Stream It Or Skip It?

The two-part docuseries Seen & Heard: The History Of Black Television, which has Issa Rae as one of its executive producers and is directed by Giselle Bailey, takes a somewhat chronological look at Black representation on television over the past 75 years. Combining archival footage with lots of interviews with big names in TV history — including Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Rae, the late Norman Lear, Debbie Allen, Kenya Barris, Ava DuVernay, Mara Brock Akil, the late Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and more — the show takes a clear-eyed look at how Blacks were represented in front of and behind the camera.

Opening Shot: A very shinily-dressed Tracee Ellis Ross walks into the studio of Jimmy Kimmel Live; she and Anthony Anderson appeared on the show when black-ish ended in 2022.

The Gist: The episodes in this series are literally called “Seen” and “Heard,” with the first episode talking more about representation in front of the camera and the second episode talking more about behind-the-scenes representation, though both are touched on in each episode.

As Bailey wends her way through the history of Black television, starting with Amos ‘n’ Andy during TV’s early days until today, the constant has been that realistic views of Black lives didn’t really start being shown on TV until people from the community started writing and producing shows, instead of just acting in them.

Winfrey talks about, when she was a kid in the late-’50s and early-’60s, there was so little representation that she identified with a white model with a rounded nose. The episode is also very honest about the double-edged sword of Norman Lear’s trio of comedies with Black casts — Sanford And Son, Good Times and The Jeffersons — that had overwhelmingly white writing staffs. A telling quote that was an outtake from Lear’s 60 Minutes interview in the ’70s basically cites the fact that Black writers didn’t have the experience to write with the speed that his more experienced staffs could.

There is also a segment about the influence of The Cosby Show and how the accusations against Cosby has sadly made people reconsider its place. In another segment, there is an examination of how sitcoms with Black casts and writers helped established Fox, The WB and UPN, and were shunted aside by all of those networks at the first chance they could.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? In 2023, HBO had a docuseries called See It Loud: The History Of Black Television, which celebrated achievements of Black actors and creators.

Our Take: What Bailey is looking to do with Seen & Heard is not just celebrate the people who helped increase Black representation on television over the years, but examine the whole issue of representation. She does so by digging deeper and examining how representation felt like a mirage at times, and didn’t become consistent until the past 20 years or so.

A great example is the segment about how Black comedies helped establish FOX, the WB and UPN. Sure, there are moments when shows like In Living Color, Living Single, Moesha, Martin, The Wayans Brothers, The Steve Harvey Show, Girlfriends and others are celebrated during this segment, but there is also a sense of wistfulness about how the shows got cancelled as soon as the networks had solidified themselves, replaced by more white-leaning shows.

It’s a perfect example of how representation continues to be a struggle, even during a time when Perry, Shonda Rhimes, Winfrey, DuVernay and others are some of media and entertainment’s most powerful figures.

We’re also glad that the series gently held Lear to account, with the late TV legend talking about how he and his writers took suggestions from his shows’ casts, but there came a point where he and the writers knew what was best for the show, despite none of them having any true knowledge of the Black experience. This is what led to Jimmie Walker’s silly JJ Evans becoming a dominant character on Good Times, for instance, which is why John Amos and Esther Rolle left the show (though Rolle did come back to the show for its final season).

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: The first episode ends how it started, with Tracee Ellis Ross at Jimmy Kimmel Live, treasuring a picture book about black-ish that Anderson gave her while they were in the green room. “I hope we don’t go back,” we hear her say in voice over as she and Anderson make their way to the stage.

Sleeper Star: Even though he’s been gone for almost 35 years, we’ll give this to Redd Foxx, who told Barbara Walters in a 1970s interview that not one show on at the time that featured Black casts was “realistic,” and that included Sanford And Son.

Most Pilot-y Line: Seeing Malcom-Jamal Warner talk about how Cosby wanted him to react like a normal teenager during his Cosby Show audition just made us really sad that he’s gone.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Seen & Heard: The History Of Black Television foregoes a straightforward look at the chronology of Black television and takes a deep dive into representation and how it’s better in 2025 but could still use a lot of improvement.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.