Do you know your sitcoms? What about the iconic Black sitcoms? Of course, you gotta talk about the icons like Martin, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, A Different World and more are on top of the all-time greatest black sitcoms. What about the Black Sitcoms You’ve Never Heard of? A lot of questions but don’t worry I have all the answers. Every year a lot of shows get are pitched to TV Networks and some even get their chance on television. In a lot of cases though, they never get fully picked up. Let’s talk about one really interesting one that was probably the most original pitch.
A Little Bit Strange
A Little Bit Strange is a 1989 failed pilot about an African-American family that happens to be monsters, “A widower raising a bizarre family. He and his son are warlocks, his daughter is a witch, his mother-in-law is psychic, his brother a soul-singing bat, and his nephew is made of mud. A “normal” girl marries into this family.” The pilot’s sole airing was on April 23, 1989, on NBC channels. The plot synopsis in newspapers read “a man tries to hide the fact that he is a sorcerer from an unsuspecting fiance.” This footage is from one of two commercials on YouTube but currently, there is no place to view the complete pilot. The show starred Michael Warren, famous for the show Hillstreet Blues, Vanessa Bell Calloway from such movies as What’s Love Got to Do With It & Coming To America, Cherie Johnson famous for her roles on Punky Brewster & Family Matters. The star I really wanted to talk about was some guy named….MARTIN LAWRENCE. In only his second role ever, he had only a run on the show What’s Happening Now! before this. This was only three years before his iconic show, Martin. If this show got picked up, would we have gotten that? I’m glad we don’t know but maybe we should bring this premise back. We can be warlocks and witches right?!
Now we can’t find any episodes of A Little Strange but I have found some other rare Black Sitcoms you can find on YouTube. Here is the list:
