Erika Alexander
Appearances
ReLiving Single
No Lie featuring Robert Horn
Enough! Enough! This is crazy! There you go. You were so good. So good.
ReLiving Single
No Lie featuring Robert Horn
That is such crap. Now that I realize what's been bothering me all this time. Wasn't that you just packed your raggedy duffel bag and left? It was that you didn't even bother to take the time to say goodbye.
ReLiving Single
No Lie featuring Robert Horn
No, it's the Greg. He left four messages on my machine today.
ReLiving Single
No Lie featuring Robert Horn
I'm calling Greg. Go ahead and call him with your weak self. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm fine. You're fine. What do you want? Dinner tomorrow? Well, since you're only gonna be in town one day, I guess we could work something out. You are so weak. Someone special? Sure. Your fiancé. Click, hang up, dial Tony.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
That's a trash dating pool. Erica, don't say that. No, I mean, yeah, allegedly. I mean, have you seen the last season of Love is Blind? I don't even know. No, I haven't seen it. But, you know, I can imagine. Okay. You know, we had better options in Brooklyn. At least they cast better people for us to date. Thank you, Yvette. We had some good ones, didn't we? Sure enough.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And so they have to see what's going on through her eyes, which is not working. So they ask the waiter, who is not going to get paid because we're not ordering anything, to send a note. So she orders something and sends a note.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And it kind of blows the cover. And that's when you do your great laugh.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
What I love is that you can still do that high-pitched laugh. Yeah.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah. Well, you know, the world is expanding. You've had very, I think, smartly saying that they're living single. And living single doesn't mean tied to an apartment. They've got to get out. Or tied to work. Tied to work. We're going to have adventures outside of the thing. And that's cool. Yeah.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
You know, I felt that way about Flavor Magazine. I didn't necessarily like going in there.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
It wasn't a place that Max visited that much. Yeah. And I didn't really know what to do.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
But any place else outside of that, I felt free. Uh-huh. Because remember, I'm always visiting other people's sets. Right. You know, that living room set is a place I'm coming into, but actually Max is always entering somewhere new. Mm-hmm. Wow, she's multidimensional. She is multidimensional. Wow, that's string theory. She becomes herself wherever she is. That's string theory. Yeah.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Oh, it's hot. It's hot. Of course, he's a doctor. Yeah. But what's the importance of you being yourself on a date, Kim? Do you feel like it's important? Absolutely. Because we do have masks. Let's be honest.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
In a relationship? I've watched you with guys go, really? And just become very soft and subtle. And don't, don't. Come on. That's not inauthentic.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
I'm just trying to get the truth to the people. Because you're trying to act like I'm always authentically myself. I am. Of course, every guy I ever meet, I date, is automatically my boyfriend. How do you think they get to be that way? If you were really authentically yourself, they probably would run screaming from the room. You're all doing masks.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
But I also think that that's more Overton style. That had nothing to do with maybe his approach. But he needed to disrupt that because, by the way, that was a great date. You weren't having a bad date.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah, rightly. So it's actually a choice between competing goods, which is harder. If it was flopping, then you'd see why Overton worked. But actually, even when he leaves, he says, okay, there's something soft and beautiful about his voice and very caring and comforting. He played that. He did.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And it makes sense that the doctor gets a call and leaves, but we don't think that this is a setup to get him out of the way so that Overton can have a chance to come and mac you.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And, you know, now coming back to that, that is something straight out of Shakespeare. Oh, for sure. Because that's, you know, Cyrano de Bergeac.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Oh, no. Cyrano de Bergeac gets coaching of the guy who cannot speak to the girl. Got it. And he's whispering in her ear. That's the exact setup of Shakespeare.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Right. And he's not overpromising something he can't deliver, which a lot of people do nowadays. They take you something expensive and it is nice. But the truth, it's not a correct sort of estimation of what you're going to get in the future. Right. And so people get disappointed when they can't keep it up. But bowling is right.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And he said, this is a John line where he says, stepping lightly like a woodpecker with a headache. Like a woodpecker with a headache. That is improv.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
I'm good. I have had some existential thoughts, you know, sort of questioning my choices lately and really worried about garbage in the environment. But other than that, you know, and world peace, too. And women's rights. Women's rights and all that. But other than that. The trade wars. Yes, and my bunion hurts. But other than that. The tariffs. Come on.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
They were taken seriously. And they were like, we're two black men. We're not going to do that.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And this is the pairing. of Sinclair and Overton that will last for years. For years. And then we get to see it. And it's the one, I don't want to say one, but actually, yes, the one love story that is consistently building and not necessarily, they do have their issues. Right. But it's a classic love story that gets to grow. It gets to grow. It doesn't have anybody, you know, it's passionate.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
It was a darling relationship. Yeah, it was really. It's a shame you'd have to go on another show that wouldn't have a black cast, perhaps, for that to have stood out as something that was unique inside of the story narrative that was going on in sitcoms.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
I get it. But, you know, my first date was with a dude named Richard Lyons.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
I'm saying they wrote it. Oh, I think they know. And you knew that when you got to sign up for it. I knew. I knew when I signed up. Okay, so we already knew that. And so in a way, they didn't have to have blurriness or anything. No. It'd be cloudy. It was very clear.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Could you still do that nowadays? The move of... Well, maybe there's a couple of moves. Could somebody send a note, maybe get somebody to leave? Probably not.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
No. I don't know, because they would text and see if that were true, number one, and send, you know, so that doesn't hold up. But maybe the move in where he offers himself and goes like that, or is that seen as soft and like he's a sucker? Because you give him a peck and he's okay with that.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Well, I think it's also expectation, battling expectations. Because a lot of people, even if they wanted that, they feel if they don't get more, they failed. Because society is telling them, like, you a sucker if you can't come and seal the deal. You know, there's people who believe. Get the panties the night one.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yes. Yeah, because it's the third episode in now, the first season. And Sinclair and Khadija have obviously been introduced as characters and family and those types of things. We know that she's a very innocent and beautiful spirit from Minnesota and all of that. But she's also a man magnet for Overton. Right.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Well, there's people who believe if they take you out to Red Lobster or some sort of, you know, that they deserve. You got to put out. You got to put out. Now, come on now.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Thank you, and then you can talk. So the importance of Sinclair's innocence in a show about modern dating is... It's a beautiful juxtaposition for all of y'all. It's true, because we had hot pants.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
I never had a pager. And we were just getting phones in, you know, and it was actually very expensive to call people on the phone. You still had long distance charges. Wow. So, yeah, there was a lot of difference. You had to go out and meet people, number one. Right. You know, clubs were real. None of that swiping. No, you had to go meet people.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
You actually started dating in high school and, you know, getting people's number and saying, I'm going with that person. Remember that? Oh. Do people still go with, I'm going with him?
