Product Description
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Living Single: The Complete First Season (DVD)
Bold, sassy and realistic, four upwardly mobile and very
different African-American women share adventures, advice and an
exclusive brownstone in New York City as they explore life and
Living Single.Khadijah James (Queen Latifah) has it all--a great
job running her own trendy magazine and part ownership of a fancy
brownstone. Sharing the ownership of their home is her
endearingly naïve cousin Synclaire (Kim Coles) who's also
Khadijah's assistant at the magazine. ing their lifestyle is
third roommate and sarcastic, selfish fortune hunter, Regine (Kim
Fields). And even though she doesn't live in the brownstone,
Khadijah's best friend, Maxine (Erika Alexander), a tough,
aggressive divorce attorney in search of Mr. Right, spends more
time here than she does in her own home.With love, laughter and a
little bit of luck, these four women are on the threshold of the
rest of their lives.
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When it appeared on the Fox TV network in 1993, Living Single
was one of the first sitcoms to portray the everyday doings of a
group of African America friends living ordinary American lives.
It also pretty much launched the acting career of rap artist
Queen Latifah (who performed its theme song) before she moved
onto a thriving profession as a movie star. The format was
nothing new, but it quickly became a hit and ran for five
successful seasons. The setting was the office of urban-lifestyle
Flavor magazine, where Khadijah James (Latifah) was editor, and
the New York apartment Khadijah shared with roommates Synclaire
(Kim Coles) and Regine (Kim Fields). There were frequent drop-ins
by Khadijah's friend Maxine (Erika Alexander) and the duo of
bickering best-friends from the apartment upstairs Kyle (Terrence
T.C. Carson) and Overton (John Henton). From that formulaic setup
came the good-natured storylines that allowed for plenty of
Friends-like repartee (although Friends didn't premiere until the
next year). It was also a little Seineld-like (which was just
hitting stride in 1993), except that Living Single did not adhere
to Seinfeld's "no hugging, no learning" policy. In episodes with
titles like "Crappy Birthday," "Whose Date Is It Anyway," "al
Distraction," and "A Tale of Two Tattles," Khadijah and company
engaged in familiar sitcom ensemble wise-cracking, back-stabbing,
name-calling, and grudge-holding that elicited plenty of
"WOOOOO!" responses from the studio audience, but everyone always
went back to being supportive pals for the denouements. The
series made it clear that Latifah was a charismatic and
charmingly telegenic personality who had no problem sharing
screen time with her co-stars. The bickering is most fun in
episodes heavy on scenes between the gossip queen Regine and the
upscale, quick-witted lawyer Maxine. The Ralph Kramden/Ed Norton
dynamic between Overton and Kyle also makes for lively sitcom
chemistry. There's no episode commentary on this first season,
27-episode four-disc set. The only extra is a 13-minute
documentary, "How Ya Livin'? Season one of Living Single," which
features new interviews with series creator Yvette Lee Bowser and
some of the cast members (but not Queen Latifah). --Ted Fry