Thanks for posting Danielle, I missed this last night. My main issue with Tyler is why he can’t use all of his power and resources to step out of his box and do something different. No one, not even his hard core audience, wants to see similar characters with the same storylines constantly.

I take issue with the interviewer repeating that most people don't know who Tyler Perry is. I know for a fact that Tyler Perry has a huge mainstream, and by mainstream I mean white, audience. I get that they're celebrating him coming up from nothing and taking his business into his own hands, but don't make him seem like some nobody in the industry when he clearly is not. He wouldn't be on 60 minutes if most people didn't know who he is.

I saw this interview last night and must say how proud I am of Tyler. Tyler has taken the talents he was given and used them as he best knows how. He writes from his own perspective and experience which is to be expected with any artist. God does not expect him to use or express what he doesn't have, so I would not either. I have great respect for this man. Being faithful with little has brought him much. Let those who have experienced or are keenly familiar with other walks of life, write, direct, and produce their own works. Diversity is good. Tyler has faithfully proven his own hard work in that now he owns his own studio. Those who choose to film other stories of different genres should be so blessed. Hopefully, his humility, tenacity, and perseverance will be imitated by many.

Well, I support Tyler and the work that he is doing. Some of the characters may be stereotypical but those characters really do exist in our community and should be represented as a part of the whole. Would it be a true representation if every bodody on every one of his shows were Harvard educated, french speaking, horseback riding billionaires? He doesn't just showcase buffoonery. He balances out the Madea's and the Mr. Brown's with positive characters. In fact, the negative characters are really only for comic relief in the mist of a real story with a real message. And, while roles are drying up for African Americans everywhere else, Tyler continues to tell our stories and put our actors to work. Spike Lee's stories weren't any better. In fact, I loathe half the foolishness that he put out there during his heyday. He needs to put that cup of haterade down and join forces with Tylers to put more and better stories out there to represent the full spectrum of our culture and subcultures.

Just happy to have a Black man doing something in Hollywood. You have to be gay or jewsih to be in that. As long as your positive, Tyler Perry, I don't mind you staying in your box. Better to have good Black movies like yours and other uplifting positive Black movies than the stereotypical ghetto hip-hop crap. Keep doing what you doing. I do not blame you, I blame them gay and jewish people controlling the industry. Handle your business, Brother. And Spike Lee sucked! And does Chris Rock!

I guess Tyler can stop wearing the dress now, but will he?

The comments so far have all been great and pretty much covered anything that I wanted to say. The only thing I want to add is that if Spike wanted to critique Tyler's work then that's all good, well and fine. However, comparing the man's work to 'Mantan & Moreland' and 'Sleep n Eat' was pretty gosh darn low. I'd rather have a ton of Tyler Perry's work then to keep seeing successful Black men down each other in the public eye. What is that even accomplishing? Also until Spike speaks up about BET or some of the rap music that's playing, I can't take his Tyler Perry criticism seriously. To me, even though I don't agree with some rap songs, it's all art to me. I don't pick and choose what I will call art by whether I agree with it or not and Spike shouldn't either.

And on my final note...there is too much weight and BLAME put on the entertainment industry. No one is holding Black folks back except Black folks. Some people have said, "Well it makes white people think we are all like that." Well, if there are white people STILL thinking that in 2009, then they are the ones with the problem.

Kieran, you said "No one is holding Black folks back except Black folks". I can agree on the self-destruction in the hoods. But seriously, in Hollywood, why wasn't a positive person like Bill Cosby allowed to buy NBC or ABC? Why isn't there any Black News programs and televsion stations? Its not that Black people won't support them, there's a reason, AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH US HOLDING EACH OTHER BACK. LIKE I SAID, IF YOU GAY AND JEWISH YOU IN - ASK PUFF DADDY, JAMIE FOXX, LL COOL J, AND WANDA SYKES AND THEM. SOME OF YOU ALL GET CARRIED AWAY WITH THIS BARACK STUFF - WE AIN'T EVEN!

I respect his accomplishment and am glad for him I am sorely disappointed in the level of quality of his work. I am mostly disappointed in how he's regressed black women to Cinderellas who always need a man to save them form their self destructive lives. On top of the darker skinned brother being the abuser or the one at fault. Like most middle class blacks I am sad to see that don't have a dream beyond either just making it or getting out of the ghettos.

I don't see why him being black should guard him from criticism, shouldn't he be receiving more of it if he represents black America? How about we support the black high quality black theater? Which exists. Where was all this support for Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy?

Tyler Perry is far from the best we can do or even have done. But people talk as if it's him or nothing.

Does money and success make Tyler Perry's work more palatable to Black audiences? Would we point a more critical eye at his body of work it he were not as sucessful?

I have paid my hard earned money to see his films. I will never be accused of critiquing a film I have not seen and I find Mr. Perrys' flims to be derivative, stereotypical, clichéd, misogynistic homages to class warfare; riddle with one-dimensional representations of what he preceives to be human beings.

Just because people enjoy his product and he makes a tremendous amount of money producing it that doesn't mean it is not toxic. Hell, drug dealers do the same thing. I don't see anyone defending them.

Critizing his work is not trying to "bring a brotha" down or being "a crab in a barrel" because Perry put it out there, I paid my money and I have a right to my opinion. He has his core audience and he has made millions not overestimating their expectations but we need to demand more from people in positions of power.

