The situation isn't completely dire for Black viewers in 2016, though. There are some rich, multifaceted series creating a more diverse TV landscape. Thursday nights on ABC are more reflective of the real world thanks to Shonda Rhimes. Dramas like OWN's Queen Sugar, Power on Starz, and dramedies like FX's Atlanta and Issa Rae's Insecure on HBO are finally offering up much-needed layered portrayals of minorities, while also providing more opportunities for brown actors.Actress, dancer, director, and producer Debbie Allen — who, after becoming a household name through Fame in the '80s, went on to direct and produce the '90s hit A Different World and direct episodes of everything from Fresh Prince to Scandal — believes that series like these are proof that the question shouldn't be what happened to the Black sitcom, but what happened to the sitcom, period."The world of television has changed, and reality TV and dramatic narratives have simply taken the place of the sitcom," says Allen, who now appears on Grey's Anatomy and serves as an executive producer of the Shonaland series. "Reality is cheaper to produce, and lately dramas are more successful with audiences. I think networks have just shifted the way they're spending their money, so the focus is no longer situational comedies."Still, while the rise of reality television has indeed changed entertainment, sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family continue to dominate ratings, as does Black-ish, and comedies representing other minority demographics — like Jane the Virgin and Fresh off the Boat — have popped up in the last few years. (The fact that it took so long for both Latino and Asian Americans to see their stories told on major network sitcoms is an entire different essay on its own.) And reruns of shows like The Fresh Prince on Nick at Nite often rank higher than reruns of current shows like Big Bang.Clearly, the sitcom isn't completely dead. And there's no denying that complex shows like How to Get Away With Murder, Power, and Empire have been crucial for bringing more brown faces to television — an especially commendable achievement considering how embarrassingly devoid of diversity the world of film is currently. In fact, maybe the '90s and early-aughts were just an anomaly, a magical era for Black comedies. Perhaps we're entering a new turn of the pop culture cycle, a time for smart, multidimensional Black-led series like Luke Cage , The Underground, and Greenleaf.But between all of these intense, nuanced dramas and entertaining reality shows, couldn't there still a place for uplifting, family-friendly, laugh-out-loud Black stories? After all, during a time when the country is facing far too many racial crises in the outside world, it feels more important now than ever for Americans to at least see uplifting portrayals of people of all colors in their living rooms. Until then, there's always Nick at Nite.