‘In Living Color’ Buzzes Like ‘SNL’ of Early Days

In just a month, Fox’s “In Living Color” has become the hottest, hippest comedy show on television. It’s got the same sort of buzz that accompanied the early “Saturday Night Live,” the same sort of feeling that these are people you haven’t been allowed to see on TV before.

That’s not a mistaken feeling. When “Saturday Night Live” made its debut in 1975, it was really the first time baby boomers with ‘60s sensibilities had been allowed to put out their own TV show, totally unfiltered by the older generation. The word quickly spread among its generation--”Hey, we’ve got our own show.”

A similar word is spreading about “In Living Color” as it marks the first time that prime time has been turned over to hip black comedy, totally unfiltered by white studio executives.

“In Living Color” is a half-hour comedy sketch show that comes from Keenen Ivory Wayans, who worked with Robert Townsend on the film “Hollywood Shuffle” before turning out his own movie, “I’m Gonna Get You Sucka,” a hilarious send-up of the blacksploitation films of the 1970s.

Fox basically gave Wayans carte blanche. He put together a multiracial cast that includes his brother Damon, his sister Kim and a variety of up-and-coming talent. Running on Saturday nights, it has attracted just the kind of young audience Fox loves, finishing second in its time period to NBC’s hit “The Golden Girls. It single-handedly killed the attempted comeback of “The Famous Teddy Z” on CBS in that time slot. This weekend, “In Living Color” moves to Sunday night, giving Fox a solid 90 minutes of comedy starting with “The Simpsons” and followed by “Married . . . With Children.”

Like all good parody, “In Living Color” isn’t afraid to risk offending its audience, whether it’s with the the show’s version of Siskel and Ebert in which two gay black critics give films “two snaps up” or with the Home Boys Shopping Network, with two characters who have appeared twice, once selling stolen goods out of the back of a truck, inviting you to call in your orders on a nearby pay phone, the other time hawking cars in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium.