Category: Whats Buzzing in the Streets

On this date in 1999, publication of The Boondocks is celebrated. This is an African American adult animated sitcom. The Boondocks is created by Aaron McGruder for Cartoon Network’s late-night programming block, Adult Swim. It is based upon his comic strip of the same name. The series premiered on November 6, 2005. The show begins with a Black family, the Freemans, settling into the fictional, friendly, and overall white suburb of Woodcrest. The perspective offered by this mixture of cultures, lifestyles, social classes, stereotypes, viewpoints, and racialized identities provides for much of the series’ satire, comedy, and conflict.The first series ended in 2014 with a total of 55 episodes over the course of the show’s four seasons, the last of which was produced without any involvement from McGruder. The series also has aired in syndication outside the United States and has been released on various DVD sets and other forms of home media. In June 2019, Sony Pictures Animation began producing a reboot of the television series to premiere in 2020 with McGruder’s involvement. On September 18, 2019, it was announced that HBO Max had picked up the reboot with a two-season order. Each season is set to consist of twelve episodes.

Written Dianne Washington

Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and writer, whose career spans seven decades of television. She is best known for her groundbreaking comedy variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, originally aired on CBS. It was one of the first of its kind to be hosted by a woman. She has achieved success on stage, television and film in varying genres including dramatic and comedic roles. She has also appeared on various talk shows and as a panelist on game shows. She would later have several daughters joining her in variety of American television series and films. She is the mother of Carrie Hamilton, an actress, Jody Hamilton, a producer and actress, and Erin Hamilton, a singer.Born in San Antonio, Texas, Burnett moved with her grandmother to Hollywood, where she attended Hollywood High School and eventually studied theater and musical comedy at UCLA. Later she performed in nightclubs in New York City and had a breakout success on Broadway in 1959 in Once Upon a Mattress, for which she received a Tony Award nomination. She soon made her television debut, regularly appearing on The Garry Moore Show for the next three years, and won her first Emmy Award in 1962. Burnett had her television special debut in 1963 when she starred as Calamity Jane in the Dallas State Fair Musicals production of Calamity Jane on CBS.[3] Burnett moved to Los Angeles, California, and began an 11-year run as star of The Carol Burnett Show on CBS television from 1967 to 1978. With its vaudeville roots, The Carol Burnett Show was a variety show that combined comedy sketches with song and dance. The comedy sketches included film parodies and character pieces. Burnett created many memorable characters during the show’s run, and both she and the show won numerous Emmy and Golden Globe Awards.During and after her variety show, Burnett appeared in many television and film projects. Her film roles include Pete ‘n’ Tillie (1972), The Front Page (1974), The Four Seasons (1981), Annie (1982), Noises Off (1992), and Horton Hears a Who! (2008). On television, she has appeared in other sketch shows; in dramatic roles in 6 Rms Riv Vu (1974) and Friendly Fire (1979); in various well-regarded guest roles, such as in Mad About You, for which she won an Emmy Award; and in specials with Julie Andrews, Dolly Parton, Beverly Sills, and others. She returned to the Broadway stage in 1995 in Moon Over Buffalo, for which she was again nominated for a Tony Award.Burnett has written and narrated several memoirs, earning Grammy nominations for almost all of them, and a win for In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox.In 2005, she was recognized as “one of America’s most cherished entertainers” and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom “for enhancing the lives of millions of Americans and for her extraordinary contributions to American entertainment.” by President George W. Bush. In 2013, Burnett was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2019, the Golden Globes named an award after her for career achievement in television, called the Carol Burnett Award, and Burnett received its first award.

