In Living Color

*In Living Color*
In Living Color
Created by	Keenen Ivory Wayans
Starring	Keenen Ivory Wayans (1990-1992); Kim Coles (1990) ; Damon Wayans (1990-1992); Kim Wayans (1990-1993); Shawn Wayans (1990-1993); Marlon Wayans (1992-1993); Kelly Coffield (1990-1993); James Carrey; David Alan Grier; T'Keyah Crystal Keymah; Jamie Foxx (1991-1994); Tommy Davidson; Steve Park (1991-1992); Alexandra Wentworth (1992-1994); Jay Leggett (1993-1994); Reggie McFadden (1993-1994); Marc Wilmore (1993-1994); Carol Rosenthal (1993-1994); Chris Rock (1993-1994); Anne Marie Johnson (1993-1994)
Opening theme	Both theme songs performed by; Heavy D & the Boyz
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	127 (counting the 8 "Best of" episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes; (with commercials)
Original release
Network	FOX
Release	April 15, 1990 –; December 29, 1994

In Living Color was an American sketch comedy television series which ran on the FOX Network from April 15, 1990 to August 23, 1994. Executive producer Keenen Ivory Wayans created, wrote, and starred in the program.

Other members of the Wayans family—Damon, Kim, Shawn and Marlon—had regular roles, while oldest brother Dwayne frequently appeared as an extra.

Description and history

The series strove to produce comedy with a strong emphasis on African American subject matter. In Living Color may be best-known as the launching pad for Jim Carrey (the only male white member of the original cast), future Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx (who joined the cast in the third season), and future actress/singer Jennifer Lopez (who was a Fly Girl dancer in the third season). Also a part of the cast was David Alan Grier, an established character actor who had worked in Keenen Ivory Wayans' motion picture I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988).

The pilot episode

For the first episode, an exotic-looking black-and-white logo was used for the opening credits. After the band Living Colour claimed the show stole the logo from them and threatened to sue, the logo was changed to one with rather plain-type letters of three colors. Both versions of the theme song were performed by the hip-hop group Heavy D & the Boyz. The logo and opening sequence was derivative of the Memphis Movement art style.

Live musical performances

In Living Color was known for its live music performances, which started in Season 2 with Queen Latifah as their first performer (appearing again in the third season). Some of the other music acts who performed on the show were Public Enemy, Monie Love and Busta Rhymes (then with Leaders of the New School).

The departure of the Wayans

Keenen Ivory Wayans left the show in 1992, over disputes with Fox about the network censoring the show's content and rerunning early episodes without his consultation. Keenen feared that Fox would ultimately decrease the syndication value of In Living Color, Marlon Wayans left after 13 episodes, during the 1992-1993 season. Shawn Wayans and Kim Wayans both left the show with their brother. Damon Wayans left at the end of the third season to pursue a movie career.

During the fourth season in 1992, Keenen appears only in the fourth (1992-93) season opener, and from the second episode of the fourth season until the final season, Keenen disappeared from the series, changing the opening credits from "Keenen Ivory Wayans" to "James Carrey."

Censorship

Fox started censoring the scripts more after In Living Color produced a live Super Bowl halftime special (branded by the network as The Doritos Zaptime/'In Living Color' Super Halftime Party). During the "Men on Football" sketch, Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier adlibs a suggestion that actor Richard Gere and track and field star Carl Lewis were homosexuals, much to Lewis' open chagrin. This ad-lib segment has been cut from reruns and the DVD version. The programming stunt lured 20 million to 25 million viewers from CBS' telecast of the halftime festivities during Super Bowl XXVI.

When airing on BET, most curse words (such as "ass" and "bitch") have been muted out and one line ("drop the soap") was also muted for its implications of prison rape. The DVD version has the language intact (except for the "drop the soap" line), but numerous sketches have been cut, particularly the music video parodies due to copyright reasons.

On the May 5, 1990 broadcast, Keenen Ivory Wayans did a take-off on a Billy Dee Williams "Colt 45" commercial (in which the purpose of the beverage is to get your lady friend wasted) that ended with a woman (played by Kim Coles) passed out on her back on a dining table, and "Billy Dee" moving in on her unconscious body to have sex with her. Note: The "Colt 45" sketch was seen only once during the original broadcast. The sketch was omitted from repeats because some felt it was making light of date rape. The Season 1 DVD set of ILC didn't include the "cut" sketch from the pilot. This skit was cut by Fox censors, and the necessary modifications were made to the master tape. But Keenen "accidentally" mixed up the masters, and the original master was broadcast. That segment has never been broadcast since, not even in syndication or on FX or BET. It has been replaced by The Exxxon Family (a fake promo for a sitcom about a clumsy Exxon boat captain) in syndication and DVD box sets.

Season 5

By the fifth and final season, none of the Wayans family had any involvement whatsoever with the show. Damon Wayans had already left the show after the third season to pursue a movie career even though he still made "special guest appearances" in the fourth season. Keenan Ivory Wayans had virtually disappeared from the series well before he officially left it. The show's traditional reliance on the character-driven sketches featuring Damon and Keenan gave way to an increasing reliance upon walk-on cameos by "special guests" like James Brown, Rodney Dangerfield, Barry Bonds, Biz Markie, Ed O'Neill, Sherman Hemsley, Sam Kinison, Chris Rock, Tupac Shakur, En Vogue, and various stars of the National Basketball Association. Even Kelly Coffield, who, prior to Alexandra Wentworth's arrival in the fourth season, was the lone female white cast member, left prior to the final season.

