Reginald Hudlin

The pressure to craft a solid follow-up was high, and with the Eddie Murphy comedy Boomerang, Hudlin successfully avoided the dreaded sophomore slump. Not only did the film score a direct hit at the box office with a 130-million-dollar worldwide take, but the soundtrack went double platinum and launched the career of popular singer Toni Braxton. It was also during this period that Hudlin wrote and served as a co-executive producer of the popular animated comedy Bebe's Kids, which featured the voice of House Party's Robin Harris. As the 1990s progressed, Hudlin brought his talents to television, and though the Twilight Zone-inspired HBO series Cosmic Slop (hosted by none other than grandmaster of funk George Clinton) scored high with critics and audiences, it quickly disappeared from the airwaves. Hudlin did, however, earn a Cable ACE Award for his episode "Space Traders." Hudlin's third film, the Samuel L. Jackson comedy-satire The Great White Hype, may have drawn only mediocre reviews, but it still managed to score better than his next effort, the abysmal Saturday Night Live character feature The Ladies Man, which immediately tanked at the box office. His 2002 comedy Serving Sara didn't fare much better, despite a talented cast which included Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley.

Focusing his efforts more intently on the small screen, Hudlin garnered kudos for his production/direction work on three series in particular: The groundbreaking Bernie Mac Show on Fox, Chris Rock's nostalgic Everybody Hates Chris, and the acclaimed Boondocks animated series on the Cartoon Network. These sorts of efforts made him the perfect candidate to lead one of the most venerable channels on basic cable, and in the summer of 2005, Hudlin was named president of the Black Entertainment Network, where he would spearhead a successful mix of music, reality, documentary and fictional programming. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide