keeping up with the johnsons

 

As a child of the 70s, I grew up on a steady diet of sitcoms that revolved around black families: The Jeffersons, Sanford & Son, Good Times, and What's Happening were all regularly showing at our house. As the decade came to a close, these were replaced by The Cosby Show and its spinoff, A Different World. I enjoyed watching all of these but none of them came anywhere close to the brilliance of The Bernie Mac Show. It was one of the first shows that Loys & I Tivoed when we got our magical black box and we spent many happy hours laughing out loud at the man's amazing comic timing and sensibility.

I heard today that Bernie Mac died yesterday of pneumonia in his hometown of Chicago and it made me very sad. I hadn't seen his show since it went off the air in 2006, but I remember several of the episodes as if I saw them yesterday. He was a talented man and he will be greatly missed.