How UPN Ushered in a Golden Decade of Black TV — and Then Was Merged Out of Existence

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Reality shows are now go to for Black TV entertainment and its been that way for over a decade. Either that or anything Tyler Perry puts together. We have to acknowledge that reality shows became the new norm. And Tubi is the new version of UPN/WB

It’s cheap to produce with profit margins, so it makes total sense.

The bread just isn’t there in scripted content unless you’re a high level TV show.

The irony is that they did the pivot to The CW while gutting those shows, yet still struggled to make a profit.

 

[FukkaPaidEmail]

If we keeping it a stack UPN was falling off around the time of the merger .

Girlfriends and one on one was getting flabby .

Half and Half and All of Us was not Moesha and The Parkers (always hated that show but it had an audience)

It’s easy to say it was racism but the reality is reality .


Hell The Game came after and had a run.

 

[Devilinurear]

Streaming changed everything

 

[Wild self]

It's absolutely crazy how much we've regressed in terms of being represented on TV.

I grew up on "The Cosby Show", "A Different World", "Martin", "Living Single", "New York Undercover", "Moesha", "Living Color", and all these Black shows that I used to watch on a regular basis.

And even beyond that, there used to be new Black shows that moved in & out of the TV schedule every year up until like the mid '00s.

Now, it feels like there's less Black people on TV than there were 30-40 years ago.

After the Fall of 2006, that is true. 2006 was when they canceled Everyone hates Chris and everyone embraced the "New Black" BS crap.

 

[O.T.I.S.]

I fukked with UPN growing up… it was a good time to be alive.

Think they transitioned to WGN and now NewsNation, right?

 

[ReturnOfJudah]

UPN was trash. Fox was the shyt when they first came out. Had some good black shows

 

[Rell84shots]

If we keeping it a stack UPN was falling off around the time of the merger .

Girlfriends and one on one was getting flabby .

Half and Half and All of Us was not Moesha and The Parkers (always hated that show but it had an audience)

It’s easy to say it was racism but the reality is reality .


Hell The Game came after and had a run.

Racism is the reality. Girlfriends and One on One fell off due to network interference, and CW cancelled The Game even though it had higher ratings than the trash ass 90210 reboot.

 

[KingsOfKings]

Underrated tv shows

 

[TDT]

No mention of Homeboys In Outer Space

 

[daemonova]

Warner bros and Paramount sold off most of CW to a third-party but they still retain 12. 5% each of the network

 

[Taadow]

The lessons of the very late 80s, 90s and early 2000s are clear as day so folks can either wait around for the TV networks (and Hollywood) to decide to pluck them off of the shelf for a project OR make sure we have more than faces in front of the camera who depend on the industry.

Streaming might have changed the game but a great project will always be king.

Black shows have to color outside of the sitcom and family show box look at some of the true bangers of the last 15 years like Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul, The Americans, Homeland, House of Cards, Mr Robot — and find the next project that can anchor a network or streaming app.

It’s going to be impossible to find the next Cosby show and difficult to find another Martin or Living Single — both of which were not good in their last couple of seasons.

…And that’s my problem with this article.
You are correct- we have seen that the answer is to try some new stuff. That’s really why we started watching UPN,
because they at least tried to come up with some new chit for niccas to do on a show.

Yes, Moesha was groundbreaking and a decent show. But the rest of those referenced here were basically the same show
with different casts.

No mention of Homeboys In Outer Space

Exactly. Just the concept of that is funny in of itself. It didn’t get a fair chance to develop IMO

Same with Malcolm & Eddie. It was a less funny Wayans Bros. But Eddie told us that was because of they didn’t let them have input on the writing.
That could’ve been great just leaning on the Kansas City angle if they did it right.

Goode Behavior was Fresh Prince except “Will” was Uncle Phil daddy instead of nephew - and he’s George Jefferson. That show was great.

Sparks was a show about Black (*gasp*) lawyers! A whole damn family of them! Whoever heard of that?

In The House was dope too, and got rescued from the TV graveyard.



^ That was the original UPN Monday Line-Up. And it had enough eyes to keep the lights on until these other shows got there,
so I have a hard time believing they were all flops. This is the last time a whole network at least tried to make comedy shows (plural)
for Bruhs.

 

[Goat poster]

These networks use black people until they no longer feel like they need them anymore.

Yup

Fox did it as well

 

[The Amerikkkan Idol]

Yup

Fox did it as well

I still aint forgave them for that.

Once they got American Idol, they told nikkaz to kick rocks

 

[LezJepzin]

This happened

Telecommunications Act of 1996 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[2 Up 2 Down]

I remember early on they used to show WMAC Masters on Saturdays and (at least around my way) they would show USWA wrestling