I want to take you back down memory lane. On our first stop, we are going to go visit Mike and Carol and their six children. For those of you who don't know who they are shame on you. The Brady Bunch was the family everyone watched. (At least my friends and I watched the reruns.) I don't ever recall anything really bad happening to them. Sure they had some minor mishaps, but nothing major.
The next stop on this ride is with that racist Archie. You got it, I am talking about All in the Family. It is unbelievable that this shows first telecast was January 12, 1971 and the last one was January 25, 1992. I know, I couldn't believe it either. When I have seen epsiodes of it as I got older, I was baffled as to how he remained on the air for so long. Nevertheless, many of us watched because there were not many shows that had Black actors/actresses in them (i.e. George and Weezy).
We are going to stay on the East Coast and visit the Drummond Family. Over all, I enjoyed Different Strokes and I don't have too many bad things to say about it. It is unfortunate that many of the shows stars had/have substance abuse issues. I loved it when Arnold was being bulled by "The Gooch." I thought that was hilarious. This is one of the few classic shows that I thought was pretty good.
The next stop on our trip is one of my all time favorite sitcoms. I am not sure if I like the family because the show was set in Chicago or what. This family of 5 live in the housing projects and was always struggling to make ends meet. (Maybe this is what made the show a little bit more enjoyable.) I am talking about "Good Times" with Florida, James, J.J, Thelma and Michael. I really like Michael because he was always trying to uplift his family and show them a different perspective on a situation. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Willona and Bookman. I thought Willona was very beautiful and she was always very stylish. I remember when Penny came on board. She was just so darn cute and lovable. It was so sad that her mom was physically abusing her. I think that is one of the first shows I remember seeing an issue such as that being portrayed. This family struggled and when they thought they finally was going to make it James had died. Many Black people cried because it felt like they lost someone close to them. Isn't it amazing how you could connect with a television show and never met any of the actors.
My final stop is with the Huxtable Family. This family was a middle/upper middle class family who realized the value of an education. I have often heard many younger Blacks who grew up without a father figure in their lives refer to the good doctor as their television dad. It was truly refreshing to see a family with educated parents stressing the importance of education and had the means to help their children get it. I also like the fact that the grandparents (Anna and Russell)played an important part in their children and grandchildren lives. I think The Cosby Show showed America that Black people can/will/are successful. When the spinoff show "A Different World" began, it really did a wonderful job of highlighting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's). This is and will probably be one of my favorite shows for a long time. I haven't gotten all of the seasons on dvd (hint, hint) but I'm working on it.
I know there are many other wonderful and not so wonderful shows I may have missed. I only selected a few to show how television evolved. I didn't have a rhyme or reason to how the shows were selected, I just picked them. If you have some favorite or not so favorite shows, please share them. My purpose in this post was to see if there are any current shows that may stack up to these shows. I really can't say there are, but I could be wrong. For those of you with children, what television shows do you watch with your child and really enjoy them? I've been trying to think of some, but I'm stumped. Everything I think of is not child friendly. Somebody help a sista out!
