The only reason I can fathom for this show being on The Disney Channel is that Rich Ross is being blackmailed by the NAACP. It's fine that Disney wants to take on some ethnic diversity (no, guys, token ethnic friends in the original movies don't count), but I think they're just taking the notion and sitting on it. While The Color of Friendship, from a year or two ago, was a wonderful and moving (at least, for Disney) story about racial diversity, recent attempts seem more lackadaisical and haphazard, as if someone up there said "Alright, we have a show and it's about black people. We can package that, right?" Previous shows in The Proud Family's demographic, Smart Guy and The Famous Jett Jackson, at least had more of a premise. Even compared to other Disney Channel animated series, this show falls flat in terms of concept. Unlike Kim Possible, which revels in its own absurdity, The Proud Family tries to be a down-to-earth family show with wacky elements, but instead presents a jumbled mess of stereotypes and current-event harping. The main problem with this show is that the characters are too busy trying to be colorful and upbeat that they come off as annoying. Penny is not inherently as likeable as her contemporaries: Lizzie McGuire, Fiona Phillips, Annie Thelen, Kim Possible, and Ren Stevens, because she's brattier than all of them combined, and her redeeming factors are limited. Oscar is more vibrant than Wood Jackson (Famous Jett Jackson) and Floyd Henderson (Smart Guy) but he is less a father figure than a clown, because, once again, he fails to capture the essence of fatherhood among all his immature "manly" activity. Mrs. Proud, I can't even remember her name, is the most likeable character in the show, if only because her main purpose is to shut her husband up. We've seen the Suga Mama character presented before, as Montrose Hagins' Miz Coretta (Famous Jett Jackson), and it was on that show that the character embodied all the wisdom that The Proud Family would like you to think that Suga Mama has. The friends aren't even worth more of a mention than they are all ethnic stereotypes (except for LaCienega, who is just ridiculous). So the show pales compared to Disney's other African-American sitcoms through lack of premise, Disney's other Teen Girl sitcoms through unlikeable characters, and Disney's other animation by, well, being bland. Hopefully this show will be canned and written off as a bridge between The Famous Jett Jackson and whatever star vehicle they're trying to give Raven-Symone.
But, hey, at least it's not The Jersey.
