South Central

I used to watch this show back in the day. Miss it.

This show was one of the great moments of TV, when a show went beyond the obvious and focused on the goal of curing problems instead of causing them. It did for TV what the movie "Boyz in the Hood" did for film... it showed the world that everything isn't perfect everywhere. What it also did, though, was show that environment didn't produce animals, but people with purpose and morals. Larenz Tate did his thing, and ever since shows like this one and "Roc" went off the air, it has been downhill for black television.

It's as simple as this--FOX was scared of this show, which is why it didn't last a full season. It would appear that they thought this sitcom with dramatic undertones was too raw for audiences to deal with. The South Central area of L.A. was in the news a lot during that time. Rap musicians were always referring to it in their songs, and it had a nationwide reputation for being a violent neighborhood. I guess FOX saw something it could captialize on, but the heat was too much for them to take. This was another failed sitcom for Larenz Tate, a good actor who had previously appeared on "The Royal Family". Hopefully, the few show that were produced will show up on video or DVD one day. It was worth watching.

Because of Hollywood's apparent unwillingness to give quality shows with predominantly African-American casts a chance, I have developed a habit of videotaping every episode of a new Black show, if it seems that show will be decent. It's a very good thing that I did this with "South Central", for this was an excellent show that many people did not give a chance. Modern-day heartthrob Larenz Tate shined here in a difficult role, and comes across as a serious actor. If you can ever get a chance to see it, do so.

I really liked this show. Its too bad it didn't last long enough for people to find it. It was written good and delt with real life situations in a way that had never been done before. The only show that came close to it was Roc. The only difference was that Roc leaned a little bit more towards comedy then this show. I think that it was before its time and that people didn't know how to handle it directorial style. Watching the show was like watching the movie in many ways. I think that at the time the show was running that viewers were programmed to watching comedies on TV. It probably would do better now then before.