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Re: updating the classic TV series with a black cast, director John Schultz commented in a recent news article, ” If you’re going to tell a story in 2005 about a guy driving a bus and his best friend who works in a sewer, the idea that they’re [black comedians] Cedric [the Entertainer] and Mike [Epps] seems right.” I hear Mexican President Vincente Fox was a consultant on the project. Set aside the fact that the movie just isn’t funny — not even with the Entertainer’s and Epps’ boogaloo-shufflin’ and “Aw shucks, we din screw up ‘gin!” routine. What value is added to the original sitcom by black-facing the cast, besides some flawed illusion of integration that says black married couples can be just as good as those upstanding blue-collar workers of yore? Let’s see a white cast of Good Times, or better yet Boyz N The Hood, and see how funny that is. (BM) 
This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2005.