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Nobody ever asked me. But I went to an all-girls high school. And I would have been horrified if somebody asked me. Really? I didn't want to ever be a property of any dude. Sorry, this is not in me. Really? So even my first boyfriend, he understood that. And so, you know, we dated, but I never said I was going with him. That sounds corny to me.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
He understood. You know, I mean, everybody, you have to read the thing because you can scare people who maybe have my point of view. My point of view wasn't just about autonomy and sort of the space to choose, but it was also I didn't want to be claimed.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
I'm not married now, but when I got married, I wasn't going to be Erica Alexander, blah, blah, blah. I was going to be Erica Alexander. I already have a man's name, my father's. Right.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And that's one of the big differences too. So if you think about in the 90s, I think people looked for people who would be more long term. Stability was important. Because again, society thought if you dated too much, you were a whore. You were a whore. I'm going to say a bad word here. Like, you know, Stallone in Rocky. I'm going to say a bad word here. You were a whore.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
You know, and nobody wants to be a whore. You want to be somebody who looks like, you know, marriage material. Yes. And even though I wasn't even into marriage. Mm-hmm. what marriage material meant that somebody you could be committed to. So commitment was important. Right now, the difference is there is no commitment. You literally put your picture up with your stats.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Is somebody going to look and swipe past you? I couldn't, I can't even imagine. I'm so glad. Did you ever do any, well, you didn't do any online dating? No, I couldn't do it now. There's Max. I mean, but there are people, we have cousin Pam.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
We should go on Pop for Love because nowadays they go on dating games where you put the red balloon out and literally when you come out, they start popping balloons. Now, frankly, that's what hurt my feelings. If I was in my 50s, I wouldn't want to pop the balloon. I might let the air out slowly. No, because I don't want them to be traumatized. Like, can I just slowly let them?
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
I actually like it a little rougher. It's rough. I love when people go, like the dudes are like, you know, they'll say something and they say, bless up, you know. Yeah, right, right. Just insulted you and said, you know, but it's all good. Bless up.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Right, right. You know, I want to make sure the goods are there. You worked out.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
You had to go on a- If your mother saw you on a show like that, You'd be dragged out of there. Can you imagine our parents on a show like that?
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Because there is a problem nowadays, let's be honest, with the dating. They've been talking about it, especially from the male point of view, that males feel very unaligned. Not just dating, but with... who they are in the world and their purpose. Because things have changed massively for men. And women have changed massively because they do have choice.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
They're not necessarily needing a man to pay the rent or feel proud of themselves. They're in the market. They're very well educated. Sometimes they're like, they want to date several different people. But then that's what people are saying. There's too many masculine women. What does that mean? Would Max be seen as a masculine woman? Yes. Yes, she would.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah. We set you up on a date with somebody else because we don't know that that's necessarily happening. And you have complained that you want to go on a date. I mean, you're sort of saying, I want to be out there.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
He did. He played my boyfriend. He's an actor from Philly. Yeah. I love Richard. Cool guy. Yeah.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
That's why they wanted to put her across the street before they even met her or was even cast. They were wanting Yvette to place her across the street.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
I think femininity is being redefined as we speak on Living Single because we have different versions of it. We have Regine. Regine. you know, wanting that traditional thing. Marry me, take care of me, you know, and then maybe we'll talk about beans in the oven. But first, it's me. And then we have you, who wants that, but you're not putting it out there for sale.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And then we have Khadija, who's very career-focused, like Latifah was, you know.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Oh, God. Lord have mercy. That came out wrong. That came out wrong. No, it's have your sex and eat me too. If you're talking to Max. That's what I meant to say. Hey, you know, funny thing. I am not. I'm very much Erica like Sinclair was because I'm from Arizona. So that's my version of Minnesota. You know, we have our dating pool there too. Right.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And you have that kind of old-fashioned way in approaching things and you don't want to put it out there. Not that you don't have longing, but you're not out there swiping right. And luckily they weren't swiping right. I got to say. But in a way, I probably didn't use my puss as much as I should have. I wish I had. Now looking back, I could have totally put it more out on the shelf.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Well, I'm not saying I didn't want to overuse it, but I did want to use it more than I did. You did want to use it more than you did? Looking back, yeah.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Use it now. Well, now, you know, it's different now. You know what I'm saying? You know, then I was footloose and vagina free, you know. It was tough because there was all these things going on in your head. It wasn't just the fact that I was old fashioned. There were all these, you know, competing thoughts.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And also we have things that bisexual and all that, trans, everything. There's tons of freedom. Then we could barely say gay and or queer. Queer was actually not said. That word was not used, no. But now people are like, well, I'm bisexual.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Regine's pronouns have stayed the same. Me, myself, and I. That's what it is, you know. By the way, they happen to be mine too.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Ooh. You know what? It might sound corny, but I love me some Billy Dee Williams. I ain't going to lie. It makes sense that we should pick somebody from, say, New Edition and all this stuff. And they seemed like peers at the time. I don't know about you. And they were all in a state of becoming Wu-Tang Clan, all of them.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And I didn't see them necessarily, but maybe because you also, when you're young, you also think older. I wanted, you know, Jermaine Jackson was who I dreamed of. I had a crush on Jermaine too.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Well, I was Marlon Jackson. Okay. You were Marlon. Okay. Yeah. But you know, I love Billy Dee because he was with Diana Ross and he says, what do you want my arm to fall off? And you know, I really did love Billy Dee and I loved people like Sidney Poitier and those types. So I think in a way I always wanted a mature person. man.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And I thought some of the people that may have been maybe my age peers were kind of too young to be interesting. I was still looking at Dukes of Hazzard and digging on, you know what I mean? The Dukes of Hazzard and all these, you know, and by the way, not enough being said about all the white men that were sort of in front of us that, you know, that were sexy. And, you know, we sort of
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
projected ourselves into those relationships. By the way, I loved Pierce Brosnan on Remington Steelchild. Oh, my God.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yes. You know what I mean? And if you look at Keanu Reeves, who dates an older woman. See, I always liked people who dated interesting people. I think that you can kind of see what people are like by seeing who they date. And frankly, yes, they were all out there. My God. I mean, yeah, I liked all of that.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Who's his compadre? Flavor Flav. Public enemy. Chuck D. Chuck D. Come on now. Oh, my God. Now I get heated from that. You got good taste. Chuck D. Come on. I'm going to love it. Let's get down to business. Come on. Sexy. Sexy. Sexy. He was fine as hell, too, to this day. And smart. You know who was good? Big Daddy Kane. Chocolatey delicious. Oh, my God. No. We just needed to be triggered.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Oh, yes. I think I looked cross-eyed because I didn't want to see him.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Oh, that's Maxwell. That was Maxwell. So, Erica, I'll tell you this.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
And we was across the runway and we just locked eyes. And it was one of those moments that was instant. I mean, it was just instant. It was fever. You give me fever.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah, he said, don't feel me. Don't feel me. I told him, don't feel me. Don't feel me. I couldn't. Yeah, because it was, I'm telling you. It was too much. It was like no one else was in the room. And honestly, I'm sure my panties fell off and I was nearly impregnated without him touching me. That's how fierce it was.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah, loving sitting here with you. More than I thought I would, frankly. Maybe it's some kind of healing and like a tonic. Yeah, we're laughing and talking, but we're also crying and having a conversation. And, you know, and what lovely shout out to Thomas Michael Ford.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Well, I actually waited a long time to date. Everyone or everyone seemed to be pregnant. And so in my mind, dating led to pregnancy. And, you know, nah, I didn't want to be pregnant. I was terrified of that.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Showed up always, always live on time. That says something about his professional ethic, work ethic. There's so many wonderful people that are gone now. Right. But he went very early and it was shocking to all of us.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Listen to us, you know. Listen to us. Listen to us. Listen to us. Yeah, you know, this is every week, wherever you listen to your podcast. Yeah. And if you want to see us and see, you know, the visual. Come on. Our hot. We are dressing up and trying to make it all look pretty for you. And everyone here is working hard and we love you. So, yeah. We thank you all.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Send your comments and questions to relivingsinglepodcast at heartbeat.com.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Meanwhile, Overton comes down and hands you something, finding any excuse, obviously, to come in and do anything for you. And then you lay that on him that you're looking for a date. He actually can't imagine that.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
You're my girl. And we're also starting to see the greatness and the wonderfulness of Kim Coles. You're like... Um, hello. That's one of your moves. Do it. Can you know what I'm talking about?
