European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 09, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Fox when Martin Lawrence goes up against Tisha Campbell in a recent episode of the television sitcom Martin he says i m telling you baby,1 gots to have it panting Martin leaves at least one viewer cold by Howard Rosenberg los Angeles times it s always Dicey for a White Guy to unload on below the Belt vulgarity and racial stereotyping in a Black series that received an narc image award. As a member of a minority my self i know something about instinctively Cir cling the wagons when reproached by outsiders. But Here goes anyway. A recent world class crude episode of the Fox comedy Martin was repulsive on several counts. Anda Fox executive agreed that the show went too far. One of the network s More popular programs continued from Page 6 they Are being told in essence to make Hood movies or nothing. But fearing a studio backlash they prefer to remain unidentified. Filmmaker and to producer Robert Townsend however Speaks on the record i just Hope it gets to the Point where they respond to More in african americans than just the Savage Side. Because right now when the Savage Side comes out everybody is at Home. When the Buffoon Side comes out everybody is at Home. When the Middle ground real life comes out then All of a sudden its i m uncomfortable " in addition to coping with Hollywood s formulaic machine artists and executives say Black films get comparatively Low budgets. And they say the finished product is marketed by White executives who fail to see its nuances and promote every Black film As jus that a Black film a widget while White films Are sold Martin is a series about the adventures Many of them sexual of a clowning Bachelor who regularly puts on a Macho front to hide his supposedly Sensi Tive nature. The cast of Martin is Black. The Star and co executive producer with the White John Bowman is Martin Lawrence whose Pivotal charac Ter Here has a robust sex life with his careerist girl Friend Gina Tisha Campbell. So be it. On the episode in question though when Gina wore a body hugging open backed dress to a party Martin s biological urges soared to 10 on the Richter scale. Bumping grinding and Paw ing he was All Over her in Public his body pump ing like a Piston his Tongue thrusting lewdly act ing generally like an animal i m telling you baby i gots to have it driven totally by his sexual hunger to the Point of panic he was absolutely relentless. Baby baby he gasped at one Point Well Only be gone five min utes. They won t even  finally after Gina gave in they ditched the party and had their  afterwards when Martin was challenged by Gina and a Friend to distinguish Between love and sex and was unable to do it he agreed to a test. To prove that love was More important to him he and Gina As romances westerns children s movies Etc. Producers of some of the violence and drug Cen tired films say they Are not bending to the will of White Hollywood. Both John Singleton director of Doyz the Hood and poetic Justice and the Hughes Brothers directors of menace say their films both set in Black los Angeles describe an important reality of Urban life a reality their Genera Tion identifies with even if it is not their own person Al experience. That kind of stuff happens for real says Albert Hughes who was raised in the suburban Community of Pomona Calif. We did research adds his brother Allen. So we said let s show America the Way it really is. No sugar coating. No escape Albert says. At 36 years of age Russell Simmons who Heads def Jam records is certainly old enough to have been shaped by the race debates of the 1960s and would go without sex for two  two weeks was it humanly possible it was time for further Low Jinks. After a commercial break Cut to an overhead shot of Martin and Gina lying Side by Side in bed a week later coming out of their skins while attempting to ignore their imploding sexual frustrations. When Gina discovered Martin was wearing an ice pack on his Penis he insisted that he d pulled a thigh mus Cle and limped from the room. Now Cut to Martin with his male pals complaining i can t take it no More. The ice Ain t Wor Kin brother. It s making things numb Down  not that anyone would have known from his picturesque sex simulating body gyrations. The upshot was that Martin and Gina could barely Rush against each other without becoming near orgasmic and they were unable to hold out for the two weeks. Three Points need to be made. First As in living color and married with children affirmed even before the existence of Mir tin and this season s oppressively Gross daddy Dea rest Fox will never win anyone s Good taste award. It has done quite Well for itself in fact As a relatively continued on Page 8 1970s, but in his role As head of Rush communications which includes the record Label and def com Edy am he finds himself championing artists and trends of what writer Nelson George Calls the Post soul culture of Black America and Simmons is not concerned that Many of his artists As Well As def comedy Jam serve a largely White audience. Responding to criticism levelled by Bill Cosby who called def comedy Jam a minstrel show Simmons says of his program i Don t feel it s a minstrel show. If he s offended by their language or whatever they do hey those Are real people. And they Are mostly moral and very straightforward  Stan Lathan director and executive producer of comedy Jam says the show fairly represents the kinds of material being presented in Black comedy clubs across the country. The problem is that peo ple Zero in on the Raunchy material Lathan says. If january 9,1904 sunday Page