Season 1 Talk

[jhlipton]

The way I learned it, from Reconstruction to the early 1900s, most black folks considered themselves Republicans because of Lincoln etc., although many were not actually allowed to vote (see "Solid South").  With the New Deal in the 1930s and expanded voting rights in the 1960s, the consensus shifted to Democrats.  I would have thought some of the characters had heard about this from older relatives.

 

The big switch in party registration came in the 80s with Lee Atwaters' "Southern Strategy".  He deliberately used "dog whistles" to move the "Dixiecrats" over to the Republican party.

 

My brother-in-law is a black Republican.  Pro-torture (and he's a pastor!) and anti-gay and that overrides all other concerns.   

[jhlipton]

Loved the connection from telegraphy to texting.

I remember hearing about a contest where they pitted a few of the top telegraphers against a group of texting teens. The telegraphers won handily as I recall.

[nicepebbles]

I'm actually surprised no one in the family has dissed her yet.  I mean, what with being a Republican, acting so incredibly white, having white taste in décor in her apartment, and being part of TV's alleged hottest love triangle as a woman caught between two white men (they couldn't have at least had one black man wanting her?), Olivia is the ultimate Uncle Tom!

 

4leafclover already covered the "acting white" and "white taste in decor". She involved in a love triangle with Fitz and Edison. Now was it on the same level as her/Jake v. her/Fitz? No. But it happened.

 

To tie this back to the show, I'm not sure how any of them has anything to say about the "whiteness" of Olivia Pope considering Bow is biracial and the whole point of the show is "what does it mean to be black in this new place and time?"

[formerlyfreedom]

Let's stick to discussion of the episode of Black-ish, please. There's a whole other forum you can discuss Scandal in. Thanks.

[marceline]

On the record, even though I posted this video, I am not a Publican. 

 

You don't run a public house in England? Why not? It's a noble profession!

 

ETA: All this talk about Scandal makes me really want Kerry Washington to guest on Black-ish. She's very good at comedy.

Edited June 3, 2015 by marceline

[Mrs OldManBalls]

That just reminded me of Dre chasing Bow with the water spray  bottle to help bring her curls back!

 

I was cracking up when Dre was chasing Bow with a spray bottle! The spray bottle is a friend to natural hair - except when it's straightened!

 

I loved her leaning back to make her hair move, followed quickly by her horror at Dre misting water at her. I was scared he wasn't going to miss! 

 

 

 

My parents didn't show me Roots. I don't know any parents who did. Everyone I know watched Roots in school. I've seen that mini-series more than once because of school (public school). As crazy it may seem, it's easy to have missed Roots. If your parents didn't make you watch it or it wasn't in shown schools, you probably didn't watch it. It not exactly something your average person is going to want to binge watch. Shoot, until just over a year ago, I had no idea there was continuation to Roots. I knew there was Queen but I didn't know about or had seen the next generation or the Christmas special. And I didn't know until recently how fool shit Haley was in terms of his family Roots.I spent my whole life thinking that story was 100% true.

 

I wasn't allowed to watch when I was young, and I'm not tempted to now. 

[topanga]

The final "shotgun!" gag still makes me laugh to recall it.

 

This was my favorite line of the episode. And I hate guns! But the look on Junior's face when he said it and his body language when he cocked the gun had me in stitches. Marcus Scribner is so good at physical comedy.

 

Liked the episode overall. Flashback episodes are always a little gimmicky, but this one was okay because it had funny moments and the entire family was involved. 

 

And Lawrence Fishbourne's 1920's character reminded me of the role he played in the movie "Hoodlum."

[meep.meep]

Having just seen this on rerun - I can't believe they had Bow operate on Charlie, after she had like 11 shots in a row!

 

There's also a great line from Charlie about Bland What's his name's outfit:  "He looks like he just came from Build a Bear!"

[Inquisitionist]

David Spade is in my top 5 of SNL hotties.

 

He used to be.  Not so much now, IMO.

[Heather Lynn]

My mother had us start to watch Roots when it first aired. I was about 7. I kept asking about the plantation down the road where black people owned white people and complaining that it wasn't fair when told that wasn't how things worked. That was followed by a night of nightmares, which put an early end to the experience. I was in my teens before I saw the full mini-series.

