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  elevision gets a bold new viewing in Spike Lee's Bamboozled. Lee's latest film is a blistering satire of network television's pitfalls and prejudices, a humorous look at how race, ratings and the pursuit of power lead to a television writer's stunning rise and tragic downfall.
Damon Wayans stars as Pierre Delacroix, a hip, young, Harvard-educated writer who is the sole person of color working for an upstart network with floundering ratings. Despite several attempts, Delacroix has yet to see any of his concepts go into production. Now his boss, the ratings-hungry, culture-vulture Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport), issues him a searing ultimatum: come up with a hot, trend-setting, headline-making, urban hit or get fired.
Feeling doomed, Delacroix decides to present the most outrageous, unbelievable farce of stereotypical comedy he can imagine - hearkening back to the old days of "black-face" minstrels with a variety show featuring Manray (Savion Glover), a homeless tap dancer, and his sidekick Womack (Tommy Davidson).
Incredibly, Delacroix's spoof turns into a ratings bonanza, a cultural phenomenon that has the media pundits raving and audiences of all types howling. But, for Delacroix, the runaway success of "Mantan The New Millennium Minstrel Show" is the start of a rapid unraveling. Despite trying to defend his hit show, Delacroix comes under attack from all sides, not least if all from his own beautiful assistant Sloan Hopkins (Jada Pinkett Smith), who is falling for Manray, and her radical hip hop rapper brother Big Black. Delacroix's ratings keep rocketing, but they peak on a day that will change everything.
Bamboozled mixes comedy with intrepid social commentary about the way the media works. "Two of my favorite films are A Face in the Crowd and Network and I used both as a platform, and as inspiration. This is a piercing look into the past and future of film and television," says Lee.
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