I know how difficult it is to get a film greenlighted, let alone actually it made and distributed. I commend Mr. Perry for his unfailing drive, his success but lets be honest he is producing entertainment not art. As for him directing "For Colored Girls" there is nothing in his current repertoire that would suggest he is capable writing or directing a complex film. But maybe this is his chance to step out of his box and deliver something worthwhile. All one can do is hold out hope..

Perry's defense of his work is pretty weak. Yes, Hollywood ignored his audience for a long time, but that doesn't mean the problems in his films (one-dimensional characters, overly melodramatic, painfully predictable) go away.

Perry produces low-brow schlock. He's found a market, though, and he's not going away. Far from it, he's becoming the black Walt Disney. His 60 Minutes interviewer could barely hide his contempt. My sentiments exactly.

"Why isn't there any Black News programs and televsion stations?"

because BET got rid of them.

I see his work as it should be: a chance to see something mostly positive on the big screen and stage with African Americans in front of and behind the camera. Sure, some of his work is questionable, but taken as a whole there are positive messages, little cursing, no big drug gangsters, misogynistic rap track streaming at the end of the movie, and a chance to see Black men and women coming together to form families. I would love to see him, Spike, Bill and Oprah get together and form a company that we all can be proud of. I would like to see regular love stories, action film and comedy with Black people as main characters on a regular basis. I would like to see the 2011 version of the Cosbys. I would love to see some of our esteemed authors such as Tenanarive Due and Octavia Butler on the big screen. I do want to see less of the man beating and cheating on the woman and I wish Perry would rely less on those story lines. Some day there will be a movie we can all be proud of and maybe as Mr. Perry brings in more money he can be part of it. I hope he doesn't let me down.

I don't like his films. And ^5 to the person who mentioned the class warfare and colorism runs throughout all his films. All the good women are dark and all the good men are light. All the bad women are light and all the bad men are dark. The working class and uneducated are the salt of the earth and they'll give you the shirt off of their back. The upper class and educated characters are either evil or miserable or both. Not to mention they don't know the Lord.

I can't stand it. And "Why Did I Get Married" was the biggest piece of sexist shit I ever watched!!

I couldn't get past the second commercial...

I applaud Tyler for what he has been able to build. And Spike should get off his high horse. What kind of images of women did "She's Gotta Have It", "School Daze", and "Mo Better Blues" promote? Was "Mookey" a stereotypical character? How about "Radio Raheem"? I am not saying Tyler is the greatest thing to happen to black entertainment. But people saying dude is taking us backward is on that BS!

Single parenthood is taking us backward. High dropout rates of black males are taking us backward. Tyler Perry's movies are not. And honestly, I don't see much out there in the form of black entertainment that can counter Tyler Perry. For the all the complaints about him what are the alternatives? Where is all this deep, artistic, visionary work that is so superior? I don't see it.

It's there, T. Rogers, but not getting the same amount of support. If you're truly interested, you can always follow your favorite black actor on BroadwayWorld.Com.

If you don't care for Tyler Perry movies, plays or sit-coms, don't watch them. If you don't watch them, why criticize him or his material?

If you think you can produce a better product, there's not a damn thing stopping you. No one funded Perry but Perry. He made a way out of nothing. He realized that Black people want fairy tales too.

So you with your high falutin' degrees, what's your excuse for not making a better movies than Perry?

Why do we give this man so much grief. If you don't like his work or Spike's work watch somebody else. There needs to be something for everybody. Obviously there are a lot of bodies who like his work when you count the dollars he's raked in. There are some things that have come out by other Black directors that have been hailed as so wonderful that simply depressed me. The are either about drugs, rap and the same old, same old. I happen to enjoy his film and especially THE FAMILY THAT PREYS. Now thousands of Black women are mad a Chris Rock for his documentary on Good Hair. I just don't know what we as a people want. No one wants to see Harriet Tubman everyday. THE GREAT DEBATERS was a good film but it certainly didn't make the box office. We can't let him fully arrive before we start charging how he needs to bring others along. Give the man a break.

Snob, what director do you want to see who hasn't gotten his/her shot yet? Cause you really give Tyler grief. Let him do him, he's doing him well enough to pull in the big dollars so why should he change? If It ain't broke.don't fix it.

I have a real problem with Spike on this one. Instead of concerning ourselves with Tyler, i've got a question for the little guy. What single one of your movies features a black woman, whom you DON"T find sexually desirable, as the main protaginist?? As a matter of fact with the exception of your first move, which one of your movies features a woman as the main character? I'm not accusing the man of misogyny, but you gotta wonder how over this many years the man hasn't found one film in which he could prominently showcase a woman??? Alternatively, Tyler seems to look for every opportunity to showcase our underutilized black actresses, especially our over 40 ladies. My hats off to TP and Spike can take a hike with his self rightoues azz.

Good commentary, Tracy!

It's so easy to criticize. Everybody can tell Tyler Perry how to do it and what he's doing wrong but they ain't never did shat over even come close to writing, producing, directing and having an audience to care enough to purchase a ticket.

Everything Black shouldn't and won't be all about Black intellectualism. You got a few ninjas that got college degrees thinking they're the be all end all to the black experience.

Tyler Perry is experiencing the catch 22 of becoming a success at what you do: you become an easy target for those who want to deem your product's worth.

Truth be told...Tyler Perry has the right to create whatever the hell he wants just cause he was born. Some of yall act like he shat on your dinner plate and tried to serve it to you.