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Rating: 
Summary: Superficial at best
Review: A cursory look at a serious topic. This should have been a wonderful book, but it leaves the reader with a profound sense of disappointment. An important era in black TV has been missed, and awaits more competent treatment.
Rating:
Summary: A Missed Opportunity
Review: As a Professor of African American Studies, I was deeply disappointed by this book. The author seemed intent on keeping it real instead of getting it right -- a cardinal sin for any academic. This is a worthy topic for a good book -- perhaps someday that book will be written, by someone more capable.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must for Followers of Black Television
Review: Bravo to Kristal! I have had a tremendous interest in the behind-the-scenes events of Black television. I read tv credits with a microscope (figuratively speaking) and it was a joy to read excerpts of Kristal's interviews with the likes of Ralph Farquhar, Robert Townsend and Yvette Lee Bowser. These are my role models and now Kristal Brent Zook is one as well.We are short on critics with the type of sensibilities Kristal clearly has for the black community, political viewpoints and scholarship. I look forward to more from Dr. Zook. Color by Fox is a great start. Don't miss out on the first publication from someone from which we are sure to hear more.
Rating:
Summary: Waste
Review: I wanted this book to drop some science on me about the recent waves of shows that I cared about -- but this book didn't do it. It doesn't seem like she talked to any of the people that really mattered -- maybe she talked to a few people on this show and than, but I didn't know more after reading this book than from reading TV guide. I didn't like this book because it seemed like she had one thing to say and kept saying it over and over again and did not delve into anything with any depth.
Rating: 
Summary: A behind-the-scenes look at black television
Review: My goal in writing this book was to highlight the ways in which African American producers, writers and directors struggle to represent themselves in television. Growing up in Hollywood and later, becoming a journalist and Professor of African American and Cultural Studies, I was especially interested in the explosion of black-produced shows on the Fox network in the early 1990's. It was the first time in the history of the medium that relatively large numbers of black people were given the opportunity to represent social issues from their own unique point of view. What they had to say was quite refreshing. I spent hours on sets, interviewing those behind, and in front of the cameras. I found fascinating stories. It was no coincidence, for example, that Charles Dutton, former star of "Roc", took very seriously his duty to warn young, black viewers about becoming entangled in the prison industrial complex. Dutton himself had done time before discovering the power of acting and theater. For all the criticism about their "buffoonish" comedy, I also found that comedians such as Keenen Ivory Wayans, Damon Wayans, Jamie Foxx and Martin Lawrence wrestled with the issue of structural racism in America, and their response to it as black men. I devoted an entire chapter to the work of Yvette Lee Bowser, the first African American woman to create a successful primetime series, "Living Single." It was significant to me that Bowser was also attempting to address issues not normally presented in the mainstream media, such as, being a professional black woman in the 1990's, looking for love, and trying to understand relationships. On "The Sinbad Show," the comedian fought for a semi-dramatic episode about the historical legacy of color discrimination among light and dark-skinned blacks. This episode met with resistance at every turn. It was a powerful attempt to address a very real and painful issue among us. As my book was in the editing stages, I had the opportunity to work behind the scenes as a producer on a "black" show. For years, I had responded to television as a journalist and an academic. For the first time, I was able to see from the other side of the camera. I began to understand more fully the demands the industry makes on one's vision, and indeed, one's very sense of self. I believe that television can and should be engaged politically. I believe that it is possible, and even necessary that we address social justice issues through this medium, which remains "on" an average of 11-14 hours in American households. It is not enough to speak generally of the contributions made by African Americans during the 1990's; we must study and engage them, using the tools of critical theory and analysis to appreciate their ongoing significance.
Rating: 
Summary: Race and Media: the Real Deal
Review: This is a seriously important book. Zook makes a strong claim for the appeal of such Black-produced shows like In Living Color, Roc, South Central, The Fresh Prince of Bell Air, Living Single, Martin, and New York Undercover to a largely Black audience. Zook argues and illustrates how these shows were built off a Black autobiographical tradition of Black writers, producers, and actors. As I remember watching the shows, they often dealt with intraracial group issues that though not always easily understood by white viewers were nevertheless both entertaining and culturally important to Black viewers. I'm not sure if there are similiar or better works published that deal with Zook's claims and analysis. Many of the shows listed above delt with complicated issues of race, class, and gender surely not found in mainstream shows. In her analysis, she explores four common traits that reappear in these shows: "these can be summarized as: autobiography, meaning a tendacy toward collective and individual authorship of black experience; improvisation, the practice of inventing and ad-libbing unscripted dialogue or action; aeasthetics, a certain pride in visual signifiers of blackness; and drama, a marked desire for complex characterization and emotionally challenging subject." An entire media literacy course could be built around this book. Probably at no other time or in the near future will we see Black representation as culturally sensistive as it was during the time these shows were cast on Fox. It's important that we use these shows as case studies for the future of Black representation in the media. I would love to dialogue with others who choose to read this book. Write me not at the above address, but at BChavanu@excite.com.
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