Written by Dianne Washington

Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito (born April 26, 1958) is an American actor and director. He has played Gustavo “Gus” Fring on the AMC shows Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, a role for which he won the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama award at the 2012 Critics’ Choice Television Awards and was nominated for an Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award at the 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards.He has appeared in Spike Lee films such as Do the Right Thing, School Daze, and Mo’ Better Blues. His other film appearances include Fresh, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, The Usual Suspects and King of New York. He has portrayed Sidney Glass/the Magic Mirror on ABC’s Once Upon a Time and Major Tom Neville in the NBC series Revolution. He has had roles in two Netflix original series: The Get Down, wherein he portrays Pastor Ramon Cruz, and Dear White People, which he narrates. He also voiced “The Dentist” in the video game Payday 2.Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito was born in Copenhagen, the son of Giovanni Esposito, an Italian stagehand and carpenter from Naples, and Elizabeth Foster, an African American opera and nightclub singer from Alabama.Esposito was raised in Europe until the age of 6, when his family settled in Manhattan, New York. He attended Elizabeth Seton College in New York and earned a two-year degree in radio and television communications.Esposito made his Broadway debut (1966) at age 8 playing a slave child opposite Shirley Jones in the short-lived musical Maggie Flynn (1968), set during the New York Draft Riots of 1863.During the 1980s, Esposito appeared in films such as Taps, Maximum Overdrive, King of New York, and Trading Places. He also performed in TV shows such as Miami Vice and Spenser: For Hire. He played J. C. Pierce, a cadet in the 1981 movie Taps.In 1988 he landed his breakout role as the leader (“Dean Big Brother Almighty”) of the black fraternity “Gamma Phi Gamma” in director Spike Lee’s film School Daze, exploring color relations at black colleges. Over the next four years, Esposito and Lee collaborated on three other movies: Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues, and Malcolm X. During the 1990s Esposito appeared in the acclaimed indie films Night on Earth, Fresh and Smoke, as well as its sequel Blue in the Face. He also appeared in the mainstream film Reckless with Mia Farrow, and Waiting to Exhale starring Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett.Esposito played FBI agent Mike Giardello on the TV crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street. That role drew from both his African American and Italian ancestry. He played this character during the show’s seventh and final season. Mike’s estranged father, shift lieutenant Al Giardello, is portrayed as subject to racism, something Esposito’s character practiced in School Daze. Another multiracial role was as Sergeant Paul Gigante in the television comedy series, Bakersfield P.D. (Fox Broadcasting Company, 1993–94).In 1997 Esposito played the film roles of Darryl in Trouble on the Corner and Charlie Dunt in Nothing to Lose. Other TV credits include NYPD Blue, Law & Order, The Practice, New York Undercover, and Fallen Angels: Fearless.Esposito has portrayed drug dealers (Fresh, Breaking Bad, King of New York, Better Call Saul), policemen (The Usual Suspects, Derailed), political radicals (Bob Roberts, Do the Right Thing), and a demonic version of the Greek God of Sleep Hypnos from another dimension (Monkeybone). In 2001, he played Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr. in Ali, and Miguel Algarín, friend and collaborator of Nuyorican poet Miguel Piñero, in Piñero.In 2006 Esposito starred in Last Holiday as Senator Dillings, alongside Queen Latifah and Timothy Hutton. Also in 2006, he played an unsympathetic detective named Esposito in the 2005 film, Hate Crime. The film explores homophobia.Esposito played Robert Fuentes, a Miami businessman with shady connections, on the UPN television series South Beach. He has appeared in New Amsterdam and CSI: Miami. In Feel the Noise (2007), he played ex-musician Roberto, the Puerto Rican father of Omarion Grandberry’s character, aspiring rap star “Rob”.He made his directorial debut with Gospel Hill (2008); he also produced the film and starred in it.New York theatre credits for Esposito include The Me Nobody Knows, Lost in the Stars, Seesaw, and Merrily We Roll Along. In 2008 he appeared on Broadway as Gooper in an African American production of Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Debbie Allen and starring James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, and Terrence Howard.From 2009 to 2011, Esposito appeared in seasons 2 through 4 of the AMC drama Breaking Bad, as Gus Fring, the head of a New Mexico-based methamphetamine drug ring. In the fourth season, he was the show’s primary antagonist. He received critical acclaim for this role. He won the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama award at the 2012 Critics’ Choice Television Awards and was nominated for an Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award at the 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards, but lost to co-star Aaron Paul.He appeared in the film Rabbit Hole (2010).Esposito appeared in the first season of the ABC program Once Upon a Time, which debuted in October 2011. He portrayed the split role of Sidney, a reporter for The Daily Mirror in the town of Storybrooke, Maine, who is the Magic Mirror, possessed by The Evil Queen in a parallel fairy tale world.Esposito appeared in Revolution as Major Tom Neville, a central character who kills Ben Matheson in the pilot. He escorts a captured Danny to the capital Philadelphia of the Monroe Republic.Esposito also appeared in Community as a guest star for the episode entitled “Digital Estate Planning”. He performed again in the fourth season, in the episode titled “Paranormal Parentage”. Esposito has additionally appeared in a video of the action role-playing sci-fi first-person shooter game Destiny, as well as plays The Dentist, a non-playable story character, in the game Payday 2.He has joined the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series. He played Ra’s al Ghul in Son of Batman and Black Spider in Batman: Assault on Arkham. He had a recurring role in the first season of The Get Down on Netflix. In 2017, Esposito reprised his role as Gus Fring in the Breaking Bad prequel series, Better Call Saul. In the show’s second season, an anagram of the first letters of every episode name spelled out “FRING’S BACK”, which was revealed to be intentional by showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Esposito appeared in a teaser for the third season portraying Gus as the Los Pollos Hermanos owner, officially confirming Esposito’s involvement in season 3.He is currently portraying Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. in the EPIX series on Bumpy Johnson, “The Godfather of Harlem.”Esposito married Joy McManigal in 1995; they later divorced. He has four daughters.

