One of television’s most influential sketch comedy series, In Living Color, has officially found a new streaming home — this time on The Brick TV, a platform dedicated to preserving culturally significant film and television while creating space for independent storytellers.
For years, In Living Color has been surprisingly difficult to stream consistently despite its undeniable impact on comedy and pop culture. Now, select seasons of the groundbreaking series are available again, giving audiences access to a show that helped reshape what mainstream television could look like.
The Show That Changed Comedy Television
Premiering in 1990 on Fox, In Living Color was created by Keenen Ivory Wayans and became a cultural force almost immediately. The sketch series introduced audiences to bold satire centered on race, politics, and everyday life while launching or elevating the careers of performers including Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Lopez, and members of the Wayans family.
The show’s Fly Girls dance segments, musical guests, and unapologetically sharp humor pushed boundaries at a time when few network series centered Black creative voices at that scale.
Its influence can still be felt across modern sketch comedy and ensemble-driven comedy formats today.
Why In Living Color Has Been Hard to Stream
Despite its popularity, In Living Color has rarely maintained a permanent home on major streaming platforms in recent years.
Industry observers point to several long-standing challenges:
- Music licensing complications tied to performances, dance segments, and original broadcast music
- Corporate ownership changes, with series rights now falling under Disney following its acquisition of 20th Century Fox assets
- Archival restoration hurdles, since some earlier home releases replaced original music due to licensing costs
The series appeared intermittently on platforms and cable apps throughout the 2010s but has largely been absent from major streaming services since around 2020, making consistent access difficult for newer audiences discovering classic Black television history.
Enter The Brick TV
That gap is part of what The Brick TV aims to address.
The Black-owned streaming platform focuses on culturally responsive programming, combining restored classics with independent films, documentaries, and emerging creators. Available through platforms including Amazon Fire TV, the service positions itself less as a traditional streamer and more as a curated cultural archive.
Alongside In Living Color, the platform features a mix of recognizable culture classics and indie storytelling, including documentaries and shorts such as:
- Black Genius: Latimer’s Light, exploring inventor Lewis Latimer’s legacy
- Culture Currency – Leimert Park, spotlighting one of Los Angeles’ most important Black cultural hubs
- Surviving Lake Lanier, examining the history surrounding the Georgia landmark
- Black Boys Dance Too, highlighting representation in dance and masculinity
- Narrative and short-form projects like Lanier, Folded Map, and Show Love
The catalog also includes well-known films (Love Jones, Soul Food, Girls Trip, and much more) connected to Black cinema culture, helping bridge mainstream nostalgia with independent discovery.
Preserving Cultural Television History
The arrival of In Living Color on Brick TV speaks to a larger conversation happening across entertainment: who preserves culturally important television when major platforms rotate libraries based on algorithms and licensing economics.
Shows like In Living Color didn’t just entertain — they shifted visibility, comedic voice, and opportunity within Hollywood.
Now, through platforms intentionally centered on culture and community ownership, those archives are finding new life instead of disappearing from public access altogether.
For viewers who grew up quoting the sketches — or those discovering the series for the first time — its return to streaming represents more than nostalgia. It’s access to a defining chapter of television history finally being kept in circulation.