A Strategic Pilot Leak Helped Launch One Of Fox’s Most Iconic Shows Of The ’90s

In 1990, Fox launched one of the most stratospherically successful sketch comedy series of all time, “In Living Color.” Created by comedy trailblazer Keenen Ivory Wayans and featuring a predominantly Black cast, its irreverent brand of humor pushed boundaries for Black comedy on television and launched the acting careers of legends like Jamie Foxx and Jim Carrey. However, the series initially drummed up controversy behind the scenes at Fox.

Before becoming the groundbreaking Emmy-winning series it’s known as now, Fox executives believed that the material would prove offensive. The network was reluctant to air “In Living Color” after seeing the pilot in 1989, and the show was therefore left in limbo for several months. Eventually, of course, “In Living Color” made it to air. Fox’s change of heart was prompted by writer and producer Tamara Rawitt who, by making the right connections, elicited excitement for the sketch comedy. The response was so positive -– and, crucially, so public –- that even Fox couldn’t ignore the noise and greenlit “In Living Color.”

In a retrospect from THR, the creators of “In Living Color” recalled Fox’s initial worries. “We shot the pilot. We did ‘Men on Films,’ ‘The Homeboy Shopping Network’ and ‘The Wrath of Farrakhan’ [based on Louis Farrakhan],” Keenen Ivory Wayans said. “We showed it to Fox, and they got nervous.” Garth Ancier, the Fox Entertainment President who had initially contacted Wayans, had left the network by the time the pilot was done, but was still able to see it and believed that the show was worth the green light. 

After the pilot sat on the shelf for six months, Tamara Rawitt took a bold risk to get the show made. “I discreetly passed along a copy to a journalist at Details magazine,” she revealed. “She loved it, got her editors enthused about the pilot and asked in print why it hadn’t been picked up. I faxed the piece to the exec team at Fox and we got our pick up.”

New Fox president Peter Chernin told THR, “Everyone who saw the pilot went crazy for it … It was just wildly funny, and network television had never done anything this pointed about race in America.” Even if “In Living Color” never matched the longevity of the over 50-year-old “Saturday Night Live,” its place in television history is without question.