Most Important Black TV Shows – #14 Living Single
For five solid years, Living Single was part of a solid Thursday night block on Fox that caters specifically to the African-American demographic. The show would be centered around four twenty-something black women in Brooklyn and their (mis)adventures in the workplace and the dating game. On to the tale of the tape…
Relevance: Oh yes. Between the cast, the creators, and the target audience, few shows before or since have appealed so primarily to the black experience. At this time, NBC was peaking with their own ‘Must See TV’. Or as black people called it, ‘That New York City were black people don’t exist.’ Absolutely perfect counterprogramming.
Legacy: The obvious superficial connection is to the TV show Girlfriends, and the number of similarities between the two. I will point to something that may not come to mind immediately: when the show started, Queen Latifah was still kind of on the line of ‘rapper/actor’, just a female version of it. Headlining Living Single was a great career move on her part to putting her to where she’s at today.
Craft: I’m sure growing up with this show created a bias within me, but I think this is one of the better sitcoms of its era. It rarely if ever ventured into pure over the top antics like pretty much every other black sitcom not named The Cosby Show. Living Single was written well, and more importantly, you got the sense that the six principal members of the cast genuinely liked each other (or at the very least liked working with each other).
Crossover: Um. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but I would be highly surprised if ‘Average Joe’ knew who Khadijah, Synclaire, Max and Regine are.
Apollo: In a show built around relationships, the best Apollo moments are probably when the two slow burning relationships (Overton and Synclaire, Max and Kyle) were consummated. There were a ton of great guest stars as well, but a show like this wasn’t built on the ’surprise’ moment. Just a consistently solid, funny sitcom about black folk.
On the other hand, next up on the countdown is a show that definitely had its share of Apollo moments. Until then…
Limitless X – Linus
Out of the other black guys in my dorm, one was from Kansas City. He was from the Missouri side, but he loved sports like me. We were on the same floor, so would meet up in our floor lobby to watch Sportscenter. That’s how it started. Now I’m not one of those big ‘I always knew we would be friends’ type of people, but sometimes there are moments that make it seem like you’re tied to a person.
One Friday early in first semester, I was pulling out of the parking lot, changing the dial trying to find my favorite radio station. All I heard next was “SPIKE!!!” WHAMMO!!! I straight ran this cat over with my car!!!
He was on his bike at the time (thankfully). I wasn’t a complete jerk; I took him to the bike shop to get it fixed. But yeah, that was one of those times you think, “I’m going to be friends with this cat…”
I am beyond terrible with names, so it’s not uncommon for me to give friends of mine nicknames. One morning in particular I was starving and ready to get down to the cafeteria, Mrs. E’s. I go across the floor to bang on this kid’s door; he’s still laying in his twin bed; rocking some hideous brown and white plaid pajamas. His blanket wrapped up in his hands. He’s been Linus to me ever since.
The inherent comedy of the bike incident was the perfect embodiment of our friendship. I watched the OJ Simpson verdict from Linus’ dorm room. The mood change from ‘here we go again’ to pure elation to celebrating past a bunch of pissed off future Republicans who were seeing the flaws in our justice system; that was a funny experience. Out of the two of us, Linus was the first one to get a multi-page love letter. Unfortunately, it came from his roommate, leading to this exchange I’ll never let him forget:
Me: (seeing him standing outside my door looking like a Vietnam Vet) What the hell is wrong with you?
Linus: (voice barely above a whisper) He loves me…
The second half of my freshmen year, I moved out of the dorm and into one of the scholarship halls. I didn’t see Linus everyday anymore, but our friendship kept growing when I found another common bond: movies. Linus, as it turns out, was a huge Star Wars fan, even more than me even. They re-released the original trilogy when we were in college; me and Linus rolled to Ward Parkway to see the ‘new and improved’ version. Don’t ask me why I did this, but when Darth Vader killed Obi-Wan, I leapt out of my seat and started running up and down the aisle like I was in shock. It got a good chuckle out of Linus, but the cat whose chair I kept kicking…truth be told he should have taken me outside and whipped my ass. It would be fitting a couple years down the line, for my farewell get-together with all the boys, we all went to see Episode I – the Phantom Menace. It would be a very solid foundation that would be worth a lot down the line…
But I’m getting ahead of myself. It was my second semester of college, I moved across campus to the scholarship halls, setting myself up for something big…
