Shows in the '70s and '80s were a lot more provocative. Shows that are coming out now - like 'Black-Ish,' 'The Carmichael Show' - are showcasing people of color in a new way. It's not stereotypical.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
People love to talk about how the '70s are the only time they made movies about characters, and adult movies, and complicated people. But in the '80s, they got away with some of those too.
In Australia, there just weren't strong roles for actors of colour. I was often being asked to turn up for commercials with a ghetto blaster on my shoulder. I thought, 'Are we in the '60s?'
The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the entertainment business was atrocious. It was atrocious.
I do remember doing shows strictly in black and white, too, so you're right.
The '80s seem a real positive force. The '70s were deadening, in a lot of ways.
It's nice to have been around long enough to be a part of people's lives. A lot of people who come to my show are real nostalgic for the '80s.
I think that I recall the nostalgic '50s: the start of early television and rock-and-roll, and I think everything seemed to get very generic. Not much has changed.
If you take the '70s with Blaxploitation pictures, there was a proliferation of black-content films and motion pictures, television, stage plays and so forth at a time when Hollywood was in trouble financially, and it was cheaper to do black films to keep the lights on until they could reestablish themselves.
The '80s were fabulous. The '90s sucked, and the '70s were just a sad, sad time in human history. Go 1980s! There's something that's just so cute about that time. And not just yellow nail polish and 'I'm a loner.'
I didn't like the '80s at all; it was a vulgar moment of fashion.