Color by Fox: The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television (W.E.B. Du Bois Institute) [Paperback]

Kristal Brent Zook (Author)

Book Description

Series: W.E.B. Du Bois Institute | Publication Date: May 13, 1999

Following the overwhelming success of "The Cosby Show" in the 1980s, an unprecedented shift took place in television history: white executives turned to black dollars as a way of salvaging network profits lost to videocassettes and cable TV. Not only were African-American viewers watching disproportionately more network television than the general population but, as Nielsen finally realized, they preferred black shows. As a result, African-American producers, writers, directors, and stars were given an unusual degree of creative control over shows such as "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," "Roc," "Living Single," Martin, and "New York Undercover."
Locating a persistent black nationalist desire--a yearning for home and community--in shows produced by and for African Americans, Kristal Brent Zook shows how these productions revealed complex and contradictory politics of gender, sexuality, and class. Incorporating interviews with such prominent executives, producers, and stars as Keenen Ivory Wayans, Quincy Jones, Robert Townsend, Charles Dutton, and Yvette Lee Bowser, this study looks at both production and reception among African-American viewers. Zook provides nuanced readings of the shows themselves as well as the political and historical contexts in which they emerged.
Though much of black television during this time was criticized for being "trivial" or "buffoonish," Color by Fox reveals its deep-rooted ties to African-American protest literature, autobiography, and a collective desire for social transformation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the early 1990s?before Party of Five and Ally McBeal?Fox Television carved out its niche by producing and airing black TV shows, beginning with Keenan Ivory Wayans's In Living Color. Network executives had realized that African-American viewers were a huge segment of the total TV audience and jumped to position themselves as "urban" and to establish Fox's reputation as a network that was hip and different. Yet, as Zook demonstrates in this engaging but somewhat slight account, which began as a doctoral dissertation, black writers' and producers' efforts to confront race-relevant issues were often stymied by executives who tended to prefer straightforward sitcoms that appealed to both whites and blacks. The result was that even the shows trying the hardest to deal with thorny racial themes on screen?such as Roc, South Central and New York Undercover?were, sooner or later, forced by the network to avoid controversial or unconventional material. Often the shows were canceled outright, or control was given to white producers. Zook also looks beyond Fox to NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Martin, Living Single and The Sinbad Show, and breaks down the various ways?positive and negative, simplistic and complex?in which race is represented by network TV, revealing how a producer's identity often shapes programming decisions. Zook raises significant issues and writes in an accessible style, but her conclusion, that in the highly corporate business of network TV, "the possibilities for black authorship are tentative at best," is hardly revelatory. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Zook, a TV and film columnist, began this well-written, extensively researched study as her dissertation. African American television programming has been recently explored in Robin Means Coleman's African American Viewers and the Black Situation Comedy (Garland, 1998); Zook's unique focus, however, examines a period in the late 1980s at the recently created Fox Network, when blacks were given unprecedented creative freedom resulting in shows such as In Living Color, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Martin. Zook persuasively argues that these often-criticized productions are landmarks in their presentation of "African-American characters as multi-layered, historical subjects who are ever-conscious of the collective." Especially fascinating is her description of how the fledgling Fox Network created a core African American audience and then abandoned it in the quest for a mainstream white audience. Recommended for libraries with media and African American studies collections and large public libraries.ABruce Henson, Georgia Tech. Lib., Atlanta
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (May 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195106121
• ISBN-13: 978-0195106121
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #721,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Race and Media: the Real Deal, April 20, 2000

By 

Bakari Chavanu - See all my reviews

This review is from: Color by Fox: The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television (W.E.B. Du Bois Institute) (Paperback)

This is a seriously important book. Zook makes a strong claim for the appeal of such Black-produced shows like In Living Color, Roc, South Central, The Fresh Prince of Bell Air, Living Single, Martin, and New York Undercover to a largely Black audience. Zook argues and illustrates how these shows were built off a Black autobiographical tradition of Black writers, producers, and actors. As I remember watching the shows, they often dealt with intraracial group issues that though not always easily understood by white viewers were nevertheless both entertaining and culturally important to Black viewers. I'm not sure if there are similiar or better works published that deal with Zook's claims and analysis. Many of the shows listed above delt with complicated issues of race, class, and gender surely not found in mainstream shows. In her analysis, she explores four common traits that reappear in these shows: "these can be summarized as: autobiography, meaning a tendacy toward collective and individual authorship of black experience; improvisation, the practice of inventing and ad-libbing unscripted dialogue or action; aeasthetics, a certain pride in visual signifiers of blackness; and drama, a marked desire for complex characterization and emotionally challenging subject."

An entire media literacy course could be built around this book. Probably at no other time or in the near future will we see Black representation as culturally sensistive as it was during the time these shows were cast on Fox. It's important that we use these shows as case studies for the future of Black representation in the media.

I would love to dialogue with others who choose to read this book. Write me not at the above address, but at [e-mail].

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Must for Followers of Black Television, May 14, 2001

By 

Folami Prescott-Adams (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Color by Fox: The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television (W.E.B. Du Bois Institute) (Paperback)

Bravo to Kristal! I have had a tremendous interest in the behind-the-scenes events of Black television. I read tv credits with a microscope (figuratively speaking) and it was a joy to read excerpts of Kristal's interviews with the likes of Ralph Farquhar, Robert Townsend and Yvette Lee Bowser. These are my role models and now Kristal Brent Zook is one as well.

We are short on critics with the type of sensibilities Kristal clearly has for the black community, political viewpoints and scholarship.

I look forward to more from Dr. Zook. Color by Fox is a great start. Don't miss out on the first publication from someone from which we are sure to hear more.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Superficial at best, January 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Color by Fox: The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television (W.E.B. Du Bois Institute) (Hardcover)

A cursory look at a serious topic. This should have been a wonderful book, but it leaves the reader with a profound sense of disappointment. An important era in black TV has been missed, and awaits more competent treatment.