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Posts tagged as ““House Party””

GBN’s Daily Drop: Groundbreaking Comedy “House Party” Released in Theaters Thirty Two Years Ago #OnThisDay (LISTEN)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Today’s GBN Daily Drop podcast is based on the Wednesday, March 9 entry in the “A Year of Good Black News” Page-A-Day®️ Calendar for 2022 celebrating the groundbreaking 1990 feature film House Party, directed and produced by Reginald Hudlin and Warrington Hudlin, and starring Kid ‘N Play, Full Force, Tisha Campbell, AJ Johnson, Martin Lawrence, Robin Harris and John Witherspoon:

You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, March 9th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

Shape up your high-top fade because Reginald Hudlin and Warrington Hudlin’s groundbreaking comedy film House Party was released 32 years ago today!

House Party exploded on the scene and ignited the careers of rappers Kid ‘N Play; actors Tisha Campbell, AJ Johnson, and John Witherspoon; comedians Martin Lawrence and Robin Harris; and R&B producers and performers Full Force.

A surprise success at the box office, House Party spawned several sequels and reboots, most recently one produced by LeBron James that will debut on HBO Max this July. Still, the original teen comedy remains a beloved 1990s classic that still manages to kick-step itself across the generations. 

We celebrate House Party not only for the depth of talented actors, comedians and musicians it featured, but also because it was one of the first movies to portray Black teenagers as teenagers out to have a good time, which in 1990, was revolutionary.

It also literally contains one of the best dance battle scenes in movie history – that scene alone has almost eight million views on YouTube – and it also introduced the world to the iconic Kid ‘N Play kick step:

You can watch the movie in its entirety on HBO Max, but there is a content warning – homophobic language is used in one scene, that even when I saw it in the theatre in 1990 was bothersome and not at all humorous as intended.

For me, it doesn’t ruin the whole movie, but it does, in my opinion, hold it back from being as smart and as undeniably entertaining as it should be.

To learn more about House Party and its significance to cinematic history, check out the links to sources provided in today’s show notes, and in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org

This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

Intro and outro beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot.  Additional music included under fair use was “Ain’t My Type of Hype” the House Party mix by Full Force.

If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com, Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

For more Good Black News, check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

Sources:

Reginald Hudlin to Produce Oscar Telecast in 2016

Reginald Hudlin (photo via pepperdine.edu)
Reginald Hudlin (photo via pepperdine.edu)

According to Variety.com, filmmaker (“Boomerang”, “House Party”) and producer Reginald Hudlin will produce the 88th Academy Awards with veteran live television events producer  David Hill. The Awards will be held Feb. 28, 2016.

Hudlin is an Oscar-nominated producer for “Django Unchained,” and last year produced the Governors Awards. He has been the executive producer of the NAACP Image Awards since 2012. Hudlin was the first president of entertainment for BET Networks from 2005-09.
Hill was a longtime 21st Century Fox/News Corp. executive who stepped down in June to launch a production banner that focused on live TV events. Hill is known for his skill at overseeing live sports production, and was key in building Fox Sports; in recent years he’s overseen “American Idol” for the Fox network.
“We’re delighted to have this talented team on board,” said AMPAS president Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “David is a true innovator with a dynamic personality.  His vast experience as a live events producer, coupled with Reggie’s energy, creativity and talent as a filmmaker, is sure to make this year’s Oscar telecast a memorable one.”
“I’m looking forward to working with the Academy again,” said Hudlin. “I love every kind of film, and this year’s awards will be a celebration of the total range of cinema.”
“We’re excited to work with David and Reggie,” said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson. “With their enthusiasm and breadth of experience, they will bring a fresh perspective to the Oscar show.”
New producers always come in with ambitious ideas but have to contend with demands from both AMPAS and ABC. Those include the constraints of how to add innovative elements while keeping the running time manageable. And there are many elements that have to be included, such as 24 awards, recaps of the Sci-Tech honors and the Governors Awards and the In Memoriam segment. In all, that means a producer has less than 45 minutes to include such options as an opening monologue, performance of nominated songs, etc.
For the record, here are the producers of the past decade: the 2006 ceremony, Gil Cates (hosted by Jon Stewart); 2007, Laura Ziskin (hosted by Ellen DeGeneres); 2008 Cates (Jon Stewart again); 2009 Laurence Mark & Bill Condon (Hugh Jackman); 2010 Bill Mechanic, Adam Shankman (Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin); 2011 Bruce Cohen, Don Mischer (James Franco, Anne Hathaway); 2012 Brian Grazer (after Brett Ratner exited; host, Billy Crystal).  Neil Meron and Craig Zadan produced the last three, which were hosted by Seth MacFarlane, Ellen DeGeneres and Neil Patrick Harris.
original article by Tim Gray; additions by Lori Lakin Hutcherson