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
That's you, you know, we're improv-ing inside of it. And it's a beautiful thing. And finding another element, another something there. And now, of course, deepening the relationships between the characters. Right.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah. Girl, you don't see nothing. Not yet. Dude's all over. You might as well pee on your leg. That's how much he's, you know, digging on you. He wants to, you know.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
I guess so. Sometimes we're intimidated by what we want and we sort of, you know, smell it and sniff it too long and then somebody else comes and grabs it up and takes it home like a bone.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
We love you. You know, we actually met in Philadelphia at Freedom Theater in a play called Under Pressure. And he took me to eat. And, you know, I was very shy. I was a virgin, I promise. Anyway, we dated and stayed together for eight years. And he came to L.A. and got on the show. He's a good dude. Honest. He protected me. We're still friends. Yes. Why do you ask? What do you want to do?
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah. Okay. Well, you know, in that clip, you're showing that Overton is telling Kyle that he likes Sinclair. He's heartbroken to learn she has a date. Kyle then is coaching him. And now we're seeing the differences between Kyle and Overton and their approach. And obviously, one is much more, I don't know. What is Kyle? What do you say more to that? More direct. Tiger.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah. Masculine. Yeah, like go for it, aggressive. And Overton's like, I don't get it, you know? Yeah, yeah. That doesn't appeal to him. He's got a four-year plan to get... That's nuts. Did he say four or three years?
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah. So we're looking at two black men, dating styles in Brooklyn. Yeah. Totally different. Trying to get the girl. There's got to be disaster in front of them.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Ooh, look at you. Which one of these two blind ladies did your makeup?
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah, that's true. But you know, it's funny. They're putting you in makeup. And I know the Khadija character, Dana, doesn't like it. But I never really realized right until now that she takes a napkin. And wipes it down. And wipes it out.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
She's also protecting that innocent, old-fashioned Sinclair that she knows, you know, it will go along with things. People please her.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Exactly. Show off the goods. Show off the goods. Very pride and prejudice.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
That happened to me now. That's encouraging to somebody. Well, you know what? Dating is tough.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah, just chocolatey deliciousness. Chocolatey, delicious, handsome.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah, and he was on Martin. which was our lead in. So it just really makes sense for him to be on Living Single, you know, and just shows a camaraderie. Yeah. You know what I mean? The cross-pollinization that we did. The cross-pollinization, yeah.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Lord. And I just also love how he kind of matched Sinclair's innocence in his own masculine way.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah. But, you know, the sort of aggressive nature of her. Right. She's very dismissive.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
Yeah, I'm just going to eat these biscuits. Like, beat it, you know. And unapologetic.
ReLiving Single
90s Kinda Dating
No, we'll eat these biscuits. And some water, please. Get out of my face. Yeah, some water. Come on. In the meantime, so the friends have come and they want to spy. Now, there's... Latifa Khadija, with them, she said she didn't want that, but she comes to keep an eye on us, keeping an eye on you, and then sits in the chair that can see you.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Thank you. Thank you. I feel that.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Sometimes the guest stars have it harder often than the regulars.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Because they got to come in and they only have a moment to do their thing. And so it takes great confidence not to push. Yeah. And to allow, as you say, to breathe. But also great direction because we were set up really nicely. And it flows nice. And when you see great direction, you know it because you don't see it.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yes, yes, yes. Absolutely. We did. Kim Fields. Come on. She's a TV legend. She was always the vet on set. She set the stage for our success on the show. She was the bar and the example for how we prepared and how we needed to show up. She was ready to do the work, rain or shine, always. Man, you know what? I wish that I had a direct line to her. Like I could just, you know, vibe with her.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Is that a bar? That's a bar. And so, yeah, so she's going to, you know, obviously she's got the date with Charles. But now we're seeing that just because you let him go didn't mean that you want your friend to be your leftovers. You really let him go. Yeah. Sometimes you want the extra chicken on your plate, but only after you put it in the trash. You know, it is what it is, right?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
It is what it is. I know that's right. So, you know, she's pissed, it's awkward, and we got a conflict. Yep.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
What are you getting so worked up about?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yay! That's a good scene. Another non-verbal goodness. It's a good scene because it's full of conflict, and conflict between friends is always juicy. Yes. But also, the great TC gets the cap her off.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yes, that's right. He comes in the door, they're arguing, he shuts the window, and then gives his opinion and walks out. Great button for that.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Exactly. Yep. I'm sorry to say, I really do think that Regine is something else. Because she's sitting up there on the couch perched like a damn Tweety bird. Talking about, you got nerve coming up in here. In my house. It's not even your house. Right. Wow, it is. It's in my house. And I'm like, wow, she really got, you know, she got nerve, you know. But I mean, I see her point, but she's wrong.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Like right now? That'd be nice. Would you vibe with her right this very moment?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
We set that up in the first scene. Yeah, exactly.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Oh, that's true. He did. I think that people argue about those things and they don't look at, you know, some of the dynamics. It's hard because you're right about ego. It offends you. It's like, wait a minute, you're just going to go to her like right away too? Right. It wasn't even a period.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
A cooling off. But there wasn't no cooling off for you either. So that's the thing is that Regine is also showing that she's kind of got blinders on when it comes to everybody else. Yeah. And that's a very important part of the character's lovability, but her flaw.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Immature. Petty. anyway okay from this point onward no occupant of this house or friend of an occupant of this house will date the ex or current boyfriend of said others cool well that about covers it but what if he really fine then all bets are off okay Like a love of friends. It's going to come back together. Did you come together? So, yeah.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
That's on you. That's on her. Yeah. Yeah. What Yvette wants to show is that you can have those disagreements and then come back together. And the friends come back together and create a rule that they immediately erase. Yeah.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah. And then they, you know, get on with it because they're young and they're going to figure it out.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
In the moment. Yeah. Well, maybe that's what's missing nowadays. A lot of people sort of going and talking to people as opposed to... Each other. Yeah, yeah. And walking away and then having the story that keeps building this narrative that grows, which is not really real. It's usually smaller when you... Just confront it right then. Say what you need to say.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Just hanging out. I love it. Come on.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Say what you need to say and keep it moving.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
So we have Regine. She's relieved. She's apologetic. Max is... admits that he dumped her, which is great that, you know, they get that out of her. And they agreed to never date a friend or an ex unless he's fine. Then all bets are off. Yeah. And then the big story, we got Overton. Yes, Overton.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
What made you bust out in this song? Well, I mean, you got to be the grandma, gosh, dog. But yeah, probably, because it is old. Well, it's brilliant. Well, when Deborah Kerr, who plays her teacher, the great actress and singer Deborah Kerr, she's singing Getting to Know You because she's warning them.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Free the pain. Free the pain. Shoes.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Still is. Yeah. So that was also the beginning of these amazing guest stars who come in and do their thing. And that's the beauty about shows with black cast, because you get to invite people you admire. And that has picked my career up over and over again, where people who admire you grow up with you and then they're giving up.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
