Tommy Davidson, and the rest of its
exceptional cast, it dared to go farther than Eddie Murphy ever did when it
came to the subject of urban life. It
also dared to deal with African American and even Gay culture in a way that was
unheard of previously.
The first
season is contained on three DVDs, episodes of which originally ran from April
through September 1990. Highlight skits
included the introductions of The Fly Girls (the resident Hip Hop dancers
choreographed by Academy Award nominated dancer/actress Rosie Perez) that
became a signature of the show, The Homeboy Shopping Network, the “Men On”
skits, Kim Wayans’ Oprah spoof, Ted Turner’s Very Colorized Classics, Mo Money,
Homey The Clown, Vera Demilo – Bodybuilder, Benita the Gossiper, and The
Brothers Brothers (a send-up of, but equally subversive version of the also
controversial Smothers Brothers)
about some very oblivious black folk singers who are rather conservative.
Great
one-shot skits include Oppression (a send-up of the racism in a series of
Calvin Klein cologne ads), the Do-It-Yourself Milli Vanilli Kit, The Wrath of
Farrakhan, Ridin’ Miss Daisy, Jheri’s Kids with Jim Carrey doing an early
dead-on Jerry Lewis impersonation, Tommy Davidson’s M.C. Hammer Music Video
send-up, Kim Wayans’ hilarious Making Of A Tracey Chapman Song skit, Michael
Jackson Mr. Potato Head, and a terrific I
Love Lucy send-up called I Love Laquita.
And remember, this way just the first season.
The full
frame, color footage is in great shape, as clean and clear as it is going to
get for professional analog NTSC videotape of the time. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is good for its
age, but offers no surrounds of any kind.
Combined, the show has never looked so good. Extras include featurettes on the First
Season, The Fly Girls (which is much shorter), and commentary tracks by Tommy
Davidson in Episodes Seven and Thirteen.
These are all good and welcome, but a 2001 panel discussion planned for
this set seems to be missing. What is also
noticeably missing involves any new materials in the supplements by the Wayans
themselves, despite the fact that Damon is making a Homey The Clown feature film.
Their exodus during the waning final episodes, when Fox had a tragic
falling out with Keenan over his creative control of the show that made it
possible in the first place, still lingers.
Fortunately,
the most important thing that lingers is the show and its innovations. Though Saturday
Night Live and Mad-TV outlasted
it, those shows have not held up as well, and In Living Color could have still been on the air if not for that
fall out. However, it is one of TV’s
classics and one of the few great TV series of the 1990s, and that’s not bad at
all.
- Nicholas Sheffo
