Malcolm And Eddie - Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries

Malcolm & Eddie aired from August 1996 until September 2000 on UPN.

Because their mothers were best friends, Malcolm and Eddie ( Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Eddie Griffin), who had nothing else in common, had become roommates. They lived in a shabby apartment above Kelly's Sports Bar in Kansas City and spent most of their spare time down at the bar. Malcolm was serious and wanted a career as a sports commentator, while the free-spirited, forever optimistic Eddie repaired cars and ran a towing service, Lancaster Auto. Against his better judgment, Malcolm was often sucked into Eddie's assorted schemes. One of the regulars at Kelly's was Tim ( Jamie Cardriche), a huge, beefy, perpetual student with hopes of becoming a successful poet. A few weeks after the series premiered Malcolm and Eddie used $40,000 in lottery winnings, to buy the building in which they lived from their landlord Kelly ( Miriam Flynn), who was moving to Hawaii, and renamed the sports bar Malcolm MccGee's. Nicolette ( Karen Malina White), was a cute, squeaky-voiced meter maid with the hots for Eddie, who wasn't interested; and Malcolm had designs on Holly ( Angell Brooks), a barmaid at the sports bar, but she was more interested in work. In mid-May, while stranded on a camping retreat, Eddie and Nicolette, and Malcolm and Holly made love while keeping warm in sleeping bags.

In the fall of 1997, Nicolette enrolled in the police academy. Tim was officially made a male nurse at the hospital where he had been working as an orderly, and Eddie hired Hector ( Freez Luv) to work as a mechanic at his garage. Eddie and Nicolette were having an affair( it didn't work out), and Malcolm hired sexy Simone( Michelle Hurd) who had the hots for him, as the chef. With her gourmet tastes , she had problems adjusting to the bar's cusine. In the season finale Eddie got a job offer in Pittsburgh for three times what he was making in Kansas City and they sold the building.

At the beginning of the 1998-1999 season, Eddie returned from Pittsburgh and the guys decided to open a hot jazz club in Kansas City called The fifty/fifty Club. They rented back the space they had previously owned, at an inflated rate, from tough businessman T.R. Hawkins ( Tucker Smallwood). Nicolette had quit the police force and took a job as a waitress at their jazz club. Also working for them were 2 cousins-Doug ( Ron Pearson), a bartender, and Leonard ( Christopher Daniel Barnes), a waitor.

In the fall of 1999 Club Misdemeanor, a dance club down the street from The Fifty/Fifty Club, opened and provided serious competition. The following February T.R. died from a heart attack and willed everything to his daughter Ashley( Alexia Robinson)-if she married Eddie( T.R. had liked his aggresive style) within 30 days. It almost happened, but she found a second will that left it all to her without any strings attached. In the series finale an out-of-control truck crashed through the front of the club. Unfortunately their insurance company had gone bankrupted and they had only half the $100,000 they needed to rebuild. They were bailed out when Nicolette offered to invest the $50,000 they needed ( she had done well trading stocks on-line) in exchange for a full partnership.

A Review from The New York Times

3 Comedy Series Are Making Debuts With Familiar Faces in New Places
By ANITA GATES
Published: August 25, 1996

THEO HUXTABLE has moved to Kansas City, where he lives above a bar. George Jefferson has gone to prison, been released and moved in with his son in Chapel Hill. Darlene Merriman is finally out of school and working as a storefront lawyer in Los Angeles.

Well, not exactly. But when actors become identified with the characters they once played in hit series, viewers can't help thinking of them that way, and looking for signs of the character they loved - or, in some cases, loved to hate.

UPN (Channel 9 in New York) has several of those stars, in three new comedy series having their premieres tomorrow night. They are Malcolm - Jamol Warner, formerly of ''The Crosby Show,'' in ''Malcolm and Eddie''; Sherman Hemsley, of ''The Jeffersons,'' in ''Goode Behavior,'' and Robin Givens, of ''Head of the Class,'' in ''Sparks.''

Does that mean the network, which began 18 months ago with only four hours of programming a week, is playing in the big time now? Signing up established stars seems like a good sign.

''I think we've shown that UPN can compete with the more mature networks, especially in the larger markets,'' said Michale Sullivan, president of UPN's entertainment division. ''And there's no discounting the fact that having a recognizable star attached to a show gives you a certain advantage. But in the long run, it's the writing that counts.''

In fact, getting the writers was the real coup, Mr. Sullivan said. ''It was the quality of writing on these series that first attracted these stars.'' Ed Weinberger (''Taxi,'' ''Cheers,'' ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''), for instance, is the creator of ''Sparks.''

