Martin (TV series)

CTL-E-5445 · Work · other · 1992–1997

PROVISIONAL evidence grade of this record

Martin, created by John Bowman, Martin Lawrence, and Topper Carew, aired on Fox from August 27, 1992, to May 1, 1997 — five seasons, 132 episodes set in Detroit, where Lawrence's Martin Payne, a radio and television talk-show host, sparred with Tisha Campbell's Gina and a household of neighbors. The series was one of Fox's highest-rated programs and an anchor of the network's 1990s Black sitcom bloc, the bloc that made Fox, for a decade, the broadcast home of Black comedy. Lawrence played not only the lead but a repertory of supporting characters — Sheneneh, Otis, Mama Payne among them — turning the series into a one-man showcase in the tradition of the great stand-up personae, with the ensemble absorbing his range. Its standing has compounded: when the cast reunited onstage at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2024, the ovation treated the series as what it had become — a canonical text of Black television comedy, quoted line for line by the generation that grew up inside its Thursday nights.

The record

• Also known as: Martin

Notes

Statistics: Fox, 1992–1997; 132 episodes (Wikipedia). Named with the '(TV series)' disambiguator: the graph's Gate A found no series record, and the bare name belongs to people. Filed as Work/other: schema v0.2.6 carries no television subtype, and none was invented inside this merge (schema changes are a separate, reviewed step). · Curator's Judgment: DRAFT — for founder review: Martin is the Fox bloc's purest product: a stand-up's id, given a couch, a girlfriend, and a neighborhood. The record files it as infrastructure — the show that proved a Black comic's unfiltered persona could carry a network night. · Photo slot: HELD — poster/key art and production stills for this title are copyrighted studio material and were NOT pulled (per CTL-PHOTO-001 and the wave brief: never force non-free key art); no cleared Commons image was verified for this title in this run. Slot honestly HELD pending a cleared visual.

Sources

• Wikipedia, 'Martin (TV series)' — supports: creators, Fox run (August 27, 1992 – May 1, 1997), 5 seasons / 132 episodes, Detroit setting, Fox ratings standing, Lawrence's multiple roles, and the 2024 Emmys reunion — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_(TV_series)

Record CTL-E-5445 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: PROVISIONAL · 1 source · CTL research: MEDIA-001.
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