With a mixture of anticipation and hope, the Black film community has been abuzz for weeks over the prospect of producer-director Lee Daniels pulling off a historic upset Sunday at the Academy Awards, and walking away with multiple Oscars for the critically lauded “Precious: Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire.”

Such an outcome would no doubt bring a smile to Robert Townsend, who set the industry ablaze 23 years ago with his wickedly satirical “Hollywood Shuffle,” which took aim at the frequently less-than-stellar opportunities that exist for African-Americans in the world’s film capital.

This week, in an interview at a Hollywood recording studio, Townsend reflected on changes in the industry so pointedly lampooned in his most signature work.

“It’s a very good thing,” he said of a year in which African-Americans scored a record number of Oscar nods, “but there’s still a lot of work to be done. Behind the curtain, [Daniels] struggled to get that film made. He did it by hook or by crook — and at the end of the rainbow it gets nominated for an Academy Award.”

Townsend, who famously maxed out several credit cards to make “Hollywood Shuffle” in 1987 — and sold the film just before the bills were due — has mixed feelings about the state of Hollywood diversity today.

“If I were making ‘Hollywood Shuffle’ today, I’d say there was less going on,” he said. “Hollywood is more integrated, but there are less movies and TV shows. There was a time when there were more shows with African-Americans in the lead — now we’re fifth and sixth lead. We’ve lost some ground. There are movie stars, but you can count them on one hand. Then there are reality shows, which are the worst element [he mentioned shows like ‘The Flavor of Love’] and I don’t think as people of color we want to call anybody out.”

Employing African-American humor while maintaining a connection to a wider audience is a topic on which Townsend can speak with considerable authority: He starred for four years on the 1990s sitcom “The Parent ‘Hood,” directed the landmark concert film “Eddie Murphy Raw” and is one of the creative forces behind “Why We Laugh,” a new Showtime documentary about the pivotal role that Black comedy has played in the evolution of American pop culture.

The film, which began airing on the cable network last week, is based on the book by writer and stand up comedian Darryl Littleton. Narrated by Angela Bassett, it features appearances by such comics and cultural critics as Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, Chris
Rock, Sherri Shepherd, Cornel West and Kwesi Mfume.

“It was Darryl’s vision, but ‘Why We Laugh’ is really a love letter to all these great comedians and a history lesson for young comics to know who came before them and how hard they worked,” said Townsend.

“There’s a lot of pain as to why we laugh. Richard Pryor took the pain that was the frustrations of a people and started to articulate from a brutally honest place. Those are part of the reasons we laugh. Instead of crying, we say this is the way life is and hey I can laugh about it rather than going crazy.”

Townsend is also at the center of a movement in which more Black creative talents are distributing their work over the Internet.

He recently won an award from welovesoaps.com for directing Monica Calhoun, Richard Roundtree and Billy Dee Williams in the Web-only series “Diary of a Single Mom.”

Created by Ray Ramsey, the drama follows the lives of three single mothers and their families, and airs on the Public Internet Channel (www.pic.tv). Currently in its second season, it has been viewed by more than 200,000 people.

“When Ray came to me with concept of doing a Web series about single mothers, I was interested because that’s how I was raised,” said Townsend. “But I didn’t know much about the Web. However, Ray started to show me how many people were online, and for me as an artist I’m always looking for places to create something.”