NBC Developing "Friends With Black People" Comedy In Light Of Obama Win

Variety:

President-elect Barack Obama is already bringing about change -- to the world of network TV development, at least.

NBC is developing a comedy based on the book "Making Friends With Black People," a buddy comedy that will focus on the state of race relations in the U.S.

Show isn't specifically about Obama's rise as the nation's first African-American president -- but "Making Friends" hopes to capitalize on how Obama's success has changed the nation's dialogue on race.

"From time to time, race bubbles up in the consciousness of the country and then dissipates," said "Making Friends" author Nick Adams. "Now, with Obama, people are talking about race a lot more. We hope to capitalize on that and not let the dialogue die down. ... It seemed like a good opportunity to strike while the iron is hot."

Read the whole story: Variety

Comments

[TrueBlueMajority]

LOL the headline made me think it NBC was bringing back "Friends" with black people in the cast!

[ritenow]

What's up with the posting of HP these days? It's like get an act of congress to get one in.

[honeydiva]

Lawd effing help us black people are being "re-discovered" in America.

[neesy08]

It is a shame that white people still are not comfortable with black people. Must be whitr guilt. Just relax and ask questions. We have no problem discussing race.

[renatam]

http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_7483&pageNum=6

Here's the link to the GQ article.

[RiyazGuerra]

LOL at the title!

Sorry but its so lame that this society is still coming to terms with this. If this were a better society this wouldn't be an issue and every form of media would be sporting members from every ethnic group interacting in a colorblind fashion.

[JoelNH]

Does anyone remember "Carter Country?" A TV show that came about after Jimmy Carter was elected president. There was a whole slew of "Southern" shows that came out then. "The Dukes of Hazzard" was the most popular of them.

For some reason Bush shows were only on Cable. But there was a few.

So now, the Era of Obama inpsired sitcoms comes to a TV near you. Although with recent trends, were likely to see an Obama reality show.

[Darthwave]

I'm black but this really sounds like a pandering condescending idea for a show. Better yet how about producing a show that is not actually not garbage say like the The Wire or The Shield.

[haramagoti]

The whole thing is one huge overbearing red flag. "Capitalize" on race. No dialogue has changed, we're all simply really, really impressed by the graceful strength of this man's intelligent poise, as he reflects something we wish to see in ourselves if we don't already. Race has not bubbled up no more than will dissipate in the consciousness of America, we are who we are. America has had it's head out of it's ass on race for a lot longer than the media would have us think because that type of manipulative crowd control/strategic mob mentality indoctrination sells shows like these, and often creates racial tension without knowing it does. Hear about Obama's inner-most campaign team? Race didn't come up once. I think the world's a better place with role models/examples like those. No doubt i will tune in and rot my brain upon the media's take on "change" as opposed to going out into the world and actually "changing" any of the long list of things Obama's campaign, indeed, his very self, is about and for, which reflects our own urgency to handle those issues, the more pressing ones, which have little or nothing to do with race, of which i'm unsure this show will be able to fully address. There's a whole lot more to address upon the issue of race in America/the world than some simplistic duality, if you're going to take the time to address it. That's all i'm trying to say.

[lpeggy]

Great interview with the author in 2006 when the book was first published.

http://www.tricompodcast.com/site/archive/aiyp/namake

[DCCommuter]

They had a show like that many years ago (an African-American guy and White guy as friends) with Dave Chappel. It didn't seem entertaining because the two had no chemistry or real reason they were friends. It was cookie cutter. Hopefully, the new show will have real characters, created beyond their skin color.

[SeanGardner]

Hopefully the show will not only have black people in front of the camera, but also blacks behind the camera too as producers, writers, and technical hands.

The lack of diversity continues to be a major concern. IN 2002, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY published this piece about it: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,259579,00.html. That same year, BNET published this: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_/ai_97997717.

Let's hope the show works in more ways than just one or two.

[InedaName]

Blacks behind the camera too as producers, writers, and technical hands?

Now, now. Don't get greedy. Next you'll be asking for more black players on SNL.

[mocha59]

There is an excellent article in GQ titled: "Will you be my black friend". It was VERY true and interesting. Might be useful. And NBC ~ PLEASE don't use that title. Please.