opportunity to play something because they said, I've been wanting to work with you. You had to wait till they grew up and got the power to create the thing. So that's what Yvette did. She was bringing them all on.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
And it was like this week you would take so-and-so and lock arms with them. I couldn't get Jennifer Lewis out of my trailer. Come here, bitches. I'm going to show you my VH test session. Come here. Look at this. It's amazing. You and I went back to her apartment. I was scared of her. I gave her my full trailer for the week. My goodness. Bitches. Bitches. Do you know how good you have it?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
You know where I was? Broadway. Rise and shine. Shine and rise.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Going back to a little bit about what you were saying, that the setup of the max regime conflict and animosity is set up here, too.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
I've got to say thank you because, again, she comes on in that studio and she anchors the show. And so to hear that from this beautiful woman and to even know that that's even a little bit true makes me feel really good because I'm telling you.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Can we ask a bit, and this may be too personal, because you grew up in front of the world and It makes sense that you might feel that you were floundering. How do you describe the floundering word? Like, what were you feeling?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Thank you. I love it. We can't afford you, so how are you going to pay for this?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah, and you're directing and you're a producer and the way your career has gone has been tremendous. It's phenomenal. It's iconic. Oh, see, here, I'm going to start. Here we go. Get your tissues out. I know. It's iconic because every little black girl I knew wanted to be you. They wanted your haircuts. They wanted your life. They had no idea what it was like for you on or off stage.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Of course. Because I didn't get a chance to say it. It's your show. You're right. This would have been very close to the beginning. And when we auditioned for Living Single, my dad had died a month before. And I promise you, I didn't feel like that inside. In fact, I don't even remember so much of being there because somehow I think I just numb myself.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
And you just do what's in front of you. You don't get a chance to sort of, you say, feel or even have moments because somebody's hired you for a job. Thank you, Amber. And now you have to produce results. Thanks. And never talked about it. Never even mentioned it. I don't think anybody mentioned or it didn't come up. So I think that's, frankly, if I was to speak about becoming.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
I had spent a little time, not as long as you, being a teenage actor and feeling that I was failing because the stress of it was killing me to be perfect. And if I just allowed myself to play, especially on the Cosby show, because I didn't feel funny. I didn't feel I did anything funny or anything to deserve that role. But here, because I didn't feel anyone was watching me.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
They were all watching y'all. You had Latifah, Kim. Y'all were William Morris clients. I'm coming in in a space that no one's checking for me. And so I had freedom. And I always thought, good, let them watch them. I'm going to do this over here. So I'm saying it's a beautiful thing what you're saying, but it's not how I felt. Man, this is a downer. Can I have some gin and tonic or something?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
God, give us a Negroni. It's not a downer, but you know what I mean?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah. Just show her once, do it. She would sit there and read while we learned lines. She would read her own books and stuff. And you would get mad. You're like, you don't need it, Fields. You don't need it. You don't need it, Fields. I got it. I got it.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
I know, and we are only seeing you as a professional. Right. Because we can't... Because we're just getting to know you. But also, her face precedes her. It takes a while to get past that. We're fans.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
And then suddenly you're standing next to her and she's giving you advice. So we'll talk more about that. We'll talk more about that. I'm crying. Find your life. Because I will always be grateful. I will always be grateful to that girl.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
You can't come on sets with, yeah, every time you look up, somebody got it. I'm like, really? Can we just do this? Because I got to get back home. We were about the work. I love the conspiracy and the floundering and the becoming.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Episode two. Lord. We don't even know how long the road is.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
That much I did know. So you didn't know then that it was a hit. Because Kim always says she knew. I always felt like it was going to work. And I was like, I didn't even think I thought about it.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
But also to have survived. We're going to talk about what makes the spine of somebody. You know what I mean? She has a platinum mind, you know, and a spine of steel and heart of gold. Let's talk about that.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah. A lot of great stuff in there. And that's the weird part is watching things. And I think that for days on, you start to, you know, the brain starts to ping.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah. And the feeling. Yeah. You get a little indigestion and sometimes diarrhea. But after that. you know, good times. Good times. Yeah.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Welcome back. I think right now we got to get into the greatness of Kim Fields.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Because I'm not going to. No. Yeah, she started looking down. She knew.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
For most people, this is where they work. But this is also her home. Yeah. You know that. I understand that, yes. A set like the back of your hand. Yeah. Like a mountain climber knows the Andes. Yeah, yeah. Wow, that was deep. That really was. That was deep. Wow, wow. And sometimes it's a climb.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
And you figure very greatly in one and two. First, your character, Regine, is introduced to the audience as a person who's Very about the outward looks. And you have, let's say, a path for yourself. You're going to find a man, he's going to take care of you, and you're going to look good while you do it. Right. That's how it is. The first time we meet Regine, she is dating a married man. Right.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
She's warning them in this movie because she's traveled a long way to go to Siam to be their teacher and that they really don't know each other. But there's going to be moments when things are a bit unfamiliar and that there's going to be times where they have to learn how to adapt to each other.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah. I call it being like you're a tool and then you're the tool maker.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah. I mean, what's it like being like the gateway drug for, you know, where there's young people like Zendaya and Kiki Palmer who transitioned from, you know, cute kids to like these really phenomenal female sex symbol types. And you definitely, you know, showed them the way, you know, I'm not saying they're hussies or nothing, but they really did learn a lot.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah, child started sex symbol. No, that's real.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
She didn't. Right, not in the beginning. But she actually didn't care when she found out. Right, right, right, yes. Yeah, she was really a hussy. Yeah. And... She really was.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
And they have so much more opportunity to be absorbed into a larger system because of what you did. That's what makes it more amazing. I mean, for all that you've done, there were very few jobs to be had by anyone. It's not just creating the quality, the mental stamina, the endurance, the resilience, but also not being brought down by discouragement.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Right, right. And ill-informed. And then the next time, you have a man, but you're just like, eh, whatever. Mm-hmm. You know, so that's where we are in episode two. So if you do us the favor of setting us up. Oh, yes, yes, yes.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
But it's also a burden to not... disappoint the village. Because I think that there's not enough said about if people are depending on you and then also pointing you out like, look, she's the one who made it. We're counting on you. Yeah. And then like, well, that'll give you space to explore. Yeah.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Let's work it out. Tell them what it is. Listen.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
