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The Bernie Mac Show

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The Bernie Mac Show was a half-hour American sitcom featuring the comedic antics of comedian Bernie Mac. The show completed five seasons on Fox before being cancelled in May 2006.

The show is loosely based on Mac's stand-up comedy acts. In real life, Bernie Mac is married with one child; Mac's character on the show (also a stand-up comedian) is married with no kids of his own. The pilot episode (aired on November 14, 2001), set up the basic premise for the show: the character Bernie Mac takes in his sister's children after she enters rehab (a premise taken from one of Mac's routines in the 2000 film, The Original Kings of Comedy). Much of the humor in the show is derived from Bernie's continual adjustment to and his unique take on parenthood. Oftentimes during the show, Bernie, while still in character, breaks the 'fourth wall' and directly addresses the audience.

Contents

Season-by Season

The show debuted in its time slot on November 14, 2001 with great ratings in its first season, but a weak lead-in Grounded for Life caused the show's ratings to drop a bit. Nonetheless, the critically-acclaimed show had a very successful rookie season and in the process won a handful of honors including an Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series' and the prestigious Peabody Award. Bernie Mac also received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy Series respectively.

In the second season, the show was forced to air against My Wife & Kids which hurt the show's momentum in the ratings during the first half of the show's second season run which led to the firing of creator and executive producer, Larry Wilmore. In interviews, Wilmore said he was fed up with the networks creative interference with the show in addition to constantly shuffling it around the schedule. Fox contended that it wasn't happy with the shows direction under Wilmore in its second season claiming the show "wasn't delivering enough laughs". Eventually Fox gave up and aired the show after American Idol giving the show its highest ratings ever.

Unfortunately, the third season was much different. The season was scheduled to start on October 29, 2003 but was postponed due to The O.C. being moved. Instead, it had a late start at November 30, 2003. The ratings were mediocre as the show never fully captialized on the large ratings of its lead-in, The Simpsons. In March 2004, the show was moved to Monday nights to boost ratings for the new show Cracking Up, but the ratings were low for both shows. Cracking Up was canceled and The Bernie Mac Show was pulled from May Sweeps with leftover episodes that aired in June (one of which included an episode about Thanksgiving).

The show finally returned to its original time slot on September 8, 2004 to start the fourth season. The production was shut down a month later due to Bernie's sickness. The show returned on January 14, 2005 with new episodes on Friday nights, the ratings were low up to the point where people questioned the show's future especially when it was postponed from May Sweeps again. The show was renewed again, though.

The show had completed its fifth season which started September 23, 2005 on Friday nights and airings were followed by reruns of the show.

The Bernie Mac Show celebrated its 100th episode on February 3, 2006. [link]

On May 17, 2006 FOX announced the cancellation of The Bernie Mac Show after five seasons and 104 episodes. The show never got a proper series finale.

Airings

The show has been airing in syndication since September 2005 and will be on the FX network in 2008.

Episodes

Season 1: 2001-2002

  1. Pilot (11/14/2001)
  2. Now You Got It (11/14/2001)
  3. The Main Event (11/21/2001)
  4. Bernie Mac, Ladies Man (11/28/2001)
  5. Saving Bernie Mac (12/5/2001)
  6. Here To Stay (12/12/2001)
  7. A Christmas Story (12/19/2001)
  8. Starting School (1/2/2002)
  9. Hot Hot Hot (1/16/2002)
  10. Wanda's Week Off (1/23/2002)
  11. The King and I (1/30/2002)
  12. Hall of Fame (2/6/2002)
  13. Handle Your Business (2/13/2002)
  14. Back in the Day (2/20/2002)
  15. Lock Down (3/6/2002)
  16. Mac 101 (3/27/2002)
  17. If I Were N-Riched Man (4/3/2002)
  18. Stop Having Sex (4/17/2002)
  19. Secrets and Lies (5/1/2002)
  20. Kelly's Heroes (5/8/2002)
  21. Sweet Home Chicago (1) (5/15/2002)
  22. Sweet Home Chicago (2) (5/15/2002)

