I Miss the Television I Grew Up with.

Well we already know that I grew listening to mad music. I also grew up watching mad TV. I could literally find something to watch from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep. Of course I was into my classic Nickelodeon cartoons like “Doug”, “Rugrats”, and “Hey Arnold!” I was also a fan of a lot of different shows, and most of my favorites had characters that looked like me. They were portrayed in a positive light and were entertaining at the same time. Now that I’m thirty nothing has changed I still love to watch my TV but the shows are very different. Now the characters that look like me are portraying a very different image. I credit some of the old shows I use to watch to the goals I have today. Those shows made me want to follow my dreams and do everything big. The shows I see now makes me want to go marry a baller and go to brunch with chicks I don’t even like just to get a drink thrown at me. What some folks don’t understand is that this Box we stare at for hours at a time becomes a mirror. It reflects us and we tend to imitate what we see. Let’s take a look at some of the shows I grew up with and how they shaped the adult that I am today.

1.Cosby Show

-I don’t care what you say about this man but this show is still one of the dopest of all time and Bill Cosby was America’s favorite dad. The show aired from 1984 – 1992. It was set around the Huxtable family living in Brooklyn New York. The family had five kids, four girls and one boy. This was a two parent household with the father being a doctor and the mother a lawyer. The kids had regular kid problems and by the end of the episode we learned a valuable lesson. It was just refreshing to see be able to look on the television and see people like me represented so well.

2.A Different World

-This show is definitely one of my favorites. I don’t care what time it is I will find this show and watch every episode as if I never seen them before. I couldn’t wait to go to college and experience all that Hillman had to offer. I just knew that I would take a class taught by Dwayne, and my bestie would be Lena. This show really could be an article of its own jst talking about the impact this show had. The topics were relatable and the characters were unforgettable. I feel like we are all friends and I won’t lie to guys. I went to college because of A Different World and I did not go to a HBCU because of A Different World. Listen, I wanted to go to Hillman so bad and when I grew up and found out that it was a fake college it just hurt my little soul. I went to a regular four-year institution of higher learner to get my communication degree instead. I was so serious it was Hillman or nothing.

-Aside from the strong characters this show ha plethora of black superstars from Diane Carol to Lena Horne. Once again here is a show where people that look like me were politicians, medical students, engineers, and everything else you could imagine. Ratchets were not invented yet and here was a sense of pride in our culture. The characters came from different backgrounds and stories we could all relate to. They tackled major issues such as police brutality and racial profiling. How about this, in 2016 we had the homie Jesse Williams screaming at us about enslaving ourselves to the brands on our bodies and telling us that we need to wake up. Back in the 90s we A Different World had Shazza Zulu telling us that we needed to pay attention to what’s going on in Haiti and that we could not turn a blind eye to the struggles in Africa. Coincidence? I think not. This show was literally “For us by us” shot by black folk, written by black folk, and produced by black folk. It’s hard to come by that even today. This show was a trend setter.

-I loved this show so much that it has always been a dream of mine to bring it back. Weather it was a spin off or an extension of these characters, I feel like it’s time for this to come back. There is defiantly a place for a show like this again. Since I have this platform I would like help from you guys. If anyone knows somebody that know somebody who cousins half-sister’s auntie goes to the same beauty salon as Debbie Allen please tell her That I need to talk to her about this.

3.Living Single

-This show was literally the black version of friends and I loved it. You had Kadejah who was the editor of her own Magazine. Sinclair the goofy one, and Overton the sweet handy man. There was Regine the saditty one, and Max the high power attorney. We cant forget about Kyle the dude on Wall Street I think. I never really knew what he did exactly it just looked important. Yet again there were African Americans making us proud on TV and I loved every minute of it. The guys on the show were sometimes looked at as a “ladies man” however they were never degrading or disrespectful. The women did their thing but never sold themselves short. They were strong but yet feminine and not overly sexual.

4.Martin

-This was a great comedy and ahead of its time. In the beginning Martin use to start the show off with a funny story or a funny character situation. Everybody wanted to have a relationship like him and Gina. They were each other’s best friend and an in the show martin wasn’t constantly dogging her out while she just put up with it. It had a great supporting cast and when he would play his other characters it was just as funny. We spent every week wondering if they would tell us where Tommy worked or if we would see what Big Shirley really looked like. A few of my favorite episodes were when Gina killed his mama’s bird and she went crazy. Then during the credits, they played “Its so hard to say good bye to yesterday”. The episode where Kid from Kid n Play was a guest star and Sheneneh won a date with him. I crack up every time I hear the actual song and I would sing “forever Sheneneh!” Speaking of Jodeci remember when Martin crashed a Jodeci performance? That was classic. How about the episode where he got beat up by Tommy Hitman Hearns knocked him out and he had that big head? The one that gets me every time is the romantic weekend getaway. They were all at some cabin and they kept fighting some creature and they kept yelling “that ain’t no damn pupy!” I’m sure there are more but I think you guys get the point.

5.The Fresh Prince

-This show was a little on the corny side but it had an upper class black family in Beverly hills. This was another family show with a 2 parent household. It showed how it “took a village”. When Will was getting in trouble back in Philly he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle for a better chance at life. It even gave us a glimpse of how important it is to have a male father figure growing up. Remember that episode when Will’s father stood him up and he started crying? It brought a tear to everybody’s eye.

I could go on and on about how great television was back when I was growing up. There are plenty of other shows that I could talk about but I just don’t have the time right now. Even BET was good back then it had actual music videos and Teen Summit. It was nothing for me to turn on the TV and be inspired and empowered by other black folks. Like I said in the beginning it’s like a mirror, society looks at the media and tries to emulate what they see. The media looks at society and put out what it thinks they want to see. Today it’s all about reality Television with a group of women with daddy issues and self-esteem problems. I use to turn on the TV and think that anything was possible. Now I turn on the TV and pray that I don’t end up with a dude that wears my grandmother’s pearls and trying to give my mom a waist trainer. I hope that I don’t get so wrapped up in my amazing wardrobe and job to see that the president will never be completely mine. Shonda is still a dope writer and I actually do like Scandal. I better not marry an athlete, divorce him then be on a show meeting random chicks for brunch every week.

Yes, Television has changed however there are a few shows that will still get my attention. Queen sugar is pretty good; I am still catching up but I like it so far. Blackish is my new favorite, I have been a fan of Tracee Ellis Ross since “Girlfriends.” The Awkward Black Girl herself Issa Rae has a new show on HBO called “Insecure” definitely will be trying to check it out. I personally do not have HBO so I will make friends with someone that does. Donald Glover’s show “Atlanta” is a hit. He really out did himself with this one. So basically just when I thought African Americans in the media were taking a nose dive There are shoes like the ones I just mentioned keeping hope alive. Also folks don’t that just because I was raised by TV and Hip-Hop that your kids will turn out to be intelligent and clever like I did. I am an 80s baby we were built different. Yall kids film each other on Youtube setting themselves on fire. They need more supervision.