That does come down to the DNA of the child. You just have that in you. That you can take a tremendous amount of pressure. That's just what it is. And like a stone makes a diamond. What's your advice for longevity in this career? Because now people are doing albums and all that, but you did albums. Yes. You've written memoirs and whatnot as an adult. I mean, I remember your album.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
I did not know that. Kenan and Kel, when we were on hiatus from Living Single, she was, and they did like a full 26 episodes, was directing at least half of the Kenan and Kel. Every single one. You never know. I didn't know until now. Why didn't you tell anybody?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Again, it just makes me wonder because you're very close in a space, but doesn't necessarily mean you know each other like people expect.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Outrageous. Right this second. It's incredible.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Past the characters, but if anybody say, like, that's a person who, as you say, you run the ball, but as many touchdowns as you made to have the resilience and still be enthusiastic about it, not jaded, that's a victory.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
And that's H-A-R-T. Yes. So Kim, do you mind, could you do us the honor and read our first question? I would love to. I would love to read the first questions. Here we go. Thank you, Kim.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Is it going to be a reboot? Listen. Nicole Hannah-Jones is from Iowa, so come on. Okay, okay. 1619 Project, one of the blackest people in America. From Iowa. From Des Moines. Okay. Not from Des Moines. Okay.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Reliving. Well... Kim, again, thank you. It's beautiful to sit here and have this conversation. And just look you in your eyes, frankly. I don't know about you, Kim, but it makes me feel pretty vulnerable. You know, I think that when we left the show, we left the show, we didn't necessarily get a chance to say goodbye or sit around and talk about it.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Oh, goodness. Yes. Okay. We're going to watch a piece of it. Oh, God, that dress and hair.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
You know, it's a lot of water under the bridge.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah. And we're gone. So this is a gift we give ourselves to talk about something that, you know, it's fun for everyone else. It's work and life for us. But it's also, there's all sorts of different combinations of feelings that are attached. But there's a ton of love.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Share because we do so much on the wings of your backs. Did that sound right?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Wow. Yeah. So right away you see the regime comes in and throws a really good man. I mean, he's a lawyer. He looks good. He's treating her nice. But she's like, she ain't got no oomph. Bye. Tosses him away. And by the way, Body banging. Body yaddy yaddy. Body yaddy yaddy. Who, him? You, him. Who, me? What are you talking about?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
And her students need to understand that there's going to be a period of self-discovery and growing pains. Right, right. You know?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
No, no, no. You. Them breasts were, you know.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
You know, we were acting not with her, but with her breasts. You know, I'm like, can I get some lighting here?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah. Clear about the oomph. She was willing to toss him away. And when you toss something away, sometime like a boomerang, it come back. It come pick up the trash. By the way, this is the first time we're on the Living Single set. So the first episode was on the Family Miter set. That's right. That's right. And you know it because the walls are pink and the couch is green. Yes, you bet.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
She did. I didn't notice it either. Again, in curiosity. Right. I mean, we are like...
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah. In the first season of Living Single, that's like that. I mean, we meet all the characters. They already know each other from their childhood or college or family, like in the case of Sinclair and Khadija, because they're family. But all that information is new to the audience. So the writers end up front-loading
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Girl, that's what we're for, to cultivate them. You see? A good man is like fine wine. They all start out like grapes. Our job is to stomp on them. And then keep them in the dark until they mature into something we wouldn't mind having dinner with. And that meme goes on and on and on. And so from the clip we just saw, it's like, you see, a good man is like fine wine.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
They all start up like grapes. Our job is to stomp on them and then keep them in the dark until they mature into something we wouldn't mind having dinner with. Did you see how I pitched my voice up?
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
But, you know, I love the confidence because right now everybody's so thirsty. But she wasn't. She was like, yeah, there's going to be more. Do you see what I'm serving? She's serving the full package. Right. You know what I'm saying? She's got the body. She's got this. What she's got in spades is the confidence.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah. You know, yeah. Division. But if they're not scared by your cold bloodedness.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
the series with the same details over and over again to teach the audience who the characters are. And the same goes for the actors. That actor has to find their own way into the character one episode at a time, which is not always easy. Okay, but here's the good news. We had a secret weapon.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Chemistry. That's chemistry. There it is. Yeah. And that's also listening. because she's showing that, and it's not something that people normally can depend on. You know what I mean? That a person that you do something, they start to do it, but they don't, this is your phrase, pull focus. He did it in a way that supported, but he didn't full focus.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Suddenly they're like... Pulling focus. Yeah, and you're like... It enhanced.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Which you probably might have walked past him or... I'm sorry, let's move.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Any hard feelings? Not on my part. So Charles is free? Max, stop. What? I know that look. That's the same look you gave the butcher two hours ago. Yeah, so it's setting up. She's giving him away, and now Max is like, yeah, is he free? Oh, what happened? No, no, I'm saying. Sorry. We're pulling back in.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Brilliant. That's the genius of that. Exactly. And it hurt, too. I know. So I'm now pulling focus. Pull your focus back. Talk about my pain. It's all right. I'll recover. I'm just over here. It's all good. Are you ready to? Go ahead, yes. We're ready, we're ready.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Nice. You look pretty in peach. You do. What is apricot? That's the great Charles Penland. Now, we had really wonderful good stars. We really did. It's hard to play silence. Yes. Right. Because people want to rush it.
ReLiving Single
The Rosetta Stone of Sitcoms featuring Kim Fields
Yeah, so they could have their moment.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Hey, welcome. Welcome. Reliving Single. Reliving Single. The unofficial Living Single podcast. So it's official, but it's unofficial. Unofficial, of course.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And then they had to prove that they were also women and they made that sort of, so they transitioned from like wholesome to scandalous. They did. Look at Euphoria. You're right. She's the first one.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Okay. It's one thing to be a hussy. It's one thing to be a hussy on cocaine. So, you know, we all have our, you know. Our trajectory. Yeah. Let's give props to the great Kim Field.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Well, it's a very kind word to say you use your- Feminine wiles. Your feminine wiles to you a hoe. I mean, I don't know how else to put it. Sorry. You know, it is what it is. I didn't come up with that. This is from time immemorial. Okay. You ain't finna put this on me. You said it. Did I say it or did Amber, the writer? I think our producer said it.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Wow. Wait a minute. Was he the first person to say sicky, sicky now? On the show? I guess so. Oh, my gosh. We all thought it was regime.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Kim, we're talking about the journey of Living Single through our eyes.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And so here he is introducing us to the apartment. Now, this is very important in episode one. We've already seen one of the most important anchors in there is Flavor. Flavor Magazine. Flavor Magazine. We also, by establishing that, say that they are career women. Yes. You know, they're not homemakers. Who's at home? You are now at home with the hand.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And we are in the girls' apartment and we get to see Ground Zero. Ground Zero in a sitcom is usually where the couch is and where we see most of what's going to happen throughout the entirety of the show. And so it's funny that the leads don't introduce us there. You are there, but meaning it's John Hinton's character, which is...