Season 2: 2002-2003

  1. Keep It on the Short Grass (9/18/2002)
  2. Goodbye Dolly (9/25/2002)
  3. Carfool (10/30/2002)
  4. Mac Local 137 (11/6/2002)
  5. Welcome to the Jungle (11/13/2002)
  6. Bernie Mac Dance Party (11/20/2002)
  7. Tryptophan-tasy (11/27/2002)
  8. The United Front (12/4/2002)
  9. The Sweet Life (12/11/2002)
  10. Sin Cup (1/15/2003)
  11. Bernie Mac Rope-a-Dope (2/5/2003)
  12. Magic Jordan (2/12/2003)
  13. Raging Election (2/26/2003)
  14. Leaving Los Angeles (3/12/2003)
  15. Pink Gold (3/19/2003)
  16. Chess Wars (4/9/2003)
  17. The Incredible Bulk (4/16/2003)
  18. Maid Man (4/23/2003)
  19. Nut Job (4/30/2003)
  20. The Other Sister (5/7/2003)
  21. Meet The Grandparents (5/7/2003)
  22. For a Few Dollars More (5/14/2003)

Season 3: 2003-2004

  1. Eye of the Tiger (11/30/2003)
  2. Love Thy Nephew (12/7/2003)
  3. Road to Tradition (12/14/2003)
  4. Laughing Matters (12/21/2003)
  5. Hair Jordan (1/4/2004)
  6. Love Bug (1/11/2004)
  7. It's A Wonderful Wife (1/25/2004)
  8. Family Reunion (2/8/2004)
  9. Droobie or Not Droobie (2/15/2004)
  10. J-O-R-D-A-N Spells Funny (2/22/2004)
  11. Make Room for Caddy (3/7/2004)
  12. Saving Sergeant Tompkins (3/14/2004)
  13. It's Mac-ademic (3/22/2004)
  14. The Getaway (3/29/2004)
  15. Easy Rider (4/5/2004)
  16. Who's That Lady (4/12/2004)
  17. Mac-Inations (4/12/2004)
  18. That Old Mac Magic (4/26/2004)
  19. The Talk (4/26/2004)
  20. Five Stages of Bryana (6/15/2004)
  21. Go Bernie, It's Your Birthday (6/22/2004)
  22. Thanksgiving (6/29/2004)

Season 4: 2004-2005

  1. Big Brother (9/8/2004)
  2. Training Wheels (9/15/2004)
  3. Being Bernie Mac (9/22/2004)
  4. Mac Overdrive (9/29/2004)
  5. My Privacy (1/14/2005)
  6. Who Gives This Bride (1/14/2005)
  7. Nerdy Mac (1/21/2005)
  8. Stone Nuts (1/28/2005)
  9. Jack & Jacqueline (2/4/2005)
  10. Manchild in Vanessa Land (2/11/2005)
  11. You Don't Know Squad (2/18/2005)
  12. You Got Served (2/25/2005)
  13. I Don't Wanna Be a Playa No More (3/11/2005)
  14. The Big Picture (3/18/2005)
  15. The Music Mac (4/1/2005)
  16. Walk Like a Man (4/8/2005)

Season 5: 2005-2006

  1. Father Knows Best (9/23/2005)
  2. Wrestling With A Sticky Situation (9/23/2005)
  3. Marathon Mac (9/30/2005)
  4. The Big Payback (10/7/2005)
  5. Car Wars (10/21/2005)
  6. Night of Terror (10/28/2005)
  7. For Whom The Belt Tolls (11/4/2005)
  8. Pop Pop Goes The Weasel (11/11/2005)
  9. Prison Break (11/18/2005)
  10. Some Church Bull (12/2/2005)
  11. Sorely Missed (12/16/2005)
  12. Fumes of Detente (1/6/2006)
  13. Exercise In Fertility (1) (1/13/2006)
  14. Exercise In Fertility (2) (1/20/2006)
  15. Fantasy Football (1/27/2006)
  16. Bar Mitzvah Crashers (2/3/2006)
  17. Who's Your Mama (3/31/2006)
  18. What Would Jason Do (3/31/2006)
  19. It's Never As Bad As the First Time (4/7/2006)
  20. Spinning Wheels (4/7/2006)
  21. Growing Pains (4/14/2006)
  22. Bernie's Angels (4/14/2006)

Regular cast

Notable Guest Cast

DVD Releases

Season Releases
DVD Name Release Date Ep # Additional Information
Season 1 May 4 2004 22 Bonus features include commentary on the Pilot from Bernie Mac and A 60 minute "A & E Tvography".

The Season One DVD boxset was released on DVD May 4, 2004, and there haven't been any announcements on any more Seasons being released in the near future. The reason for this could be about music rights, which was the case for Malcolm in the Middle Season 2, however there is no confirmation from FOX.

External links

 

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