Cosby Show Redux?

Reed Between the Lines on BET starring Malcolm Jamal Warner and Tracee Ellis Ross premiered a couple of  weeks ago bringing back to TV this week an African-American family comedy.   After reading an interview with Ross and Warner in which the mention the dearth of such situation comedies I thought back to the Black family shows that I grew up watching amid shows like "Family Ties" and "Growing Pains".  Of course "The Cosby Show" is a classic sit-com that was a universal hit and appealed across color lines. What is interesting is that in the 1980's and 1990's there were many hit shows featuring African-American families, "227" starring Marla Gibbs, Jackee and Regina King, "Amen" Sherman Hemsley's show and "Family Matters".

They are showing competent parents that understand the tech crazy and pop culture references (Twilight party) that their children are involved in.  I want to like this show, I want it to succeed and for that to happen it has to be about more than showing us a successful couple and their precocious off-spring.  I'll say what others are saying, the writing is uneven and it can not be an updated version of "The Cosby Show". I don't think that it is a redux of that show, but of course the comparisons will be there and the stars of the show are aware of that. Still, I'm happy that it exists.

The last show that centered around an African-American family was Chris Rock's "Everybody Hates Chris", the show was cancelled for poor ratings. Yet, it has been proven that African-Americans watch just as much if not more TV than other groups.

Though, when I look at diversity on television I have to give credit to Shonda Rhimes for her multi-cultural casts, and I'm looking forward to her newest drama "The Circle".  But Rhimes deals in dramas and I am looking for laughs.  I'm interested in seeing what will come of Mindy Kaling's development deal with NBC. I'm hoping that her show will feature a diverse casts of cut-ups. I'm thinking a more multi-culti version of "Happy Endings" (that show has really grown on me, but I still miss "Cougar Town")