| Nowadays, you’d be pretty hard-pressed to | | | | three on TV Land, Nick at Nite or TBS. The |
| find any current sitcoms that star predominantly | | | | channels airing these classics can be found on |
| African-American casts. The days of The | | | | satellite TV. That’s right you won’t even |
| Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, and Good Times | | | | find these running on BET, which has gone much |
| are long gone. Those golden years led to Amen, | | | | the way of MTV – reality programming – |
| 227, and The Cosby Show in the 80s. The trend | | | | for better or worse. You can find them mostly on |
| of great African-American sitcoms continued on | | | | TV One, a non-cable channel targeting |
| into the mid-2000s, but something happened along | | | | African-Americans. Living Single can also be found |
| the way. Today, there are no African-American | | | | on Oxygen. |
| sitcoms on the major broadcast networks. | | | | The only current African-American sitcoms on |
| If you are yearning for the good old days, many | | | | television are both produced by Tyler Perry and |
| of the 70s and 80s shows can be found on basic | | | | air on TBS – Tyler Perry’s House of Pain |
| cable channels such as TV Land or Nick at Nite. | | | | and Meet the Browns. UPN and WB were the |
| You can even find popular 90s shows such as | | | | major carriers of original African-American sitcom |
| Family Matters or The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. | | | | programming for many years until their demise. |
| What you can’t find, however, are the great | | | | When their programming was picked up by The |
| shows that were aired by Fox during its fledgling | | | | CW, the channel went in another direction. The |
| years as a broadcast network. For those shows, | | | | last remaining African-American sitcom on |
| you need satellite TV. | | | | network television was Chris Rock’s |
| Before Fox clawed its way to the top with | | | | Everybody Hates Chris on Fox, which was |
| American Idol, it found its first success with the | | | | cancelled last year. The only option to catch these |
| help of Married with Children and The Simpsons in | | | | shows now is to catch them on syndication on |
| its fledgling years. However, Fox also found huge | | | | satellite TV. |
| success through its programming targeted at | | | | Satellite offers a variety of other programming |
| African-Americans. The cutting edge sketch | | | | options that you can take advantage of. There |
| comedy show In Living Color had a predominantly | | | | are more than 40 movie channels. Depending on |
| African-American cast, but also launched the | | | | the package you order, you can watch over 250 |
| career of Jim Carrey. On Thursday nights during | | | | channels all together. Not to mention that you can |
| the 90s, most African-American households were | | | | receive local station programming as well. The |
| tuned into the comedy block of Martin and Living | | | | best part about satellite is that you receive so |
| Single. Starring Martin Lawrence and Queen | | | | many channels that everyone in the family is |
| Latifah, respectively, these shows were runaway | | | | bound to find something that they like, whether |
| hits. | | | | it’s through syndicated shows or new |
| The question remains: Where can you find them | | | | programming. If you want to take a trip back |
| on television today? Like most good sitcoms, you | | | | down memory lane to the golden age of |
| would expect them to be widely available in | | | | African-American sitcoms, your options will be |
| reruns. However, you won’t catch those | | | | unlimited with satellite TV. |