Why The Carmichael Show was Essential for Network Television

In a world where the black sitcom exists as the black unicorn, The Carmichael Show closely and most accurately depicted the black family of our time.

Critics rant and rave about Black-ish, and Empire has been a successful running series out the gate, but they lack in the most important aspect that Jerrod Carmichael gave in every show – raw authenticity.

Black-ish follows a family trying to navigate their way through their “white worlds.” The patriarch, with his job where his white colleagues claim to understand the black issues facing society… but they don’t get it. His wife, the biracial anesthesiologist, who can juggle her job and is still able to fulfill her roles as a mother. And their children, who attend private schools with a low percentage of black student population, are assimilating to their social circles. The show is always about the dad trying to convince either his co-workers of the injustices of black people, or he’s trying to teach his family to be “more Black” – ergo the title of the show and the type of lives that they are living, a black-ish one. It’s about understanding blackness while the characters are figuring it out along with you.

And Empire (by the way, I LOVE Empire) is just a dram-ical (drama and musical). If the plots are crazy enough, and the music produced from the show is urban enough, it will continue to thrive on FOX. But in no way does that show help depict what life is like for the average Black person, unless you think that all black people sell drugs to make enough money to follow their rap dreams – and there are people out there who believe that.

NBC’s plot summary for the show is, “Jerrod and his therapist-in-training girlfriend, Maxine, are intelligent, ambitious and ready to take the next step to building a fulfilling life by moving in together. The one thing holding them back is Jerrod's loveable but spirited family. At home he has a brother, Bobby, who has a big personality which he uses in his endless string of hustles, his obstinate father, Joe, and his Jesus-praising mother, Cynthia. Together, the three of them test Jerrod and Maxine as they learn about romance, family and trying to stay sane.” But it was so much more than that.

Where The Carmichael Show succeeded amongst the other show’s failures was that the nature of the show was rooted and secure in the authenticity of the black family.

It’s the blackness that we don’t usually choose to show others; it’s our inside joke. It may come off as prejudice and racially charged, but it’s who we are and there is no malice behind it. The faster every other culture can come to understand that, the easier life will be. I think what makes it somewhat acceptable is the fact that our views on the world are seen through rose-tinted glasses. It’s a scary world that we live in, and it has been terrifying for black people for quite some time, but if we set it to the tune of a joke it’s deemed acceptable – to an extent.

According to the Carmichael family, depression doesn’t exist. It's something that only rich white people claim to have, “something to give their life adversity.” I laughed because it’s a very common notion within the black community that depression is not a real disease although there is scientific proof to show its certainty. Black people can’t be depressed, or classify it as such, we are too busy working and trying to survive.

We learned that the black mother’s role in the family is to be the pillar that uplifts and strengthens the family, regardless the inner turmoil that she is enduring.

And regardless of the physical abuse and abandonment you endure at the hands of your father, when he dies you will bury him and give a thoughtful eulogy… although you don’t know enough about him to speak. It’s the right thing to do, to put on a show and keep up a façade, even though the pain he’s caused will last a lifetime.

Carmichael took the social events happening around us and introduced them to the world in the way that Black people see it. Conversations that occurred on the show take form at any barbershop, in any home, and what we saw depicted is mainly what black people feel. I have to say; black folk do have a very colorful way of looking at things.

Would anyone consider going to a Bill Cosby stand-up show now, after the allegations? Jerrod argues that talent is more important than morals, Maxine suggests that his crimes outweigh his accomplishments, the Carmichael family is unsure. Their rapport is hilarious, and the discussion is insightful.

One word: gentrification. If you don’t understand it, S02 E05 Gentrifying Bobby will clarify what it is and how we feel about it.

And in the Carmichael house, there are two rules: no voting for Donald Trump and no touching Cynthia’s Dove body wash with microbeads – both which Joe refuses to follow.

Even more touchy topics, such as rape and the N-word, are addressed on the show. Some of the studio audience’s laughs are forced and uncomfortable. They were not dubbed over and they were not cut from the show because these everyday topics are not off-limits and shouldn’t be when it comes to comedy.

I think where NBC went wrong with the show was not remembering that it was a comedy. Everyone gets so offended these days that even comedians can’t do stand up without people in their audience taking offense. Dave Chappelle touched on this topic in his last Netflix special Equanimity, “It’s too hard to entertain a country whose ears are so brittle. Motherfuckers are so sensitive; the whole country has turned into bitch-ass niggas. Everything you say upsets somebody.”

Carmichael and his writers stage counterarguments via the other characters, something that he is not able to provide in his stand-ups. His objecting family members, especially Maxine, act as the rebuttals of the crowd, which makes this sitcom ahead of its time. Some of the issues and the jokes were edgy, way too edgy for network television. It was as if he brought the comedy club to primetime TV, but NBC was not HBO or Netflix (where the first two seasons of the show reside) and it proved to be a little too much.

At the end of the day, it was a show about a family’s interactions with each other as they encounter the issues of life. The same domestic problems arise – Jerrod’s mom, Cynthia, doesn’t like her son’s girlfriend, Maxine. Maxine is the devil’s advocate, always. This doesn’t help her status with Cynthia. Bobby, Jerrod’s older brother, is divorced yet comically living with his ex-wife. And Joe Carmichael reminds me of the patriarch of every black family.

There were no putting on airs or trying to make the Black Experience seem like more than it was. It was just a show; a funny and thought-provoking view on how a black family pilots through a time where Black Lives Matters, mass shootings are an everyday occurrence, and where the notions of a President Donald Trump are in their humble beginnings.