| The Bernie Mac Show |
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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 ). 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. 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 is now in its fifth season which started September 23 , 2005 on Friday nights and airings are currently followed by reruns of the show. |
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