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Exactly. So that's now framing up some of the relationships that we're going to see and testing out those things. We don't know what's going to happen, but we're also seeing that Overton has a thing for Sinclair.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Somewhere in the world. Yeah. Living Single is playing. That's so wonderful. And thank you to our fans and our friends and our family. You're the reason that this has gone on this long. Again, they will not let us let this go.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And treat us like a lady. You are off-key. Yes, I am. You know what I'm saying? Childlike wonder. Yeah, that was wow.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Dressed totally different. Got the suspenders, dressed to a T, got his whole formal game going on, a business game going on. Look at the locks. Now, let's talk about Kyle Barker.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Well, you know, wait a minute, we had Dwayne Wayne. Okay, right, right. I have to say, T.C. Carson with the locks is coming in a professional setting with those locks. That's already saying that he is pushing, you know what I mean, that he's his own person. I love it. I mean, he's unapologetically Afrocentric. Yes, yes. He is our Afrofuturist. Seriously.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
But so Kyle Barker is named after Yvette Lee Bowser's boyfriend at the time. Right. Kyle Bowser.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Kyle Bowser is an amazing dresser. Yes. Smart. A lawyer from Philly. Right. In real life. In real life. Smart, masculine, alpha male. Raggedocious. Right, right. Well, see, that's down to T.C. Carson. So T.C. Carson is played by the great T.C. Carson of Chicago. Right. And Chicago is nothing if not full of swagger. Swagger for days. And so T.C.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And they were also immediately best buddies. They understood that this show was going to be mostly centered around four women. And they very quickly coalesced that they would have to advocate for themselves. They also knew and saw very quickly that we were going to protect them. So it was a level of fair from the beginning.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And they live above the women in a whole nother apartment. And one's a handyman of the apartment. The other one is the roommate. Right. There you go. Don't you ever go home? Good to see you too, girl. Where you going? Carnival? Today, my look and my law were fierce. I got my client the house, the Winnebago, alimony, and 70% of all the assets he tried to conceal.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
I've met Max's. I've met someone whose name was Erica Alexandra.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
I left that man with nothing but a lip balm and half a Tic Tac. Don't touch me unless you want to get burned!
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
What was that? So that right there was the audition piece. And that's why I was. Was it? Let me tell you, I served that hard. You know how many times I had to do that scene?
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Yes. Erica Alexandra Harris, a tech entrepreneur. Wow. Not kidding.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Right, right. I mean, but, you know, basically I knew one thing, that she was written very strong, that she came in immediately. She, you know, she serves a response. Uh-huh. A zinger right away. Zinger boom right away. She comes in, she dumps her bag, and then she tells her best friend, Khadija, what she's done for the day. And this is a winner.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
So basically, if a house has its own weather, Max has her own weather system. And she's coming in like a tornado, like a tornado.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Just to know that Maxine Shaw is named for Yvette Lee Bowser's lawyer, the great Nina Shaw, who was a pioneering black lawyer, entertainment lawyer. And still is. But what you see, of course, with her braids and all of that. Let's talk about your hair. I came in the door with that hair. Right. Deborah Hair Bay of Red Salon. I was growing it out from another show.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
She put that in and I came to the audition like that. I really feel like we did this taping. We were at the table read and we, like three days later, we were taping. I don't even remember, but it went fast.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Yeah, they're called new locks. Now they're called inray, yarn backwards, new locks.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
I didn't have any children. Neither did I. But I have lots of Max's. It's incredible. But it's amazing when people pay tribute to you like that because that means it went to the heart. That's more than resonating. Which is why we're doing this show. Yeah. Here at the Heart Beat. Hey. Get it? Okay. So what are we going to do in the show? We're going to actually, what's a re-watch podcast?
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
That's Max's style. And I was fine with that because I can't even lay claim to the fact that I think I get a lot of love for having established that. But you got to look at Whoopi Goldberg's Jumping Jack Flash. to understand that that's in our minds too. So, you know, when we talk about the type of pioneering show this is, I always have to give props to the people who built us.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And the people who built me coming into that show would be people like Cecily Tyson, Whoopi Goldberg, who had played my mother, Cecily Tyson, who I wanted to be like, her confidence, her sexuality, that unapologetic barracuda, I think that all that energy is piled up in there. And it certainly is coming off of Yvette Lee Bowser, who went to Stanford and wanted to be a lawyer.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
This is, you want to know who she is? Yvette Lee Bowser said that she was the Max character. She wanted to be the lawyer. And she had written her so strong that they wanted to get rid of her. But they sent her across the street. So that's how she saved her. So that's why Max lives across the street.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
They put her across the street. They gave her a home across the street.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
She salvaged it by giving her a place to be across the street, but it's just too black, too strong, but also too woman, too strong. I got to say, just real quick, Strong feminist voice, tough exterior, a lawyer.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
It does. I think the most wonderful thing I thought, she didn't have to apologize for being or wanting sex. Mm. You know what I mean? And she also didn't have to apologize for the insults. She didn't come back and say, girl, you all right? You know how they did that? Like, you know, I was just you ain't gonna get that. Max, she said it. She stood by it.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
But there was integrity inside of her that you felt was fair, even when she was being, you know, rigid or kind of, you know, dismissive or insulting. You thought that she was having a blast. Right. You know, she goes on her own journey with that. So that's what's up. And I really am very proud to have that as part of how people see me. It's been a heavy thing to carry.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Let me just put it to you like this. You want to be grateful for everything. opportunity you get, but you also can become identified by a single character. And people always ask me, is that you or are you her? And I say, well, do you understand? I don't know who Max is when I'm coming through the door.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
That's Eric Alexander playing a character called Max that I just met a few days ago and got hired to do. So is Max me or am I her? I say, how about she's me until I learn more about her. Then I become more like her, but then she becomes more like me. So we're inseparable, like every character. Do people don't ask you whether you're Sinclair, like Sinclair?
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
We're going to watch the show. Now, what's weird is, I don't know how much I watched the show when it was on. Did you watch it?
