''Sherman's Showcase'' is an American

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ori ...

television series created by

Bashir Salahuddin Bashir Salahuddin (born July 6, 1976) is an American actor, writer, and comedian. Early life and education Salahuddin was born and raised in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. His father is originally from Panama and had moved to Chicago with ...

and

Diallo Riddle Diallo Riddle (born May 6, 1977) is an American writer, producer, actor, showrunner, and DJ. Riddle is best known for his co-starring role as Stevie in the NBC sitcom ''Marlon'', and has been the co-creator of several different television series. ...

. The series premiered on July 31, 2019, on IFC. An hour long "Black History Month Spectacular" aired on June 19, 2020, and that same month a six-episode second season was confirmed, set to air on both IFC and AMC in 2022.

Premise

''Sherman's Showcase'' is inspired by variety shows including ''

Soul Train ''Soul Train'' is an American musical variety television show. It aired in syndication from October 2, 1971, to March 25, 2006. Across its 35-year history the show primarily featured performances by R&B, soul, and hip hop artists. The series ...

'', ''

American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'', abbreviated ''AB'', is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the pr ...

'', '' The Midnight Special'', and ''

In Living Color ''In Living Color'' is an American sketch comedy television series that originally ran on Fox from April 15, 1990 to May 19, 1994. Keenen Ivory Wayans created, wrote and starred in the program. The show was produced by Ivory Way Productions in ...

'' with each episode hosted by Sherman McDaniel as he takes viewers through time via music and comedy drawn from the forty-year library of a legendary (but fictitious) musical variety show. To do this, the series uses the

plot device A plot device or plot mechanism is any technique in a narrative used to move the plot forward. A clichéd plot device may annoy the reader and a contrived or arbitrary device may confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelief ...

of presenting a series of paid programs involving the sale of a mostly-complete 23-disc set of 47 seasons of ''Sherman's Showcase'', which are introduced by various celebrity hosts.

Cast

as Sherman McDaniels *

as Dutch Shepherd

Cameos

Common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally ...

Lil Rel Howery Milton "Lil Rel" Howery Jr. (born December 17, 1979) is an American actor and comedian. Howery is known for playing Robert Carmichael in NBC's television comedy series '' The Carmichael Show'' (2015–2017) and Transportation Security Administra ...

Tiffany Haddish Tiffany Sara Cornilia Haddish (born December 3, 1979) is an American stand-up comedian and actress. After guest-starring on several television series and lead role on a cable drama, Haddish gained prominence for her role as Nekeisha Williams on ...

Ray J William Ray Norwood Jr. (born January 17, 1981), known professionally as Ray J, is an American singer, actor, and television personality. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Carson, California, he is the younger brother of recording ...

Terrence J Terrence Jenkins (born April 21, 1982) is an American actor, television presenter, model and entertainment reporter best known as the host of BET's popular music video countdown show '' 106 & Park'' from 2006 until 2012.MacCash, Doug. "Back in ...

* Damon Wayans Jr. *

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

Mike Judge Michael Craig Judge (born October 17, 1962) is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director and musician. He is the creator of the animated television series '' Beavis and Butt-Head'' (1993–1997, 2011, 2022–present), and the co-cr ...

Ne-Yo Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18, 1979), known professionally as Ne-Yo, is an American singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer. He gained fame for his songwriting abilities when he penned Mario's 2004 hit " Let Me Love You ...

Marlon Wayans Marlon Lamont Wayans (born July 23, 1972) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. Wayans began his career portraying a pedestrian in ''I'm Gonna Git You Sucka'' (1988). He went on to regularly collaborate with his brother Shawn W ...

Gary Anthony Williams Gary Anthony Williams (born March 14, 1966) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He voiced the character of Uncle Ruckus on '' The Boondocks'', and a number of video game characters. He also appeared on the television series '' Weeds' ...

Colleen Camp Colleen Celeste Camp (born June 7, 1953) is an American character actress and producer. After appearing in several bit parts, she had a lead role in the comedy ''The Swinging Cheerleaders'' (1974), followed by roles in two installments of the '' ...

* Phonte Coleman

Episodes

Season 1 (2019)

Special

Season 2 (2022)

Production

Development

On July 29, 2017, it was announced that IFC had given the production an episodic script order. The series was created by

and

who were also expected to write and executive produce the potential series. On May 3, 2018, it was announced that IFC had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of eight episodes. In addition to the previously announced creative team, it was announced that

John Legend John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), known professionally as John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and record producer. He began his musical career by working behind the scenes, playing piano on Lauryn Hill's " Eve ...

would serve as an executive producer. Production companies involved with the series include Get Lifted Film Co. and

RadicalMedia RadicalMedia is an independent global media and communications company. Founded by Jon Kamen and Frank Scherma, the company develops, creates, and produces film, television, advertising, branded content, music videos, live events, design, digita ...

. On April 8, 2019, it was announced that the series would premiere on July 31, 2019.

Casting

Alongside the series order announcement, it was confirmed that

would star as the host of the fictional variety series.

Reception

On review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the series holds an approval rating of 100% with an average rating of 8.58/10, based on 21 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads: "Bold, brisk, and beautiful, ''Sherman's Showcase'' is a delightful and stylish sketch show that moves to its own groove and invites everyone to laugh along."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 76 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

External links

References

{{AMC Shows 2010s American satirical television series English-language television shows 2019 American television series debuts IFC (American TV channel) original programming AMC (TV channel) original programming