By "black family sitcom," I thought it was pretty clear I was talking about a show about a black family. I wasn't defending the quality of its representation.

And in the middle of sweeps, no less. So weird.

Perhaps if there were a history of denying straight sexuality in popular culture…

Yes, please. But I buy the extenuating circumstances (he's not reserved exactly but he's in that direction, it's only been a handful of episodes, it's a workplace sitcom, etc) so far. I assume we'll meet his husband at some point.

Same on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and he's co-lead!

Fox also had The PJs in the beginning and The Bernie Mac Show at a time when the other networks were already moving away from black sitcoms.

Agreed, but that's true of a lot of (most?) network comedy.

Fox also had the last black family sitcom on network TV: The Cleveland Show.

We had a whole string of Fs in the spring I think…The Following, some reality show…other stuff. All I know is I did my part.

@3daa52f812469cab80eedded5260b11f:disqus @avclub-2bdeb0325d28c8cd038bf44e36f49eb5:disqus I'm just going off of Todd's tweets & comments. The fact that he says he would have liked to have had a toggle option between the old and the new designs makes me think that's not happening. There should really be an FAQ post…

That was my bookmark, too! Never used /sections (or whatever it was called).

I don't know if anyone's answered this yet b/c I'm having trouble with the comments too, but I hear grades are coming back. Not the highest priority, but hopefully it won't be too long. (And I have no idea if that will include our old grades, so here's hoping.)

It's still available as a grade to us in the CMS, so watch out, Glee haters!

Do you know where to track down The Westerner? I've been wanting to see it but don't know how without buying a bunch of those low-quality 86 Classic Western Episodes sets.

Me TV is my favorite! Gunsmoke and Thriller and Combat! Andy Griffith Show in the mornings. It's basically been on 24/7 in my room since I discovered it a few months ago, except for Sunday mornings when it airs modern Canadian kids' programming for that extra dose of WTF is going on with this channel.

I won't speak for @Sara but—basically repeating a comment I just wrote lower in this thread—Cosby's just a start. Ellen and Will And Grace aren't really my idea of progressive gay representation, but they were valuable steps nonetheless.
"LOL @ the old black guy" is pretty superficial next to "jesus christ what have…

To me, the disappearance of the black family sitcom is such a big deal that it vastly eclipses Cosby's old-fashioned/out-of-touch squareness. No one person is up to the task of speaking to/for all of a minority group; this is just a start. Such mental contortions are necessary to pit Cosby as the establishment in this…

But at this point showing any relatively functional black family would be progress.

Allow me to throw in a vote for "You Really Got Me" in "The Other Woman." I was high as a kite for weeks on the combination of The Kinks and Peggy's smile.

So much yes. Shoulda run up and accepted Natalie Portman's Oscar as far as I'm concerned.