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Angela Nissel’s book to be HBO comedy series

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angela nissel hbo mixed my life in black and white (Thanks to Kaushal for the tip!) As you may remember, I interviewed writer Angela Nissel in episode 24 of Addicted to Race about her memoir Mixed : My Life in Black and White. Well, that book may very well become a comedy series on HBO, thanks to executive producer Halle Berry. From EURWeb:

Halle Berry is moving forward with an HBO project based on two memoirs from “Scrubs” writer Angela Nissel: “The Broke Diaries” and “Mixed: My Life in Black and White.”

Berry and manager Vincent Cirrincione will executive produce the series tentatively titled “Mixed Up,” a single-camera sitcom that will focus on a biracial woman and her two friends as they tackle racial and financial issues post-college.

“It’s about living without the safety net. They’re all broke together,” Nissel told the Hollywood Reporter. She has already finished a draft of the pilot and expects to turn it in to HBO shortly. If greenlit, it would be the first series order for Berry and Cirrincione, who teamed on HBO’s Emmy-winning 2005 film “Lackawanna Blues.”

I’m not crazy about the title “Mixed Up” since it kind of reinforces that old stereotype about all mixed people having identity issues and not knowing if they’re black or white, etc. But hopefully the show’s content won’t fall into this stereotypical territory.

Congratulations, Angela! It’ll be exciting to see a TV series with a mixed character at the center of the storyline. The closest thing right now is “Girlfriends,” but of course in that show, the mixed character (Lynn, played by Persia White) is one of four women.

Trackbacks & Pings

ATR 32 - July 17, 2006 - Voicemail 206-203-3983 - addictedtorace@gmail.com at Addicted to Race on 05 Aug 2006 at 11:08 am

[…] MIXED MEDIA WATCH NEWS UPDATE Jen discusses several recent news items: a controversial Sony PSP ad released in the Netherlands, the potential HBO comedy series that may arise from Angela Nissel’s Mixed: My Life in Black and White, and a recent Essence magazine article chock-full of stereotypes about interracial relationships. […]

Comments

Charles wrote:

Angela Nissel’s book to be HBO comedy series, Congradulations Ms. Angela Nissel and same to you, executive producer Halle Berry. I don’t know if the world is ready for Halle Berry the comedian, cause the girl is crazy as hell. And Angela, if she admires your work, you’ve got to be out there too.

Posted 07 Jul 2006 at 11:54 am ¶
mtevc wrote:

yeah, halle handling this might be a scary thing…can we start a letter writing campaign to ms nissel or halle to stop them from using that title?

Posted 07 Jul 2006 at 3:29 pm ¶
little mixed girl wrote:

i really hope that they do not keep that title.
i also hope that it doesn’t turn into one of those “oh my life is so pathetic, where do i belong???” type of things…

Posted 09 Jul 2006 at 5:51 pm ¶
Charlette wrote:

I had written to television shows for pilot consideration in the 70’s with my brother about a sitcom of mixed children then. Got no results. Glad to see we are at least trying to face an issue and the issue is not:
they child is confused about whether they are black or white the issue is dealing with society being mixed up about it. The child only takes cues from the nurturing mirror of society who doesn’t want to fess up that there is a group of people who don’t fit their stereotype of blacks or mixed black and whites because the truth is humans are humans if left alone to live. Whites then would have to admit that they no longer have or want control over a population of other human beings. we all know that they can’t give up the crack addiction to power over other human beings to save thier souls.
I know because they do to me even when I fight back every day of my life. I refuse to live down to their expectations.
I am still going to write my book because they still don’t want to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Posted 09 Jul 2006 at 7:24 pm ¶
Charlette wrote:

And y ou dark skinned people who are jealous and or ignorant of the fact that people of mixed backgrounds do not belong and are left out on purpose by all of you, don’t give me that pity bull. Try living in their shoes for one day and feel how being alone magnified by all of you feels then whine for us. Until then shut up!

Posted 09 Jul 2006 at 7:27 pm ¶
S wrote:

Charlette, mixed people are left out of what on purpose?
Why not say “all you people who are jealous or ignorant…shut up!”? Why is the nastiensss only directed to one skin shade, and not to the “jealous” and “ignorant” as a whole? Did you leave out the white and light-skinned jealous and ignorant people for a reason?

What do you mean by “feeling all alone”? It’s a plain question with no hidden motive, so if you can, please answer without hostility.

As far as the show, sometimes hoping for a non-stereotypical show about a non-white race can be a stretch, especially since many of the (predominatly___) shows and movies that contain a load of stereotypes are actually written and or directed by somone of that same race of people. Sad, but true.

Posted 10 Jul 2006 at 1:35 pm ¶
justin wrote:

Girlfriends is certainly a good show but as a man I’m uncomfortable with its title . . . . They should name this new show after some interracial gonzo pornography.
I know several perverts who are slowly being re-educated by the L word.

Posted 10 Jul 2006 at 2:32 pm ¶
Stefanie wrote:

I have not read Angela’s whole book (Mixed) but first heard about it when a 4-page excerpt was printed in Jane magazine a few months back. I hated what I read at the time. In the excerpt, the characters espoused lots of damaging stereotypes about blacks, whites, and mixies. I think I missed a lot of the satirical elements. I looked it up online and found comparisons of her to David Sedaris, whom I enjoy, so I wanted to give it another chance. I flipped through the book in a bookstore and found that the book is humerous but painful, as it cronichles her journey from childhood to adulthood, as she comes to terms withher racial identity. She describes key “episodes” in her life that helped form her views on race, and she goes through many phases, such as capitalizing on her light-skinned looks and being a willing fetish-object while dating, etc.

I’d definately like to read the whole book at some point. Though a lot of it has the sort of stuff that readers of this blog don’t like too see, remembering that Angela is writing honestly about her past and doesn’t feel that way today might make the material more palatable.

Posted 13 Jul 2006 at 4:30 pm ¶