As for identification with the actors' old characters, Mr. Sullivan doesn't encourage it. ''Will people find similarities between Malcolm on 'Malcolm and Eddie' and Theo Huxtable? Most likely,'' he said. ''But any similarity wasn't a conscious decision on the part of the writers. Of course, you hope that as each series evolves, people will come to think of these stars in terms of their new characters.''

Cliff Huxtable, the role-model American father of the 1980's (''The Cosby Show,'' NBC, 1984-92), would have been proud of Theo if he had indeed turned into Malcolm Coolidge, Mr. Warner's character on ''Malcolm and Eddie.'' Theo, though reared with every advantage and exactly the right mix of nurturing and discipline, was something of an underachiever. Malcolm, on the other hand, is the career-oriented type, determined to become a sports broadcaster.

The show's pilot episode revolves around Malcolm's effort to make an audition tape, announcing a basketball game as he watches it on television. His new roommate, Eddie Reese, a tow-truck driver, breaks the set. Eddie then talks the normally sensible Malcolm into attending a get-successful-quick seminar at which a color television set is being given away. Things don't work out.

Eddie (Eddie Griffin) is the kind of character who talks to his truck, turns the twist into a rubber-leg dance and writes extremely uninspired lyrics to the ''Sanford and Son'' theme song. Mr. Warner is the straight man and this odd couple's serious half. But there are signs of Theo-ness when Malcolm is in ladies' man mode.

''Malcolm and Eddie'' will be followed by ''Goode Behavior,'' in which Sherman Hemsley is cast as Willie Goode, a recently released prisoner who needs a place to stay while on parole. Willie and his house-arrest bracelet are embarrassments to his son, a college professor who is promoted to dean in the first episode. ''What is it, Bring a Career-Ending, Beeper-Wearing, Life-Ruining Con Man to Work Day?'' the son asks his teen-age daughter.

Georg Jefferson, the character who made Mr. Hemsley famous, was not a likable sort either. Introduction on ''All in the Family'' in 1973, he managed to match his white neighbor Archie Bunker, bigotry for bigotry. When George's dry-cleaning business flourished, he and his family moved to Manhattan and got their own series ''The Jeffersons'' (CBS, 1975-85).

George didn't get any nicer in Manhattan. There he vented his negative attitudes at a white doorman who was always looking for a tip; his black housekeeper, who insulted him regularly, and an interracial couple in the building. George was thoroughly rotten, and that's why viewers loved to watch him.

Willie Goode may be another matter. He's definitely a criminal who seems to be conning and charming people left and right. But Willie shows signs of softness, too. ''Now I realize that the biggest score of all is being back with the most important people in my life: my family,'' he announces.

The Monday night lineup concludes with ''Sparks,'' in which Robin Givens appears as Wilma Cuthbert, a Stanford Law School graduate who joins a small family law firm. Ms. Givens, whose claim to prime-time success is five seasons (1986-91) on ABC's ''Head of the Class,'' may nevertheless be remembered best for another television appearance: a 1988 interview with Barbara Walters in which she described her marriage to Mike Tyson as ''pure hell.''

Darlene of ''Head of the Class'' didn't have such problems. In fact, she didn't have any. She just sat at her school desk being beautiful, rich and gifted. When the students traced their genealogy, learning some unpleasant lessons int he process, Darlene turned out to be a descendent of Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson's mistress, and so possibly of Jefferson himself. Naturally.

On ''Sparks,'' Wilma, who wears a very tight yellow suit with a very short skirt on her first day at the office, appears to lead a similarly charmed life. The office manager has her pegged: ''I've known your type since my jump-up days. Umm-hmm! Always the hippest, the prettiest, the girl with the most Valentine's cards, the first girl on the block with breasts.'' Wilma may not be descended from Presidents, but in the first episode the only problem she has is that the two sons of the firm's senior partner are both falling in love with her. Naturally.

Maybe she'll have trouble working for the senior partner. After all, he's pompous Uncle Phillip (James Avery) from NBC's ''Fresh Prince of Bel Air.'' (Uncle Phillip's preppy son, Carlton, will be on UPN on Monday nights too, joining the rap star LL Cool J on ''In the House'' this season.) And maybe Willie Goode will be able to loosen up his slightly stiff son. He's Eddie Charles (Dorien Wilson), Martin Tupper's swinging-single best friend from HBO's ''Dream On.''

Beloved sitcom characters don't neccessarily die; sometimes they just move to new cities and change their names.

For Eddie Griffin's Official Website go to http://www.eddiegriffin.tv/