Early in his career, before he became a household name, Dave Chappelle attempted to get a series off the ground at Fox. It was 1998, and the network had already welcomed Black comedies such as Living Single, Martin, and In Living Color'shows that implied a vested interest in Black taste. Chappelle might have expected to find a receptive audience when he presented the pilot for Dave Chappelle, a sitcom based on his life as a young Black comedian. What he reportedly got instead was a roomful of white executives with a familiar set of complaints. There were not enough white people on his proposed show. It was not 'universal' enough'meaning it was too Black. Swap out the Black female lead for a white one and add an additional white character, he was advised. All of this despite Fox being, as Chappelle put it at the time, a network that had 'built itself on black viewers.' He refused to cooperate, remarking that the incident 'tells every black artist no matter what you do, you need...
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