From HelloBeautiful

Reunited and it feels so good!

One of our favorite on-screen couples from the ’90s have found themselves back in each other’s arms. Well, almost.

Clueless stars Stacey Dash and Donald Faison — better known as dysfunctional couple Dionne and Murray — will be starring side-by-side again on an episode of the TV Land comedy, “The Exes.”

According to reports, Dash will play Dana, a recommitted virgin who is currently dating Faison’s character, Phil.

The episode is slated to air in July, but until then, lets take a look at 10 other couples from television and the big screen that we’d love to see work together again.

Read more at HelloBeautiful.com

Yesterday, during my daily Tumblr search, I found a video of Issa Rae and Andrea Lewis, formerly of “Degrassi” and currently of Those Girls Are Wild. In the video they were talking about how the portrayal of black women on television has changed, for the worst over the years. They specially referenced the golden era, the 90′s. When they discussed the positive role models we had on television at the time the first woman that came to both of their minds was “Laura Winslow” (Kellie Wiliams-Jackson). They talked about how Laura was the type of girl they could see themselves being friends with. She was normal. A regular high school girl we watched evolve into a sophisticated woman when she cut her long hair into that sleek, short Nia Long look. Honestly, the conversation left me with a bittersweet feeling. Sweet because those were good times in television and bitter because things just aren’t like that anymore. Well, in an effort to remember the good ole days, here are the black women, and in some cases teenagers or young girls, we loved to watch on television.

I was excited to see the movie Alex Cross not too long ago.  The idea of one of my favorite celebrities, Tyler Perry, appearing in a role that was quite different from all of his others was enough to make me buy a ticket and go support him.  I was impressed with the movie, but what I was not impressed with was their selection of characters.  I must say, I was disappointment to discover that one of the few women in the movie who was of a darker complexion was once again playing something extremely negative. Another female stereotype for dark-skinned women.  Come on Hollywood, enough is enough!

This movie was not the first time females of a darker complexion have been featured in stereotypical, negative roles.  This unfortunate typecasting that is happening so frequently that the list of ghetto and criminal roles is becoming exhaustive.  The dark-skinned female in Alex Cross was not only a criminal, but she was inarticulate as well. And this depiction made me think back on many other beautiful black women who looked like this woman and played a similar character on-screen. Angela’s character from the Why Did I Get Married movies and series is extremely loud and uncouth.  The sole hood character in the beloved “The Proud Family” series, Dijonay, was a dark-skinned little girl.  The drugged out prostitute, Candy, in Madea goes to Jail was dark-skinned.   The list goes on and on and on.  It’s a good thing I have enough sense to know that criminals and those with no level of tact come in all complexions, or else I may have been inclined to think the only women capable of living sub-standard lives are dark-skinned.

In the ’60s and ’70s there were a number of positive portrayals of women of darker complexions in both movies and television.  The “Black is beautiful” motto afforded all types of black women the opportunity to be cast in a variety of roles. Dark-skinned beauties like Roxie Roker and Isabel Sanford played wealthy, married women in the long-running sitcom The Jeffersons.  Isabel Sanford’s historic Emmy win for her role in The Jeffersons proved that others appreciated her talent and the versatility she brought to her character. And don’t even get me started on the graceful (but broke) Florida Evans on Good Times, or Maxine Shaw in Living Single. So what is going on with the limited positive characters for us now?

It may all boil down to our people and the power we hold in the media.  Before I get electronically blacklisted, please read on.  More and more African Americans have made influential decisions in what occurs in television and movies.  To whites, black people are black people regardless of skin tone.  We are usually the only ones hung up on the different shades we come in.  I’m aware that there are other groups of people that experience colorism, but for the sake of argument, I’m only referencing black people and white people.  Once white people opened up to the idea of allowing us to be in the media, there was usually a wide range of black people they selected for various roles.  Fast forward to today’s world and we can find a large assortment of dark-skinned women playing criminals or hood rats and an even larger variety of light-skinned women playing classy, sought after women.  Who is responsible for these distorted depictions of black women?

I believe we hold the power to promote or eliminate these biased viewpoints.  Considering a dark-skinned woman is the First Lady of the United States, one would assume most of these inaccurate stereotypes would have been removed. But when we hear about people like S. Epatha Merkerson who had no problem vocalizing her displeasure with seeing a dark-skinned child playing a role she felt should have gone to a fair-skinned child, I realized exactly where stereotypes and negative undertones may come from.  When our own people attempt to remove a role, recognition, and compensation from another solely because “she didn’t feel that a white person and a black person can create a dark child,” I can see why a lot of our roles are limited or menial at best.

