Black Pack Television: In Living Color

Free admission. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.

Premiering in 1990, In Living Color exploded onto the Fox Television Network, reinvigorating the sketch comedy genre by showcasing a multiracial ensemble unafraid of controversy. Created by trailblazing multi-hyphenate Keenen Ivory Wayans, the innovative series turned primetime into a cultural battlefield, uproariously harnessing satire and spectacle to explore issues of race, class and celebrity. In his book, The Black Pack: Comedy, Race, and Resistance, author Artel Great situates In Living Color within the broader lineage of Black sketch comedy, illuminating how the innovative series served as an industrial weapon, seizing time, space and cultural power, often forcing America to laugh at what it preferred to ignore. In the process, the hit series won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series in 1990.

Helping to launch a breakout cast of highly gifted comedians that included David Alan Grier, Daymon Wayans, Kim Wayans, Tommy Davison, Jamie Foxx and Jim Carrey, In Living Color introduced a lasting lexicon of original characters and catchphrases to pop culture, from Homey D. Clown (“Homey, don’t play that”) to Men on Film (“two snaps up”) that continue to resonate long after the series' final broadcast on Fox in 1994.

Join us for a quartet of hilariously provocative episodes of In Living Color curated and introduced by author Artel Great.

—John H. Mitchell Television Curator Mark Quigley

Screening 1 of 4

In Living Color: "The Wrath of Farrakhan"

Year: 1990
Country: U.S.
Language: English
Runtime: 23 min.
Digital. Color.

Sketches include: “Do-It-Yourself Milli Vanilli Kit,” “Arsenio and Marion Barry Rap Choir,” “Sugar Ray Leonard Transition,” “The Wrath of Farrakhan” and “Ridin' Miss Daisy.”

Fox. Production Ivory Way Productions and 20th Century Fox Television. Executive Producer: Keenen Ivory Wayans. Director: Paul Miller. Writers (partial list): Franklyn Ajaye, Jeanette Collins, Barry Douglas. With: Keenen Ivory Wayans, Tommy Davidson, Jim Carrey.

Screening 2 of 4

In Living Color: “Funky Finger Productions"

Year: 1990
Country: U.S.
Language: English
Runtime: 25 min.
Digital. Color.

Sketches include (partial list): “B.S. Brothers,” “Hollywood Homeboys” and “Iraqi Fashion Show.”

Fox. Production Ivory Way Productions and 20th Century Fox Television. Executive Producer: Keenen Ivory Wayans. Director: Paul Miller. Writers (partial list): Fax Bahr, Kim Bass, Les Firestein. With: Keenen Ivory Wayans, Tommy Davidson, Jim Carrey.

Screening 3 of 4

In Living Color: “Homey the Sellout: Part 2"

Year: 1991
Country: U.S.
Language: English
Runtime: 25 min.
Digital. Color.