In Living Color was an Ivory Way Production (until Keenen Ivory Wayans left) in association with Twentieth Century Fox Television. It was in reruns on local affiliates and on the News Corporation owned FX Network, where it was distributed by Twentieth Television.

As of April 11, 2006, all five seasons of the series are available on DVD (albeit in edited form). Reruns of the show currently air on the BET Network.

Popular recurring sketches

Cast

Cast members came and went during the run of the show, and new members appeared were added. Note that some older cast members continued to appear in later seasons, so later casts also include some previous year's cast members.

Facts and figures

Jim Carrey, David Alan Grier, Tommy Davidson, T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh and Fly Girl Deidre Lang are the only cast members to remain on the show throughout all five seasons, although Carrey's presence during the fifth season was limited due to his rising movie career.
Reggie McFadden appeared in 12 episodes, 11 as a "guest star", before officially joining the cast in Episode 12 of the fifth season.
Originally, In the series' run, Original cast members had joined the show's cast: Keenen Ivory Wayans, his sister, Kim, Brothers, Damon, Shawn, and Marlon had starred on the show, Keenen had joined the cast from Season 1-3 (1990-1992), Kim joined for four years (1990-1993), Marlon appeared as a featured player for 13 episodes (1992-1993) in the fourth season in 1992, Shawn, for the first two seasons, was a D.J. SW-1 for Seasons 1-2 (1990-1991), then became a cast member from seasons 3-4 (1991-1993), also at the end of the end third (1991-92) season, both Damon and Keenen left the show (Keenen for other things, and Damon for his acting career), but Damon made appearances in the fourth season, and Keenen disappeared in the fourth and the fifth (and final) season, but the only recurring cast members to appear in every episode was: T'Keyah Crystal Keymah, Tommy Davidson, David Alan Grier, Jim Carrey, and Fly Girl Deirdre Lang, and the sixth cast member would have been Kelly Coffield who appeared from seasons 1-4 (1990-1993).
Damon Wayans' characters Blaine Edwards (from "Men on ..." sketches) and Anton Jackson (the gross, homeless man) are the only two recurring characters who have been seen on both In Living Color and Saturday Night Live.
If you look closely at the lateral sides of Homey D. Clown's shoes, you can see a big Nike swoosh logo and the word Nike on top. It's usually difficult to spot because the swoosh and the word are both in black.
At the 2006 BET Awards when the show returned from one of its commercial breaks, the show's host Damon Wayans played a character very reminiscent to "Men on ..." critic Blaine Edwards.
Former cast member Shawn Wayans (before he went to star in The Wayans Bros.) portrayed J.J. Evans in a unaired parody music video sketch of LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" in 1992, later on Shawn Wayans would portray J.J. Evans one last time in 1997 on a fourth season episode of The Wayans Bros., entitled "Unspoken Token", in which he dreams that he is J.J. from hit 1970s sitcom, Good Times, in a reunion with Bern Nadette Stanis (Thelma Evans), Johnny Brown (Nathan Bookman) and Ja'net DuBois (Willona Woods), reprising the characters on the show, Shawn's brother Marlon portrays Michael Evans, Anna Maria-Hosford as Florida, and John Witherspoon as James.

Show theme song

In Living Color theme song lyrics
Seasons One, Two, and Five	Seasons Three and Four
You can do what you want to do, In living color. (In living color/You know what I'm sayin') You can do what you want to do, In living color. (In living color) You can walk on the moon, float like a balloon. You see it's never too late and it's never too soon. Take it from me: It's a'ight to be (in living color). And how would you feel knowing prejudice was obsolete, And all mankind danced to the exact beat, And at night it was safe to walk on the street? (In living color) (Repeat chorus) Everybody here is equally kind. (In living color) What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine. (In living color) And how would you feel knowing everybody was your friend, From thin to thick through thick to thin, And egotistical trips was put to an end? (In living color) (Repeat chorus) (Repeat first verse) (Repeat chorus)	How you livin'? (What?) How you livin'? (What?) How you livin'? (In living color) You can do what you want to. Anything you want—it's up to you. You for me and me for you, You can be anything you want to be. Let's take a trip and sip on a dream, Glide with the guide on a funky scene. Here comes another one of those "mo' funny, mo' money" shows, A cast for laughs and talented roles, And sisters with twisters, If you've been lookin', listener. It seems you don't believe, So you'll believe what I convince ya, Some booty to your short, and fort we'll make it snappy, With jokes and pokes and folks to keep you happy. No need to hold your remote control: Chill, this show's got soul. All aboard, all aboard, The train never troubles. You better hustle up, couple up on the double. On the double, yeah, It's hard to believe, But some of the best things in life are free. So fellas grab yo' girl, tell her that you love her, 'Cause that's the way you livin', When you livin' In Living Color

Episodes

DVD Releases

20th Century Fox has released all 5 seasons of In Living Color on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
Season 1	12	April 6, 2004
Season 2	26	September 28, 2004
Season 3	30	May 10, 2005
Season 4	33	October 25, 2005
Season 5	26	April 11, 2006

External links