I never realized that.

From the episode of TV One on One featuring Debbie Allen:

Cathy Hughes: I want to talk about all these various hats that you have worn and wear and do so well. A Different World, the TV series, did so much to glorify and showcase our young people in college life. I also read that when you took over producing and directing that you had a rule that there would be no hair weaves, no colored contact lenses, and no false eyelashes.

Debbie Allen: Or long nails, right. I stripped those girls down.

Cathy Hughes: You wanted them in their natural beauty.

Debbie Allen: Yeah, I wanted them to be natural. You know, I went to Howard University, honey. I was there when Angela Davis was walking with that beautiful, frizzy, beautiful mane of nappy beautiful hair. And I wanted this show to reflect the beauty of African-American women. And we had so many different kinds of women that were beautiful in many different ways. And they should allow that. Everybody shouldn't try to look the same. So I went in there and stripped them down, and the show became more real.

Cathy Hughes: And so popular. And it's also written that it helped increase black college enrollment, that black children saw the show and wanted to go to college for the first time.

Their conversation reminds of why I have never liked The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, or the skanky Bachelor Pad, a show that makes For the Love of Ray J look tasteful. Every woman (and most of the men) look like carbon copies of each other. It's not just that they are almost all white and between the ages of 21 and 35. Every woman on those shows look like they stepped off of the beauty pageant stage and on to Chris Harrison's television set. They seem less like human beings and more like characters from two of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, original recipe: "Eye of the Beholder" and "Number 12 Looks Just Like You". Creepy.

If only black children, and other children, had Dwayne and Whitley and Ron and Kim and Freddie and Jaleesa to look up to today. Now they have Snooki, JWoww, and The Situation. It's a different world indeed.

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A guy named Chad

Some of you readers may have heard about the controversy surrounding Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson's new dating series on VH1. Some of you may be wondering, "What's an Ochocinco?", while others may be asking, "What's VH1?".

The show is called Ochocinco: The Ultimate Catch, and the issue in the blogosphere is that only four of the 17 women he selected out of 85 candidates to be his "ultimate catch" are black. More discussion on the topic can be found in the articles below:

Chad Ochocinco Criticized For Not Choosing Black Women On VH1 Dating Show, by Jessica Wakeman, The Frisky.

Ochocinco Talks Dating and Addresses Black Women, by Yolanda Sangweni, Essence.

Here is my take on the situation:

1. Who names themselves after two numbers in a language he (allegedly) doesn't even speak?

2. How did Ochocinco get a show on VH1? Well, I guess if someone like Frank The Entertainer--whose claim to fame is being a contestant on a spinoff of a spinoff of a spinoff of a spinoff--then giving a show to an infamous football player makes more sense.

3. I have never heard of a corresponding situation on a dating show like The Bachelor or Rock of Love. Yes, on those shows there are occasionally one or two black women (who usually pass the brown paper bag test) to throw some token diversity in the mix. But I have never heard of an instance in which any of the all white Bachelors or Mr. Michaels only had four white women to choose from on their shows. I don't recall Chris Harrison announcing, "This season on The Bachelor, guess who's coming to dinner? Keisha and Rosario, come on down!"

4. Considering the rainbow salad that is the United States of America, I would like to see a dating competition show that featured a bachelor or bachelorette who was neither white nor black. How about Mei Ling of Love, or For the Love of Raj, or Carlos: A Basement Affair?

5. I have never met a black person name Chad. However, the only person I've met named Tyrone is white. Think about that.


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It sounds like a older version of The Real World,

except less colorful, in every sense of the word (Is it really 2010?):

Rycroft pads resume, by Michael Schneider, Variety.

Melissa Rycroft has gone from contestant on "The Bachelor" to host of the dating competish's spinoff, "Bachelor Pad."

Rycroft will serve as host alongside "The Bachelor's" Chris Harrison.

[ . . . ]

"Bachelor Pad" premieres at 8 p.m. Aug. 9, once "The Bachelorette" completes its run. Show features past contestants and suitors from previous seasons of "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" as they live in a mansion together and compete for $250,000 and another chance at finding love.

Also, I thought the title of the article was in an adjective-noun-verb arrangement, not a noun-verb-noun arrangement, but I was mistaken. Meaning, her pads aren't resuming; she is padding her résumé. Because it's the Bachelor "Pad". Puns. Homophones.

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"This was the best season of The Bachelor ever."

"Best = most recent"

Either way, I don't watch the show. But the clips on The Dish and on The Soup = hilarity.

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