Soul Train...Where Can I Find the REAL tea?

Like you, I enjoyed The Hippest Trip in America and watch it every chance I get.  However, being the nosey bird that I am, I wanted to know more like...

Was there ever a cutoff in age? In the later episodes (mid 1980's especially), some of those dancers did not look like teens but old enough to pay a mortgage.  In fact, one person I went to school with danced on that show at age 27/28.

Was there ever a cutoff in how long you can dance on the show?  I noticed today that Cheryl Song (a.k.a THAT Sexy Asian Lady) danced from the mid 70s to the mid-late 80s.  That's a long time for something that doesn't pay a salary.  Now Damita Jo Freeman, Jody Whatley and Rosie Perez did it right.  A couple of yrs. and they got the right exposure...the rest is history.

Why couldn't a dancer wear a wig?  This one came from my cousin who claims that Don C. kicked him out of the studio for wearing a permed wig.  But the other day, I saw some chick who won the dance contest that had some dirty blonde plastic-looking thing that sat on her head like a helmet. 

Why did they stop dancing?  You know what I'm talking about!  Compare the first 5-7 years to the mid-eighties when women were doing a two-step in tight dresses and the men were either sorta dancing like MJ or jumping around in costumes and props.

Where can I get the tea?  Love Jacky Jasper but he doesn't seem to dig that deep in the crates.  Myra Panache gives bits and pieces but truthfully, I hate that blogs' layout.  She needs an indexing system BAD (Sowwy but I had to say it) :(.

RIP Al Freeman

Courtesy of Reuters.Best known for portraying Elijah Muhummad in 1992's 'Malcolm X, Mr. Freeman was also a star on stage and screen. He also directed the soap, One Live to Live.

We would like to express our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.

Family Time on Bounce TV...What Did YOU Think?

MMMM...it's not the worst thing on TV.  I think that while HuxtableLand is a nice place to aim for in life, it may not be everyone's reality.  There have been many Black/AA sitcom families that were more diverse and FUNNY.

That's it, none of the main characters were funny.

Now, make the mother-in-law (Judy Elder) and her husband (Richard Gant?) regulars, dump the lesbo sis (don't know her name 'cause she's not funny) and I know the son is "royalty" as he is sired by the show's creator (Bentley Kyle Evans) and Yvette Denise Lee (Half & Half - which they should bring back, btw and Living Single) - however, he is only slightly funny because when he goes into that 'playa' mode that preteen boys like to do, he reminds me of my neighbor - and he's grown.  The little girl can just do a Judy Winslow by going upstairs and never being heard from again.

Now, as a woman, I have to get this out.  Clair Huxtable may have set the bar EXTREMELY high.  I mean, damn, she looked like older Halle, had a real career, 4/5 kids - and comedic timing.  The mama here...they do a good job of camouflaging her super voluptuous body but when it comes time for her to say something, she has to stick out her chesticles, backside or talk about how cute she is.  Someone once commented that she should have Megan Good's career...hmmm, idk about that. Her looks and timing are barely average. 

And this is prolly why they got only 6 episodes aired.

Take a Giant Step (1960)

 

Johnny Nash (the 'See Clearly' singer, above) plays a typical a-hole of a teen.  He adores and talks smack to his grandmother (the typical ride-or-die grammie who later dies, which messes his head up).  He finds he only has one real friend (who is not part of the gang of 'nice White kids' at school that the mother tries so hard to appease).  His father is a stuffy bank teller (my Grammie can tell you this was a big deal back in this period when she worked at BofA in the 50/60s).

After being kicked out of school for speaking out against a teacher/smoking in the bathroom, he sets out into the world only to end up at the local bar when he meets 4 pros.

He finds that one who looks the most like Dorothy Dandridge has too many issues after a proposal of courtship/marriage.

Then he ends up at one pro's place with rent issues and not much to eat in her kitchen.  Getting the hell out of there means paying her a toll charge of $2.83 ($7.17 more to go!).

So this leaves a gorgeous Ruby Dee that plays the family maid.  And it turns out that all of his pent-up frustration just means that he's horny - and naive.

Since Mrs Ossie Davis isn't trying to mess up her money or catch a case, she leaves shortly after he proposes a booty call arrangement since he confesses to being a virgin to her.

 Anyway, I'm going into some detail because this does drag a little but it's not a bad movie at all.  General descriptions read something like "Black teen tries to adjust in White neighborhood".  I think coming-of-age tale is a better fit.

Dolemite

Since the 80's when I came to discover all of the cinema that passed me by as a kid, there was one name that would crack most people up before they could go into the rant about how degrading blaxploitation movies were to the culture.

Every Dolemite movie I'd ever rented was a bit grainy and the audio wasn't the best, so I never got the full concept except he got laid at least once.  Bounce TV cleared some things in their recent airing of The Human Tornado.

I've never been much into ol skool rhyming (Jesse Jackson, Nipsey Russell) so the stand up act just kind of left me...IDK.

Anyway, Mr. Rudy Ray Moore a.k.a Dolemite left us a few years ago but below is one of his last public appearance on the Arsenio Hall Show from the 90s.

Unsung TV: The New Odd Couple

I tried to get Tim Reid's "Snoops" uploaded but all I could find was the intro (the user account was not sharing) and the rest was that tall, skinny dude from LB.

So as I went down my list of Black sitcoms (which Tyler Perry dominates, btw...in the number of episodes aired).  I remembered this got a bad rap for casting (particularly "Lamont Sanford") and just being a weak imitation of the original 60/70s sitcom.

Anyway, here's a clip with the underrated Judy Pace.

Bounce TV:Uptown Comic

Since I've been away for a min., I'll get right to it.  I can't understand what the hell they're saying and what little I do understand is not funny.

Fantasia jokes...really?

Pregnant grandmother...try again!

I watched a full episode yesterday because I was sick and there was nothing else on.  Whatever your opinion is on integration, you are entitled to it but one brother tried really hard to convince the audience that there were advantages to having to suddenly read grocery store signs in Spanish.  I go back to when the ING was white so, no I'm not feeling this at all.

You could almost hear a pin drop.

Anyway, it's not that I hate stand-up or that everyone has to be like In Living Color or Def Comedy Jam...just less like Comic View or Apollo Comedy Hour (below). Oh well, I miss Lisa Nicole Carson (in anything else, of course)