[LisaM]

Binging the show now. I thought this was a funny episode. Junior cracks me up. Love Jack and Diane. 

[dmmetler]

On 1/16/2015 at 6:54 AM, aquarian1 said:

Many service industries have to stay open on all Holidays, I'd say, and many others choose to in order to reap the rewards of others having the day off.  Malls and stores are open most of them, even if in limited hours, but usually with extended hours for the shoppers with the day off.  Though they do tend to close on Christmas day.  Restaurants, hospitals, hotels, police, fire, 911 operators, gas stations, etc all are open.

DH works in IT, and one of his companies actually did Thanksgiving and Christmas as floating holidays so they had people available to handle emergencies for retail that WAS open (and to be prepared for the rush of Black Friday and Dec 26). It actually worked pretty well-there were enough employees with other cultural traditions that were happy to work those (usually very light) days and take those days for a holiday that was more important to them. 

As a teacher, MLK day is usually an inservice or workday. It hits right about at the end of the semester. And this is Memphis, where MLK day is observed quite significantly and officially (of course, so is Elvis week....)

[ljenkins782]

On 7/9/2015 at 2:49 PM, meep.meep said:

Having just seen this on rerun - I can't believe they had Bow operate on Charlie, after she had like 11 shots in a row!

There's also a great line from Charlie about Bland What's his name's outfit:  "He looks like he just came from Build a Bear!"

Sorry to quote a 6-year-old post, lol, this entire episode is filled with gems, but "looks like he got his suit at Build-A-Bear" might be one of the best (and most accurate) insults of all time. 

It makes me sad to rewatch S1, the comedy was so sharp and Bow and Dre had a nice rapport, before he became a chronic man-baby and completely unreasonable.

Season 1 had a lot of great moments between them, like in the one where Bow's parents come and they privately discuss how crazy they were acting or the church episode where they're trying to decide on what's best for them. 

I think I can trace the moment the show started to take a turn, it's the episode where Dre's sister gets married and Dre loses his shit because Rainbow "didn't take his name" even though she had the exact same last name, to the point of wanting her to go to the courthouse and request to change her name from Rainbow Johnson to Rainbow Johnson. The slide into caricature begins there and it's a lot less funny and entertaining.

[King of TV]

On 8/2/2021 at 11:21 AM, ljenkins782 said:

Sorry to quote a 6-year-old post, lol, this entire episode is filled with gems, but "looks like he got his suit at Build-A-Bear" might be one of the best (and most accurate) insults of all time. 

It makes me sad to rewatch S1, the comedy was so sharp and Bow and Dre had a nice rapport, before he became a chronic man-baby and completely unreasonable.

Season 1 had a lot of great moments between them, like in the one where Bow's parents come and they privately discuss how crazy they were acting or the church episode where they're trying to decide on what's best for them. 

I think I can trace the moment the show started to take a turn, it's the episode where Dre's sister gets married and Dre loses his shit because Rainbow "didn't take his name" even though she had the exact same last name, to the point of wanting her to go to the courthouse and request to change her name from Rainbow Johnson to Rainbow Johnson. The slide into caricature begins there and it's a lot less funny and entertaining.

Yeah, agreed season 1 was more witty with it's jokes. It also seemed more down to earth and edgier. The comedy in more recent seasons seems a bit watered down. Junior IMO became more obnoxious as the series progressed. 

It's also weird going back and watching season 1 after seeing a later season like 6 or 7. Jack and Diane are so little. Season 1 is the only season where Junior has his pre-pubescent voice. Dre has a buzz cut.  Zoey looks pretty much the same except slightly younger.  Bow is the only one who looks the same. It also seems like Anthony Anderson got some dental work done, because he has a very noticeable gap in his front teeth in those first couple seasons. 

Anyone think that Bow became pregnant way too early in the show's run? Bow became pregnant towards the end of season 2, when the already existing Johnson  kids weren't completely fleshed out yet. If I were the producer, I would've given it a couple more seasons before putting an addition to the Johnson family.