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And there we are now. We've all been introduced inside of this show, inside of the first 15 minutes. And that sets the stage, that chemistry, and the hopes in sort of just like throwing some salt over your shoulder and saying, let's see, let's go on this journey with these six characters, Yvette Lee Bowser and her writing crew in tow, and a supportive system. Mm-hmm. And that's the good news.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And we're playing it all on the Family Matters set, which is frigging deep.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Yeah, and normally they might have reshot the thing because a pilot is a demo. It is a test. But they did so well with the test that, bam, we got the show. Yeah. We kept that as our pilot number one, episode one.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Well, no, because on Thursday nights when it came on, we were also taping that night. And we're talking about you had to put a VHS in and record it and push it. No one knew how to work no VHS. Shoot. Nowadays, these kids don't even understand how lucky they are. They're so lazy. They can just go, boom, pop it in. Next thing you know, they got everything at their fingertips.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
We were learning each other, but we had the strength, the freedom and the bravery and courage. To connect. Yes. You have to want to connect to people.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
He confirms it to her that she's married, but she still dates him. Yeah, that happens. Probrecito. Yeah, that's. By the way, we were number one in Latin homes.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And they're mad at her because, you know, come on, Regine. Like, you could do better than this. Yeah. Have I ever said her name right, by the way? I say Regine. You say Regine. What is her name? Regine.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Regine. So the pilot is now proving Yvette Lee's thesis. Right. Because even though she's going to go and date the married man and then come back with her tail between her legs, they've got an extraordinary relationship. They do. And they've got her back.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
So that's the end of it. Almost the end. Well, it's punctuated by Latifah's very famous line.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Bunch of fat, happy women, no crime. Bunch of fat, happy women and no crime.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
You know what? That sounds like the Wakanda of vagina. But I would like to live in that world.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And if not, you better get a vibrator. Because that's what most of these women have nowadays.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
So this is where Yvette is sort of saying, hey, if you didn't know what this show was about, we're going to show that the girls always come together. Always. And they repair and they heal. Right. And this is one of their routines. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Watch it with us. And we're going to start with number one. Here we go. The first episode. That's right. What is it? I forgot the name of it.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
But your friends are forever. Oh, true. And that this friendship is going to last, but we're going to need you to come on it with us. And that's, again, it's really the most wonderful thing. It is. And you know what's funny? What's funny? You said 30 years ago we did this, but for 30 years people have been betting on that friendship. So Yvette Lee Bowser put her magic in it.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
She had the good sense and the power, the DNA and the luck, stroke, to hire six actors that could embody a beautiful ensemble. Amazing. and create the magic that became the legend.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
So you'll be all right. We're going to watch the show, episode by episode, starting with number one. What is episode number one?
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
My ex-husband, Tony Puryear, says that all the time. Black showbiz. gives you more. And if you look at the 90s, coming off of the 80s and the strength of The Cosby Show would set a new level of excellence for comedy, not for Black people, but for everyone, for the world. And that's what I love about what happened afterwards. We weren't alone.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
We were in this world with Living Single, with Fresh Prince, with Family Matters, Martin, New York undercover. Yeah, it was just like the tsunami of power had been unleashed because it had been untapped. That's why the 90s are important, because it was giving permission to say, not only can we do this, we do this and we set new records. And we do it well. We do it well.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
I walked into it and had my own experience with a Jewish community. I walked in not knowing it was actually, they were Hasidic Jewish people. And I came in and I said, oh, excuse me, because it was the wrong store. And they said, we know you. We know who you are. We know who you are. You're that bad girl. You're that bad girl? You're that bad girl. I love that. That's right. And they did know.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And they were all men. And they laughed and they were delighted. But it was instant. It wasn't like, are you? It was like, we know you. You never told me this story.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Absolutely. You know, we would be driving in our cars and then people would speed up and you'd see like white families like nearly running off the road.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
We were embraced by them because that's what comedy does. It's the tie that binds. It's the hip hop generation. One of the most consequential and phenomenal music eras was happening. Once again, fueled by black people with our culture. We've done this over and over again in American history, to be clear.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
The one thing about being enslaved is that they might have taken many of our freedoms, but they couldn't take our minds. They couldn't take our imagination. The RZA told me, he was like, Erica, the biggest nation is the imagination. And he's right.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And if you look at jazz, if you look at rock and roll, ragtime, punk rock, every genre, country, that's Black people showing that you may not have given us as much access, but you cannot ever take away the access we have.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
But to have the distribution system suddenly say we're going to put on shows with black cast, that's huge.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Every time, yeah. So there's a conversation inside of all that.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Married. Ooh. Ooh. He was played by Silk Cozart. Who is silky. One of the finest. He was silky, wasn't he? He's a good-looking man, and he's a sweetheart. He is a sweetheart. Yeah, yeah. Good dude, respectful, gentleman, all of that. Playing this married man. Ooh, I wanted to oil him up. They had to decide how to break it to her without her getting upset because Regine would lose trust in them.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And we should feel proud of that legacy. And in fact, I like to say that every time we come on the lot, they should show us our spots. This should be a permanent plaque. And give us a cafeteria meal when we come in. People will be like, why did she ask for a cafeteria meal? She should be asking for more of her residuals.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Because we Warner Brothers. Fox showing them what Warner Brothers.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Thank you. That's legacy. People want to know what it is. You get a better parking spot. That's all I need. Even when you ain't working on the lot. That's real. I'm just here to visit. And we influence some of the biggest shows of all time, dare we say.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Friends. We just going to lay that right there. Right there. Enjoy. Smell it. And let people know it. People do. It's obvious. Yeah. Fantastic show.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
We were on the ranch lot. They were on the big lot. Yeah. It was very different. Yeah. We're going to have more tales on that. Ooh, yes. I know people like to talk about that. I think because it comes from feeling like, again, if you create the culture, you may not get all the acknowledgement and the support. But I have to say, from our fans, from our friends and family.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Number one. They know and they have lifted us and I will always, honestly.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
So we're going to do this, right? We're going to do this. We're going to do more of this. Watch reliving show. Unofficially.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
So y'all better go ahead and watch the show and then be ready to come here and rewatch it with us. Right. We're going to be here.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Meanwhile, the B story. Sinclair forgets to secure the front cover celebrity for Flavor magazine. Now, we talk about B story. There's an A story and a B story in sitcom. And the A story is basically the main story, the story that the characters will be dealing with mostly.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Okay. Because I say what I really feel. We're going to do that one day. Wait a minute. Chemistry. We got to do our chemistry read. Okay, okay, okay.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Remember, the chemistry read is for the vibe, to see if the vibes watchers still have it. Right. I think we proved it, but let's show.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Now, what's interesting about you picking that is because on set, we used to do Mahogany all the time. We used to do it all the time. We spent an inordinate amount of time in the warehouse, on the dusty warehouse, waiting. And so we would play games all the time. Oh, my gosh. And we played like we were children. We did. And one of the things we did was the Mahogany scene. The Mahogany scene.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Well, okay. So a chemistry read is where you go in and you see if you vibe with the other actor and they want to bring you in to make sure that you have, you know, some kind of communication. Right. That je ne sais quoi you're talking about. So I think maybe we should do one here. Why would we need one? It's clear that we have chemistry. Well, I don't know. There's a lot of things that change.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Well, madam, if you really want to get your old man back, Are you willing to stand by him while the going gets rough? Yes! Madam, would you be willing to put your imagination to work on behalf of the cause he's fighting for?
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Madam, would you love and cherish him for the rest of your life?
