Keenen Ivory Wayans Talks In Living Color’s Return To TVBy Fred Topel
March 3, 2012
The Fox network turns 25 this year and they’re bringing back one of their seminal shows to celebrate. Keenen Ivory Wayans is prepping a new In Living Color to air later this year. He spoke with the Television Critics Association earlier this year about his plans.
In Living Color was a groundbreaking sketch comedy show that launched the careers of Jim Carey, Jamie Foxx and even Jennifer Lopez. It was a Wayans family effort that also included Damon, Kim and Shawn. It ran from 1990 to 1994.
Wayans is now recruiting new talent and writing sketches for the modern incarnation of In Living Color. In this interview he talks about his vision for what we’ll see when In Living Color returns to Fox.
Who’s idea was it to revive In Living Color?
Keenen Ivory Wayans: Of course it was my idea. It was mine. I just felt that looking at the landscape of television and comedy in general, it was just time. It was a good time to bring at least the idea of the show back. All the folks had gone onto do such great things and there’s the lure of the show, but enough time had passed where we wouldn’t be competing with that. Jim Carrey’s now known as a movie star and Damon from doing his sitcom. Jennifer Lopez is a mega-star but it’s the lure that people remember most. So I just thought now would be a good time.
Will you and Damon be in the new show?
KIW: I’m gonna host it. I’m reaching out to all the cast to just come on and do guest spots but none of them are gonna be regulars on the show. So it’s really just to launch it and then it’s going to be all about the new cast.
Besides the cast, how else will it be different from the old show? Will the format change?
KIW: No, I think the format is going to be close to what it was. I think tonally it’ll be close to what it was but I think that now we have so much more than we had back then. 25 years ago you didn’t have social media. You didn’t have reality TV. You didn’t have the level of consumerism that we have now. This generation is funny in itself, just the values that they have. So I just think the well is so much deeper.
Do you meet people now who grew up with In Living Color and have better comic sensibilities because of it?
KIW: Well, I think there’s some truth to that but also I think it’s the fact that this generation is far more socially integrated than 25 years ago. White kids, black kids, Asian kids, they’re all sort of part of the hip hop generation. You can see it in a kid like Aziz Ansari. He’s Indian but he’s American and I think there are so many voices out there that weren’t 25 years ago.
Do the sketches have to be shorter this time?
KIW: What’s funny is that when I did the show initially, I never allowed any sketch to be more than five minutes because I knew then that the attention span was waning. So I think that it does allow us to do what I call the one-joke premise. Sometimes you’ll se a one-joke premise that keeps going. That’s not the way to do it. The way to do it is get the joke and go. Now you’re in the mindset of viewership that allows for that. They don’t mind something that’s 15 seconds.
When do you plan to be on air?
KIW: Well, we’re going to air late spring.
Is this just a one episode special?
KIW: We’re doing two half hours as a pilot for the show.
As you look back, what strikes you about the original show as revolutionary?
KIW: I guess what strikes me about it is how little we knew that we were being revolutionary. We were just a bunch of kids who were being funny. The world told us that it was revolutionary.
When you look back at what was considered edgy, can you believe we’re used to it now and take it for granted?
KIW: Yeah, I think In Living Color now wouldn’t be considered edgy, not at all. It’d be considered funny but not edgy.
Is that a good thing?
KIW: Well, I think subject matter would still be edgy, but tonally television has gone much further. You couldn’t even bleep a curse word back then. Now you have a whole show of just bleeps.
What was different about Fox when you first got there?
KIW: What was different at the time was that it was like a scrappy kid. It wasn’t trying to be like the other networks. Fox wanted to be different and they said that to me when they brought me in. The first time I met with them, that was part of what attracted me to doing it because at the time I wasn’t trying to do television, I was trying to do film. The idea that I can be in a place and do anything I wanted to do and that they would be supportive of that, that was exciting.
You were upset when In Living Color lost the Emmy to the Oscar broadcast. Why is this show so important to you?
KIW: Because the work that not just I put into it but everybody on the show put into it, you never do things for awards but if there is an award, if you feel like what you put out there is better, then you expect to win.
When you won the Emmy you got emotional.
KIW: It was emotional for me because, as I tried to say in my speech, I had never won anything. My mom had come to all those graduations and I never got an award. So I finally got one and it was a big deal.
What do you feel the Wayans name means to audiences now, with the film legacy of Scary Movie and White Chicks?
KIW: I think that people look for us to do something that’s outside the box, and it’s almost like a blessing and a curse because we can’t do just an ordinary comedy. So it makes us have to work a little harder.
What is it like to be able to work with your family in general?
KIW: Let’s see. It is 99% of the time the best experience ever.
That other 1%?
KIW: It’s madness but it’s family. We have good checks and balances. Somebody always mediates. No matter how hot it gets, we’re always able to sit down and work it out.
Have you ever considered going back to late night?
KIW: That was such a grind because I had such high expectations for what I wanted to do and realized that that’s not what late night was, that people don’t want to work that hard. I remember somebody said to me, “It doesn’t have to be funny. You just have to be humorous.” I said, “I don’t know what that means. I don’t know how to be humorous.” Meaning that late night TV, people are watching that before they go to sleep. They want you to rock them. They don’t want you to wake them up. They want you to rock them.
Will you be involved in the Skank Robbers movie with Jamie Foxx and Martin Lawrence?
KIW: No.
How do you feel about Jamie wanting to revisit that character?
KIW: It’s fine. It’s his character. I don’t have a problem with that. I hope he comes on the show and does it.
