living single
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Living Single's Erika Alexander Reveals She Almost Wasn't Cast in Role of 'Maxine'
“Maxine Shaw, Attorney-at-Law” is one of the beloved main characters from the hit ‘90s sitcom Living Single, as portrayed by Erika Alexander. The show would be entirely different without Max’s playful energy, and a new Facebook video interview with Alexander reveals that at one point, she wasn’t sure if the role would be hers to…
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T.C. Carlson Reveals He Was Fired From Living Single, Says He Served as Spokesperson When Cast Felt Disrespected
This year will mark 27 years since the first episode of Living Single aired in August 1993. The popular comedy series starring Queen Latifah, Kim Fields, Erika Alexander and Kim Coles has ranked among the most revered television shows universally embraced by the black community. As we reminisce about the beloved series, the concept of…
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Erika Alexander Calls Out The Erasure of Black Art
Over the past couple weeks, we’ve seen the unlikely rekindling of the Friends vs Living Single beef. Things got started when Friends actor David Schwimmer was asked in an interview about a Friends reboot. He gave an answer saying he’d want to see an all-Asian or all-black reboot of the show. While well-meaning, it ignored the…
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David Schwimmer Responds to Erika Alexander
For some inexplicable reason, Friends has seen a resurgence in the last five years. This was mainly due to it being easily accessible on Netflix until recently. I don’t get it, but hey, I’m not white. As a result of this resurgence, it seems like every week a former Friends star is asked about a…
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Erika Alexander Reminds David Schwimmer That He Starred in a Lily-White Reboot of Living Single
Imagine spending 10 years playing a character on a lily-white show that was a direct and complete appropriation of a black show already in production for a year when yours started, then pretending to know nothing about that show’s existence. In what can only be described as a case of either lying his white ass…
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Erika Alexander's an Iconic Actor, but Life in Hollywood Ain't No Crystal Stair
This just in: disparities persist in Hollywood. Beyond a lack of inclusion and pay inequities—which are both critical—the ways that we see black women, as well as the breadth of our roles and even the level of imagination assigned to the specific characters we play, can be stifling. “I think that black men [in Hollywood]…
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Maxine Shaw Ain't Nuthin To F' With: A Black Ass Game with Erika Alexander
Erika Alexander will forever be a staple in black television and is still on top of her game. You may know her best as Maxine Shaw from Living Single or Cousin Pam from The Cosby Show but now she’s starring as a young RZA’s mother in Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga. We put her ’90s…
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Queen Latifah Helped 2 Black Women Achieve Their Dream With The Queen Collective
In a 90’s kind of world, we were glad to have our girls. That notion still rings true with a new program that includes the Queen, also known as Latifah. Latifah, Tribeca Studios and Marc Pritchard, Procter and Gamble’s chief brand officer, have partnered to bring the dreams of black women to reality. That association…
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In a ’90s Kind of World, I’m Glad I Had My Girls: Living Single at 25 and Me
Growing up 55 shades of gay in the ’90s, there were not a lot of places for a young whippersnapper like me to draw inspiration from what life could be like as an adult. Friends? Too unseasoned. Seinfeld? I don’t know her. Fraiser? Cute, but for a six-year-old with a serious Princess Ariel obsession, not…
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Is It Just Me, or Is BuzzFeed’s Headline About Big Lez Mad Disrespectful?
I was perusing the internet streets like I always do looking for what’s good in the hood when I came across an article from BuzzFeed that made me clutch my pearls, then touch my chest and say, “Why, I never!” The headline? “We Found the Girl Who Danced to Living Single’s Theme Song and Sis…