Ms. Merkerson seems to share similar opinions of some rappers, actors, and other celebrities. They appear to have no qualms about stating their preferences and the scales do not generally tip in favor of women. with a darker complexion  While it’s acceptable to state preferences, it is really starting to be unacceptable to continuously equate dark-skinned women with demoralizing traits more often than not.  If you ask me, if it weren’t for loud, angry, criminal, and “Aunt Jemima” looking mammy roles dark-skinned women would be even hidden in Hollywood than they already are.

Just because I have an adequate understanding of the origin of many stereotypes doesn’t mean it should be tolerated even if many of them come from our own people.  As I anxiously await more and more dark-skinned women to be represented fairly in the media, I will continue to be thankful for the ones who are making strides with more positive roles–however small in number they may be.

If you’ve been following Madame Noire for a while now, you might have surmised that we have a bit of a thang for “Living Single.” We’ve interviewed three cast members for our Where You Been series, (Kim Coles– Synclaire, T.C. Carson– Kyle, and Cress Williams– Scooter.), we talk about  Erica Alexander “Max” all the time and yearn for the days when seasons 2-5 will be released on DVD. (Hint Hint) So, it’s only natural that we see ourselves in one or more of the characters on this show. And which character had a stronger, more relatable presence than “Khadijah James”? So in that vein, I’m here to explain why we’re all “Khadijah” in some form or fashion. Check it…

Source: Sharetv.org

1. The ex that got away…or won’t go away

Remember the love connection between Khadijah and childhood friend Scooter? Don’t we all have a story that goes something like that? There’s always that fling or former boo who, for better or worst, keeps popping up. In Khadijah’s case it was the friend turned something more. But for you it might be the ex who never quite found peace with the way you two ended things and is steadily in your face.

Black women aren’t always given the opportunity to portray strong or positive female leading characters on-screen, particularly because Hollywood is dominated by men…white men. Somehow, however, the following women have struck gold in films and television shows that would have them act as outstanding characters, showcasing strength and character in multiple capacities, depicting black women who are struggling with death, romance, violence, revenge, scandal, betrayal or simply trying to survive–all in a gracious and entertaining way.

“Scandal”: Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington stars in ABC’s Scandal as crisis manager, Olivia Pope. Pope’s character is loosely based on the real life crisis manager, Judy Smith. Washington portrays Pope as a headstrong, heavy-hearted woman who personally bears each burden that presents itself in her life. Pope leads a team of attorneys who are tasked with the goal of solving issues for politicians, celebrities and athletes. Scandal doesn’t elude Pope’s personal life, after all, she was carrying on an affair with the president of the United States–making the show all the more interesting.

We already told you guys that we’re Living Single obsessed, right? If you haven’t checked out our interviews with Kyle (T.C. Carson) and Sinclair (Kim Coles) already, please do. This time, we got Cress Williams aka “Scooter” on the hot seat. We pretty much already know what Williams has been up to as he’s been steadily working on television since he made his popular appearance on Living Single as Khadijah’s love interest, but we still wanted to catch up with him to reminisce about the good ol’ days on set. Check out the interview and make sure to check him out on his current stint in “Hart of Dixie” on the CW network.

Where You Been?

Check Out Past Editions of Where You Been

• Where You Been Cherie Johnson?
• Where You Been Kim Coles?
• Where You Been Kiely Williams of 3LW?
• Where You Been Reggie Hayes aka William From Girlfriends?

As you can tell here at Madame Noire, we’re huge fans of Living Single which is why we’ve made it our personal mission to track down every cast member and see what they’ve been up to (we’re still waiting for you to hit us up Maxine Shaw!)

Check out our interview with T.C. Carson, who played the ever-debonair Kyle Barker, on the show, who tells us what the days were like on the set of Living Single and what he’s been working on these days.

Rachel Worth/WENN

As Hollywood has changed, so have some of our favorite stars.  People we used to see all the time sort of disappear on us and we never hear about them again.  That’s just the way it seems to go for many stars but we just wanted to take a minute to shout out some of the actors we miss!

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Source: christmastvhistory.com

Before reality tv ran rampant, there was a such thing as a scripted program. Some of them were called situation comedies, more often known as sitcoms. Such shows featured a series of actors or actresses. And in rare instances these shows featured a predominately black cast. But not like a reality show, where bottles were thrown, tables were shook or altercations ensued, these cast members weren’t beefing with each other; but portrayed the notion of friendship. Though they had their differences, they ultimately had each others’ best interests at heart. Reminiscent of a younger, darker Golden Girls and the predecessor to Girlfriends, Living Single was one of the best examples of a black sitcom and here are just a few reasons why we miss tuning into new episodes on Fox.

Relationships on television shows and in movies can be like a gift and a curse. Sometimes they can be so outlandish that you’re glad it’s not real. But then there are the times that you see a couple with issues you’ve seen in your own relationships and you instantly love them.  These are some of our favorite onscreen couples in television and movies. Who is your favorite?

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