When Rupert Murdoch launched the FOX television network, he intended to set it apart from the Big 3 dominating the airwaves at the time by daring to tread where dared not. As they eschewed controversy, he would embrace it. Where they catered to a white, primarily middle-age audience, he would from the get-go appeal to urban African-Americans and Latinos. FOX executives could think of no better man to tap into the spirit of that crowd than the producer of the uproariously popular 1988 blaxploitation parody I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, Keenan Ivory Wayans.

On this day, April 15, 1990, the first episode of the groundbreaking sketch show In Living Color premiered, produced by Kennan Ivory Wayans and starring future household names like Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Rock and of course all the Wayans brothers themselves. It was a smash sensation almost overnight.

The humor of In Living Color served to take the edge off the omnipresent political commentary. Wayans himself played one of the most notable characters, Homey D. Clown, a parolee forced to take a gig as a children’s clown, but who could not be forced to enjoy it — spicing up his entertainment sessions with lessons for the kids on black self-empowerment.