Rowman & Littlefield Publishers will be releasing IN LIVING COLOR: A Cultural History by acclaimed journalist & pop culture commentator Bernadette Giacomazzo on February 15, 2023. The book, which has already received critical acclaim, is part of the publisher’s Cultural History of Television series.
In Living Color: A Cultural History celebrates the iconic show and its creators, while also providing a conscientious examination of the sketches themselves. Bernadette Giacomazzo reveals how the show successfully tackled topics that are still salient today, from diversity in Hollywood and workplace racism to mass incarceration and “blackfishing,” while other sketches have not aged quite so well. Giacomazzo also looks at how the show helped break the careers of Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, and David Alan Grier, amongst others, and how its most infamous sketches—such as Fire Marshall Bill, Homey the Clown, East Hollywood Squares, and Men on Film—helped shape comedy in the twenty-first century.
“Giacomazzo (Swimming with Sharks) writes a thorough analysis of what a monumental TV show In Living Color came to represent and the sociocultural background that played a role in its shaping,” writes The Library Journal, who gave the book a coveted starred review and named it one of the Best Books of the Month in December 2022. “[It is] a must-read book on the history of a show that molded Black comedy sketches and brings together different threads of social awareness, race, entrepreneurship, comedy, resilience, and bravery in the face of a world not used to seeing “in living color.”
Booklist.com also gave a starred review to In Living Color: A Cultural History, writing that “Giacomazzo demonstrates how In Living Color’s legacy resonates much further than the careers it launched. An incisive and rigorously researched look at how television is created and consumed, particularly a show by Black creators for Black audiences, this is a worthy addition to any library’s media-studies collections.”
In Living Color: A Cultural History can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Blackwell’s, and everywhere books are sold. Giacomazzo will follow In Living Color: A Cultural History up with The Golden Girls: A Cultural History, which will be released on August 15, 2023, on Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A Far Rockaway, NY-born editor, writer, photographer, and publicist with more than 20 years of prime bylines and cache in the entertainment industry, NYC based Bernadette Giacomazzo is currently the Senior SEO Manager at Blavity, Inc., where she has successfully created — and executed — digital marketing campaigns for all the brands under the Black-owned company’s umbrella.
As a journalist, Giacomazzo’s work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and hundreds more digital and print publications. She has interviewed celebrities for the likes of The Source and AltPress, has worked extensively with rappers like Kool G Rap and 50 Cent/G-Unit Records, and appears regularly on shows like TMZ Live to share unique insights on latest celebrity news and trends. Giacomazzo has also worked extensively in the film & television industry and is the author of the dystopian fiction series The Uprising Series and a recent poetry chapbook, Aquarius Rising, available now on Nightingale & Sparrow Press.
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