If Girlfriends continues for another season, it will supplant 80′s uber black television show The Cosby Show in longevity.
If you haven’t watched an episode of Girlfriends, maybe you ought to add this task to your to-do-list. Yes, I know you have too much on your plate already, but a little bonding with Girlfriends can only do you some good.
[pic: Greg Gayne/The CW]
The show, which centers on a group of friends in their 30s, appeals to twentysomethings because it gives them an overview of the dysfunction that their lives can be, if they’re not strategically planning—now. It gives black women who haven’t yet settled down the opportunity to look at a river-clear mirror image of their lives. The show is relevant to teenagers because it allows them to vicariously live a grown-up life in designer fashions, NBA and actor boyfriends, complete with posh pads, with high school-level drama upgraded and supersized.
Besides the millions of mostly black women who have helped sustained the show for eight seasons, the biggest winner in the Girlfriends lounge is Mara Brock Akil (Moesha) Her successfully carrying the reins as producer of Girlfriends has segued her talents into other arenas. Like Yvette Lee Browser before her, and like her contemporary Grey’s Anatomy’s Shonda Rimes, Brock Akil has triumphed in color-challenged primetime.
Her clout with CW president Dawn Ostroff is apparent. Brock Akil is co-creator of Chris Rock’s Everybody Hates Chris, a cleverly written little sitcom that helped CPR the black family television show. She’s also brought The Game to the table, bringing Tia Mowry of Sister, Sister back to television and making her (Brock Akil) the only black woman to be simultaneously overseeing three sitcoms, no doubt a first in television history.
Girlfriends ‘s 173+ episodes has also meant work for black actors, and actresses, especially older sitcom stars who Hollywood ignores—moreso than their white and equally older counterparts. The show has also offered many music stars the opportunity to shine. Erykah Badu, Kelly Rowland, and Big Boi have all appeared on the show. Anne Marie Johnson (In the Heat of the Night, Diff’rent Strokes), Carl Anthony Payne (Martin) as well as BerNadette Stanis (Good Times) have dropped by as guest-stars.
The glory of Girlfriends needs to be equally divided to its stars. No one can justifiably say that Tracee Ellis Ross’s claim to fame is being Diana Ross’s daughter. Her comedic timing as Joan, her jumbo marble eyes, and obvious talent not only as an actress, but also as a director (Ellis recently directed episodes) are hers and only hers. Persia White, originally seen as the token “mixed-one” matured along with her character Lynn, who’s suffered the identity crises common to interacial unions. Like Ellis Ross (Life Support), Golden Brooks (Maya) wisely branched out into independent films in addition to her work on the show, knowing that primetime kudos, last only as long as primetime. And then there’s Toni, an amalgam of all the drama-laden friends we had from middle school and high, played by Jill Marie Jones, and the equally dramatic William (Reggie Hayes) and his Monica (Keesha Sharp).
What many thought was supposed to have been a fleeting show on the fickle UPN network, became a must-see on the eventual CW. Evading the dreaded ax, Girlfriends transformed itself to a multiple season of quirky, funny, and real dialogue; a place not only where girlfriends grow, but where women everywhere coddled, bonded.
Whether this season will be Girlfriends’s last night out or not, a lot of the show’s triumphs will remain manifest.