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Then, madam, if you're willing to do all that, I guarantee you that I'll get your old man back.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And then we kiss. And then they do the crane shot and see there's only 20 people surrounding them.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And the B story is the kind of fun story that comes up and that threads it through very lightly and sort of has maybe a couple of scenes and then ties up the ending.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Was I good as Billie? You were great as Billie. You were pretty good as Diana. Diana, yes! You were great as Diana. You always are.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Do they feel the chemistry? We got it. We got it. We got it. We never lost it. We all never. Cradle to grave, baby. See you next week.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Fun to watch and fun to do. I mean, you know, dating a married man in the 90s, was it a big deal in the 90s? It's a big deal all the time. It's something you should never do. I don't know. Nowadays, these young people will be dating everybody. They get on the apps and they have an app for, do you want to date a married man? Really? Think I'm lying.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
There's never a case in which the married man is the right man for you. And by the way... If Yvette was thinking about the longevity of the show and also capturing attention, something controversial like that would be a good thing. Right. So she lays it down early on that it's just a dating show, but it's going to be a little messy.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
So before we get into the episode, we got to talk about the theme song. Theme song. Yeah. Everywhere we go, people sing this theme song. Where we're living.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Just in case anybody out there... Mistook the movie with two white kids. With four black women.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
You know, there's a lot of water on the bridge. You know, years have gone by. We've had COVID. What does COVID have to do with it? I just mean that you could have changed. You know what I'm saying? I could have changed too. So I say let's test it. So we're going to go on this new reliving single journey. We need to make sure that we have now what we had then.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Over and over, people don't understand that we have these battles. Right.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
It does, and I think I only learned the lyrics last year. I mean, you know, hey. By the way, they all think I'm the woman dancing underneath the bridge. Let's do a little moment to her.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
And we also need to just prove that we are two different people. You know, I don't mind if I can get paid her checks. Right. But I was never that limber. And plus, she's got strength, Angali. She looks like she's in Woman King. If I kicked up my leg, I'm telling you, you'd be calling them EMT. It's not going to happen. Shut it down.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
So we should watch clip one because we're going to see the beginning of it.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
What we're getting from this is that Khadija, played by the great Queen Latifah, is always going to be concerned about the health of her business. She's always going to have to be watching Sinclair despite her good intentions will mess her up and or miss things. And then she's always going to be interrupted by the continuing saga and soap opera of her various friends. There you go.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
That's the show. Sinclair was a royal mess up, but you play her beautifully. Thank you. Thank you. You know what I'm saying?
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
That's not what matters. No, that's what's up. Sinclair, genius. Pure genius, right? I think so. Me too. And what's played by a pure genius, Kim Coles. Let's just be real. No diggity, no doubt. No diggity, no doubt. You were just coming off of Living Color. Yes. You have a background in comedy. Yeah. How much did that play into?
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Because the play is, here you are doing this receptionist cousin role. Right. And actually, dumb characters are actually very smart. It's actually very hard to play so-called characters who are seen as innocents or, you know what I mean, simple. Because I was a grown woman playing that, so I couldn't be too dumb.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Suzanne Somers did that as Chrissy. There's a classic wonderful thing. Who's our golden girl?
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
She's complicated and she's frustrated, but she's also very upfront that, you know, that she's got a lot of things that she's tumbling around. And actually, I think that you're the great equalizer. Thank you. You know what I mean? You compliment each other. Thank you. You actually compliment each other as performers, too. I think so, too.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
I always thought that you shared the same dressing room because you both had big titties.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Wow. Well, you know, everybody thinks it's all fancy back there, but we're in a huge warehouse and they've got in the back of these sets, the sets are built with sort of plywood and whatnot. They look great from the front. From the back, it's all, you know, smoke and mirrors. And we are in dressing rooms that are Curtains. Curtains.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
But what you're doing is establishing the two main characters, their dynamic as friends, and then also the third friend, Regine, is about to walk in. Hello!
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
It's freaking awesome. That's the first episode, by the way. That's the first episode. We talk about chemistry, the legend coming in, laying it down. And in front of our eyes, she is no longer a child star. Right. She is touting the fact that you can lick caviar off of her ample bosoms. By the way, if you put caviar in there, you ain't finding it. I'm telling you right now.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
Well, you know, Kim was the gateway drug from wholesome to hussy. Everybody needed a little taste. She was it. The bridge. We'd all have to give her props.
ReLiving Single
Judging by the Pilot
She understands that we mean that in the most beautiful sense. And guess what? That's a career shift and certainly a personality shift. She's a child star. She's a veteran. She's also wholesome, but also she's now playing the vamp and the hussy. Who's done that? Who's done that after her? Wow. Kiki Palmer. Oh. Zendaya. Oh. They were child stars. Okay.
ReLiving Single
The Pre-Show: Back to the Beginning
Where do we begin? Well, at the beginning, of course. Right, but we both know the beginning is never the beginning.
ReLiving Single
The Pre-Show: Back to the Beginning
What's your secret? You know, it's rest in mind of my business is my secret. And you look good too, Kim. You do. So why are you calling me? Okay, so I've been thinking. Let me just say no right now. No. Don't say no. Don't say no. Just listen.
ReLiving Single
The Pre-Show: Back to the Beginning
They come in. They know how to talk. They know how to walk. They know how to press the flesh. Yeah.
ReLiving Single
The Pre-Show: Back to the Beginning
Welcome to Reliving Single, the official, unofficial Rewatch Podcast.
ReLiving Single
The Pre-Show: Back to the Beginning
Is Max and Kyle's baby on Instagram or has it been abducted by aliens?
ReLiving Single
The Pre-Show: Back to the Beginning
Yeah. And how there was a strategy that great writers, great writers, crew, craftsmanship went into that. Yes. We could record it in one quick, simple episode. We could just do that anywhere. You know, if we're not going to do it, then we need a set. We need some lighting. Whatever we do, we're not doing any corny introductions or, you know, what the show is and all that.
ReLiving Single
The Pre-Show: Back to the Beginning
Because if we're going to do this, let's do it for us. Let's do it for the people. I'm starting to feel it.
ReLiving Single
The Pre-Show: Back to the Beginning
I bet you he still gets paid on every residual. Oh, you know he does because he came in as the showrunner. Well, that was a great deal. He gets the chance. Can I get in on that?
ReLiving Single
ReLiving Single Trailer
Now, loose lips may sink ships, but we're ready to tell it all. So join me, Erica Alexander. Basically, if a house has its own weather, Max, has her own weather system. And me, Kim Coles.
ReLiving Single
ReLiving Single Trailer
Hey, girl. You know how the fans are always asking us all the Living Single questions, right? Yeah, is Max and Kyle's baby on Instagram? Or was it abducted by aliens? Yes, I, yeah. So I was thinking, why don't we tell our story, how Living Single got started, all the backstage stories? Yes. Yes! If we gonna do this, let's do it for the people.
ReLiving Single
ReLiving Single Trailer
As we tell you what it was like to create TV history. And she's the first Black woman to run her own prime time series.
ReLiving Single
ReLiving Single Trailer
We won't shy away from the hard conversations. Even inside of black communities, we have colorism.
ReLiving Single
ReLiving Single Trailer
Yvette Lee Bowser had the good sense to hire a beautiful ensemble and create the magic that became The Legend. From Heartbeat and Color Farm Media, Re-Living Single. The official, unofficial Living Single re-watch podcast. Launches Wednesday, May 7th. And you can watch every Wednesday on YouTube and listen everywhere you find podcasts.