Damon Wayans disclosed in a recent interview with Hot 97 how his series “In Living Color” sparked a change in the Super Bowl halftime show.
“In Living Color” was a popular comedy skit series that ran from 1990 to 1994. The show, which had five seasons, also spawned the careers of many talents, including the Wayans family, David Alan Grier, Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey, Rosie Perez and Jennifer Lopez.
On July 13, when discussing his experience on “In Living Color” and its influence on the younger generation, Wayans brought up how he would love to get the cast together and do specials.
He said at the 32:42 mark of the interview, “I would love to do specials. That’s what we should be doing. Forget trying to do it on a weekly. Let’s all get back together and do a couple of specials.” The conversation then shifted to how the series inspired a change in the Super Bowl. Before the cast’s 1992 performance, the halftime show only had marching bands as a form of entertainment.
Wayans told the Hot 97 hosts, “You know we started the Super Bowl halftime show? Like we set it off, before ‘Living Color,’ it was marching bands. It was the worst. It wasn’t even entertainment. Then we came and we did ‘In Living Color, ‘ the Super Bowl halftime show, and had a huge audience. The next year they brought Michael Jackson.”
Following the admission, Wayans expressed how much fun the group had. He shared at mark 34:01 while mentioning his co-star David Allan Grier, “It was live; that’s what crazy about it. It was like the most fun we had doing ‘In Living Color…’ Me and David had our little thing where we would hide stuff from each other in the rehearsal, and you wouldn’t even know what we was going to do.”
He added, “Then my goal was to make him laugh, and his goal was to make me laugh, and man, we would get in trouble all the time.”
Since the Super Bowl halftime show change, viewers have seen various memorable acts such as Janet Jackson, Beyoncé and that of the 2022 Emmy-nominated performance by Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J.Blige and Snoop Dogg.
Fans enjoyed hearing Wayans share his opinions on topics and praised his “legendary” career.
“Love this interview. I have so much respect for not only Damon but all the Wayans as a whole. To birth that much talent in one bloodline is bananas. Legendary!!!”
“This man is a cultural icon…hell the whole family salute to the Wayans.”
“He is so wise, aging well and humbly confident.”
