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A WWTD Exclusive Preview: Buppies

Thembi Ford 15 September 2008 16 Comments

Every weekend I settle down in front of my Dish Network DVR-equipped television and instead of watching new programming I end up running old episodes of A Different World and Living Single. Lately I’ve been thinking that we’ve reached the end of the road when it comes to smart black entertainment. As much as I have hopes that BET’s new series Somebodies, which I reviewed last week, will age into something more palatable, I just got my hands on something new that makes me ultimately optimistic about the future of black entertainment.

One major force contributing to the tired state of black television has been the medium of television itself; black television has been constrained by the whims of white television executives who have been somehow convinced that only chicken-neckin’, finger-snappin’, and jokes about how white people don’t have butts can make appropriate advertising vehicles for the black community. Smart black shows aren’t supposed to succeed, so they don’t get funding, and Thembi gets sad. When you look at it that way, it all becomes so obvious that the web is the venue of the future when it comes to more realistic depictions of black folks, and that’s where the new web series Buppies comes in. A few of my college classmates have been working on the project so I got to check out some clips ahead of time. From what I’ve seen so far I am so very excited – Thembi seal of approval left and right. The project is wrapping post production, so I’m not allowed to say too much just yet, but thanks to a little journalistic pressure I did get permission to share the premise: “Buppies follows the misadventures of five black entertainment industry professionals mining the meaning of life in Hollywood’s social wasteland.” Directed by Julian Breece and starring Tatyana Ali (The Fresh Prince of Bel Air), Ernest Waddell (The Wire, Law & Order: SVU), and newcomer Damien Wigfall (who is so fine I’d like to take a bite out of him), Buppies has drama and comedy in that smart, multifaceted, and true-to-life vein. I’m planning on being a huge supporter of this show so I’ll provide more info in the future, but for now check out the Buppies teaser in high def or right below to get a sense of what’s to come:

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16 Comments »

  • A.Smith said:

    Ooohhh

    Me likey.

    You know, funny you mentioned Living Single because I definitely spent all weekend watching Season 1 and crying for the future of black television.

    # 15 September 2008 at 4:01 pm
  • Manchild said:

    Hello Thembi,

    Thanks for the “heads up.” I don’t even watch BET. I stopped when they unwisely chose to cut Mr. Ed Gordon and Ms. Jackie Reed loose.

    As an author and professional photographer, I respect the power of the written word and visual images. I’ll help you spread the word about “Buppies” so please keep me updated whenever time permits.

    Manchild

    # 15 September 2008 at 4:03 pm
  • Reginald Dorsey said:

    Did you know that when Tatianna start at your school, cats at Tufts were going apeshit trying to figure out how to get a glimpse of her? There was practiacally a Niagara Convention to come up with a solution.

    # 15 September 2008 at 4:14 pm
  • Laurie said:

    OMG, when is this comin out?

    When that cute boy kissed that other cute boy I was like GIRRRRRL!!!

    DRA-MA. I tried that Somebodies show on BET too but this looks more my speed. And looks like it had some dollars put in on it.

    Do they have a website? I would support something like this.

    # 15 September 2008 at 4:46 pm
  • Anonymiss said:

    Hey Thembi,
    I’ll be checking for this. I gave up on TV a while ago cuz there’s nothing good anymore (save for Ugly Betty, The Game, and a few news magazine shows). The reality shows are God-awful. Netflix has been holding it down for a minute :-)

    # 15 September 2008 at 4:52 pm
  • KaraBelle said:

    Who is the dark-skinned girl? I fee like I’m seen her in something. I can already tell she’s gonna be my favorite. And look at Taty all grown up and beatin some ass. I’m happy for her cause this looks good.

    # 15 September 2008 at 5:27 pm
  • Thembi said:

    @karabelle
    That actress’ name is Chante Frierson. She’s been on Boston Public and ER, but u may remember her as a kid on the last season of A Different World playing one of Whitleys pupils. If u scratch your head hard enough u may remember how the group Immature had recurring roles for a bit, and this actress was another one of the kids.

    # 15 September 2008 at 6:21 pm
  • Malcolm said:

    Thank goodness for the Internet because otherwise a lot of promising projects like “Buppies” would die on the vine. I think we are going to see more and more Black producers bypass the networks for the Internet in order to get their voices heard on their own terms.

    # 15 September 2008 at 8:46 pm
  • Anonymous said:

    hi, please where can i watch this show?

    # 16 September 2008 at 3:36 pm
  • Ill Mami said:

    This looks super fresh! Can’t wait to Tivo these episodes. Let’s all just hope that TV execs don’t prematurely can it because they don’t “get” it.

    # 16 September 2008 at 6:28 pm
  • Chuck said:

    Looks like it will be a good call. I’ll be watching . . .
    Holla.

    # 17 September 2008 at 3:37 am
  • brohammas said:

    What!?! Does this mean my wife can stop subjecting me to reruns of Differnt World? Sure that show was good, but no TV is good enough for me to have all the episodes memorized.

    # 17 September 2008 at 6:00 am
  • Anonymous said:

    i don’t like it because why the dark girl gotta be the hoochie and the light girl gotta be the bougie?

    # 17 September 2008 at 7:21 pm
  • Anonymous said:

    it’s acting folks. All rolls are fun to play, why do we have to make it a light skinned dark skinned thing? Can’t we just support the black project!!!

    # 18 September 2008 at 3:30 pm
  • Qucifer said:

    AWESOME
    had you not put this out there I wouldn’t have heard cause at this point i truly forgot what channel is BET that’s how long I quit the devil!

    I too grabbed on to my crotch when the boys kissed!

    # 18 September 2008 at 8:41 pm
  • jazzfan360 said:

    This is a BET joint?? Lord, there might be some hope out there after all, ’cause I never expected anything this decent-looking to come up outta that messhole. This gives me hope…maybe folks won’t have to wait till I get out to L.A. to have a quality black soap opera.

    # 1 October 2008 at 5:56 pm

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