Today is a new beginning for me. Today is the day that I’ve decided to launch my first blog.  I’m sitting around the house watching the rain pummel down and I can’t help but to think about how the entertainment business has changed right before my eyes.  One of my boys stopped by the house to shoot the shit and he opened my eyes up to the whole blog game.  I knew about blogging, but I guess I never really tripped off of it.   I didn’t know the power of a blog until recently, and dammit, I got something to say!  What is the state of Black entertainment?  Right now, it ain’t looking so hot!  It’s tough out there.   It’s like Black entertainment fell off into an ocean of oblivion.  TV One, BET, and TBS are doing their part in distributing black product, but in a society where content is king; there isn’t nearly enough colorful content available to fulfill the demand.  The black music biz is in the toilet too. Have you listened to terrestrial radio lately?   Radio stations play the same songs in rotation over and over again.  This shit is crazy.   Is the Internet killing entertainment, or is it changing entertainment, as we once knew it?   Did reality TV kill the sitcom?   Why is it that a black film only comes out at the box office once in a blue moon?  So here’s why I posed the questions.  If I’m going to be apart of the solution, I must first internalize what the problem is.   When I channel surf I can’t seem to find shows or movies that have people of color as the leads.  I would have thought that by the year 2011, and after a man of color made his way into the WHITE house, surly the face of the tube would have changed and that there would be many more beautiful, colorful faces gracing the screens, big or small.  We were on the rise in the 90′s when black sitcoms and movies were very present in the market place.  What the fuck happened?   Let’s cut to the chase.   People of color are not in power positions to create and distribute product.  I believe that this was done by design.  The studio heads that run the production companies are… well let’s just say they ain’t black, so how can black entertainment content become more diverse and plentiful if we don’t have prominent people of color in positions to push the initiative.  Come on people, we gotta start using our heads.  The only way for our people to get into those positions is to create our own production companies with qualified black CEO’s at the helm.  I created my company Bent Outta Shape Productions so that I could develop and create shows that would allow people of color a chance to have high-ranking opportunities in the business.  Whether that is in front or behind the camera.  I want to help keep black entertainment in its rightful place, which is on television, movie theaters, and all other media outlets.  I know exactly how I’m going to accomplish this, and I got a plan.  In 2009 I had an idea to independently produce a TV sitcom and I successfully pulled it off and actually got Love That Girl onto television, and it is actually on the air presently on the TVOne Network.  This is not a commercial for Love That Girl, but it is meant to motivate people of color to want to be in power positions with green lighting ability.   My mother once said to me and I quote “When you know better, you do better.”  It took a few minutes for that statement to sink in, then I got it, and that was the motivation that I needed.  My new mission is to take things to a much higher level, and now that I know how it’s done.  It’s game time!  Charlie Sheen said it best.  “WINNING!!!!”  LOL.   Y’all be cool and Holla Back!!!!!!!

TV One gets first scripted series in deal with veteran producer Bentley Kyle Evans

(October 18, 2010) TV One has struck a deal that will deliver the network’s first scripted series next year. Writer/producer/director Bentley Kyle Evans (pictured) through his company, Bent Outta Shape Productions, Inc., in association with Hazrah Entertainment, will produce 26 episodes of LOVE THAT GIRL! The popular sitcom was first introduced by Evans and his executive producer partner Martin Lawrence with four special episodes in January 2010.

The series will air on TV One each night immediately following two back-to-back episodes of Martin at 8 PM. Two all-new episodes of LOVE THAT GIRL! will kick off the programming event on Tuesday, Jan. 19 from 9-10 PM, and one new episode will premiere on Wednesday, Jan. 20 and Thursday, Jan. 21 at 9 PM, followed at 9:30 PM by a repeat of one of the Tuesday, Jan. 19 episodes.

“LOVE THAT GIRL! really resonated with TV One viewers when we aired the original four episodes in January, and we are delighted to work with Bentley Evans and Martin Lawrence on this exciting project and bring original, scripted comedy to our lineup,” said TV One Senior Vice President of Original Programming Toni Judkins. “Our viewers love sitcoms, they love Tatyana, and Martin has been a strong and beloved part of the schedule since the day TV One went on the air more than six years ago, so LOVE THAT GIRL! is a natural step for us.”

“I am delighted to be back in business with TV One for a full season of LOVE THAT GIRL!” said Bentley Evans. “Not only do they get the business behind programming to the more sophisticated urban market, they have the ideal audience for a series like ours. What we wanted to do was create a series that was unique and distinctive, intelligently written, and well crafted — and I think we are accomplishing all four objectives with LOVE THAT GIRL! If executed properly, this will represent a whole new model for producing and delivering quality scripted series to the television market, at a reasonable cost.”

In 2009, Bent Outta Shape Productions, Inc., produced four episodes of the sitcom outside the traditional studio system and brought them to TV One after Dennis Ray and Desmond Gumbs facilitated a meeting between the two parties.

Bentley Kyle Evans began his entertainment career as an actor in Robert Townsend’s “Hollywood Shuffle” followed by featured roles in “I’m Gonna Get U Sucka” directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans, and New LineCinema’s “House Party”. He met Martin Lawrence when they were to co-star in an ill-fated ABC pilot, and later decided that his true calling was behind the camera.

He began writing and Martin Lawrence soon arranged for his friend to write for his new TV show. Bentley Evans quickly moved up the ranks and became co-executive producer/show runner of the hit series. He branched out into feature films and also teamed up with Jamie Foxx to create the hit series, “The Jamie Foxx Show.” He became one of the few individuals to run two hit shows on two different networks — all before he turned 30.