Read an oral history of In Living Color

The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter is marking the 25th anniversary of the groundbreaking Fox sketch comedy's series finale with an oral history of its creation and controversies. Then-Fox Entertainment president Garth Ancier remembers an index card on his wall that read "black Laugh-In." "We needed someone to bring it to life," said Ancier. When Keenen Ivory Wayans was brought in, Ancier says Wayans thought he was going to be pitched a black sitcom like The Cosby Show. "At that time, Fox wasn't even a network," says Wayans. "They were a startup. And I really didn't have interest in that because I wanted to pursue film. But they said to me, 'You know if you come here you can pretty much do anything you want to do.' And I said, 'Well, let me think about it.' And then I kind of sat and said, 'If I am given an opportunity like this, what would I do?' So I started to put together the show for the idea." David Alan Grier reveals in the oral history that Spike Lee and Arsenio Hall hated the show because they didn't like being mocked. Lee, Grier says, "got really mad at us because he thought we were over-the-top about Do the Right Thing. He did not like us making fun of him. People would get angry when we poked fun at them. Arsenio Hall too — anybody that we really poked fun at."