The Undisputed Ranking of Every ‘In Living Color’ Cast Member

https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/the-undisputed-ranking-of-every-%E2%80%98in-living-color%E2%80%99-cast-member.3957676/

On January 26,1992, In Living Color changed television. “We decided to do a live episode during halftime of the Super Bowl in 1992,” recalled the show’s creator and host Keenen Ivory Wayans in a 2019 Hollywood Reporter oral history of the landmark series. “Before we did our halftime special, it was just marching bands. That was the time during the game when everybody went to pee. But after our special, the next year, they hired Michael Jackson.”

Indeed, Fox’s idea to present TV’s most dangerous sketch comedy series as savvy counter-programming opposite America’s most watched sporting event woke up sleepy football fans with a punch to the face. Cast members Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier’s “Men on Football” sketch — which featured ridiculously camp, effeminate culture critics Blaine Edwards and Antoine Merriweather — let off a barrage of innuendos, joked about actor Richard Gere’s urban-legend dealings with a gerbil, and speculated about Olympic track great Carl Lewis’s sexuality. Censor lights exploded. Advertisers grumbled and threatened to pull money. But by the time the controversy dissipated, the special live episode had drawn an astounding 25 million viewers away from Super Bowl XXVI’s 79.6 million viewers.

In Living Color, with its mostly Black cast, was already the coolest, boldest, funniest show on television. Now it was a pop culture monster. It was just what Keenen planned when he first assembled the classic lineup of himself, brother and sister Damon and Kim, Grier, Tommy Davidson, Jim Carrey, T’Keyah Crystal Keymáh, Kim Coles, and Kelly Coffield.

From ’90 to ’94, the Emmy-winning show took dead aim at the more established, mostly White Saturday Night Live. Maybe it was because Damon Wayans had been fired from the long-running series in 1986. Many of his same characters that didn’t make it out of SNL’s writer’s room popped up later on his big brother’s bold experiment. Vaunted sketches and characters like Homey D. Clown and the aforementioned Men On Film set the stage for other rebellious favorites like Fire Marshall Bill, Frenchie, Funky Finger Productions, the Snackin’ Shack, Velma Mulholland, and Calhoun Tubbs.

Ultimately, conflict with network executives and internal politics led to a Wayans family exodus; in their wake, new blood like future superstar Jamie Foxx, veteran actress Anne-Marie Johnson, impressionist Ali Wentworth, and budding standup savant Chris Rock held down the show. The revitalization effort may not have taken — ratings dipped and the series was eventually canceled — but In Living Color still lives on, its legacy surfacing clearly in left-field sketch projects like Chappelle’s Show, Astronomy Club, and Sherman’s Showcase.

In a celebration of a show that gave no fucks, LEVEL presents the definitive ranking of every In Living Color cast member. Bring in the Fly Girls!