Written by Dianne Washington

McFadden and Whitehead were an American songwriting, production, and recording duo, best known for their signature tune “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now”. They wrote and produced some of the most popular R&B hits of the 1970s, and were primarily associated with Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International soul music record label.When they were teenagers, Gene McFadden and John Whitehead formed a group called The Epsilons. The personnel included Allen Beatty, James Knight, and future Blue Notes member Lloyd Parks. They were discovered by Otis Redding and toured with him during the late 1960s until Redding’s death in a plane crash in 1967.They signed with Stax and had a moderate success in 1970 with “The Echo. The duo later joined Philly International Records, where they wrote several hit songs, the first being “Back Stabbers” in 1972 for The O’Jays. It reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard’s Hot Soul Singles chart.McFadden and Whitehead also wrote songs such as “I’ll Always Love My Momma”, “Bad Luck”, “Wake Up Everybody”, “Where Are All My Friends”, “The More I Get, The More I Want”, and “Cold, Cold World”. The production team also worked with Melba Moore, Freddie Jackson, producer Rahni Song and Gloria Gaynor, Teddy Pendergrass, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Gladys Knight, The Jackson 5, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Lou Rawls, Archie Bell & the Drells, Jerry Bell and The Intruders.McFadden and Whitehead formed together as a group officially under the name “McFadden & Whitehead” in 1977. The pinnacle of their success came in 1979 with “Ain’t No Stoppin Us Now,” which went to #1 on the R&B charts, #13 on the pop charts, sold eight million records worldwide and was nominated for a Grammy Award. The duo was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where they sang their most famous song on an episode in which Oprah featured the top hits of the 1970s.Other hits co-written by McFadden & Whitehead include:”Back Stabbers” (the O’Jays)”Bad Luck” (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)”Wake Up Everybody” (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)”Where Are All My Friends” (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)”I’ll Always Love My Momma” (the Intruders)”Let’s Groove” (Archie Bell & the Drells)”The Strength of One Man” (the Jacksons)”I Got the Love” (McFadden & Whitehead)”You’re My Somebody to Love” (McFadden & Whitehead)”I’ve Been Pushed Aside” (McFadden & Whitehead)”Got to Change” (McFadden & Whitehead)”Do You Want to Dance?” (McFadden & Whitehead)”Just Wanna Love You Baby” (McFadden & Whitehead)”Mr. Music” (McFadden & Whitehead)”This Is My Song” (McFadden & Whitehead)”All the Man You Need” (Jerry Bell)According to the American Top 40 radio program for the week ended August 4, 1979, Casey Kasem reported that McFadden and Whitehead were in Chicago on May 25, 1979 promoting their music and doing various interviews. Because they agreed to do one more music interview at the last minute, they decided to reschedule their flight to Los Angeles to the next day, May 26. They were originally scheduled to fly on American Airlines Flight 191 on May 25, which crashed shortly after take off from O’Hare International Airport killing all 258 passengers plus the crew.On May 11, 2004, Whitehead was murdered on the street outside of his Philadelphia home studio, while standing aside as a young man made repairs on his SUV. There, he was shot once by one of several unknown gunmen, who then fled. The case remains unsolved. Whitehead was 55 years old.On January 27, 2006, McFadden died of liver and lung cancer. He was 56.

written by Dianne Washington