Hughleys: Cast Photo - Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries

The Hughley's ran from September 1998 until August 2002 on ABC and UPN.

An upwardley mobile black man worried about losing his " blackness" in this family comedy, a sort of '90's version of The Jeffersons. Darryl Hughley ( D.L. Hughley), had made his money as " the vending machine king," and spent it on a nice home for his family in the white Los Angeles suburbs. What was worse, his new WASPy neighbors Dave and Sally ( Eric Allan Kramer, Marietta DePrima), were really nice, his adorable daughter Sydney ( Ashley Monique Clark), had begun playing with a white doll, and his 8 year old , Michael ( Dee Jay Daniels), rejected Motown for-ugh-Hanson. Black best friend and employee Milsap ( John Henton), a shaved-head type from the inner city, played on his fears, but wise tart-tongued wife Yvonne ( Elise Neal), was there to bring Darryl down to Earth.

At the start of the 3rd season the whole gang went on a cruise and after Darryl set off a false alarm, found themselves stranded in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. In a cliffhanger ending, they feared the end was near and confessed their sins to each other. As the 2001-2002 season opened, however there was no mention of what had happen; instead at the end of the 1st fall episode , a short clip announced that the cliffhanger was a bad idea and that viewers should forget it! During the final season Yvonne's outspoken sister Sheri ( Adele Givens), moved into the apartment over Dave and Sally's garage, and in February, Darryl's niece Carly( Kelly Rowland), an aspiring singer who was estranged from her father, moved in with the family. Michael who was having trouble at school was diagnosed with dyslexia. In the 2 part series finale Darryl and Milsap attended their 20th high school reunion and Milsap found out he had become a father after their 15th reunion. He decided to be a father to his 4 year old daughter, Adriana.

A Review from The New York Times

Another's Upward Mobility

By CARYN JAMES
Published: September 22, 1998

''The Hughleys'' arrives firmly tethered to reality, its humor in place, with barbed remarks that make gentle fun of both black culture and the foreign territory in which the family has landed. The stand-up comedian D. L. Hughley plays the fictional Darryl Hughley, who owns a vending machine company and has moved with his wife and two children a few miles and a lifetime of experience away from the all-black Los Angeles neighborhood in which he grew up.

On his first morning in the new house, Darryl goes outside to get the mail and is accosted by the little old lady next door, who asks him to take out her trash.

''Lady, who do I look like, Benson?'' Darryl asks.

''Thank you very much, Benson,'' she says, and disappears.

Throughout the show, Darryl's petulance and tendency to see everything in racial terms is tempered by his wife, Yvonne (Elise Neal), who makes a smoother transition to their new neighborhood. ''She tells everyone to fetch her trash; she's 88,'' Yvonne says of the neighbor.

But Darryl fears that his childhood friend Milsap (John Henton) is right when he warns, ''You on the slippery slope to losing your blackness.'' Milsap sees Darryl paying his bills on time and wonders, ''Who are you?''; Yvonne quickly reassures Darryl that they have always paid their bills on time. ''The Hughleys'' is at its best when it toys with stereotypes this way, acknowledging and shattering them with shrewd humor.

Mr. Hughley brings just enough of an edge to Darryl, who sometimes acts like a baby yet is ultimately a reasonable guy. The danger is that ''The Hughleys'' might lose that edge and give in to typical sitcom solutions. At the end of tonight's episode, Darryl overcomes his suspicion that his neighbor Dave is a bigot. Dave says he thinks of Darryl as ''the n-word: neighbor,'' which seems too pat. Like its hero, ''The Hughleys'' may be at risk of surrendering its soul to the comfy land of ''Home Improvement'' (the show it follows on ABC).

Yet there are more hopeful signs than danger signals in this engaging series. Chris Rock, one of its executive producers, has stated his affection for ''The Jeffersons,'' the original sitcom about an upwardly mobile black family that kept its roots alive. When Milsap enters the Hughley home and sings, ''Movin' on up,'' from the Jeffersons' theme, he might as well be declaring that ''The Hughleys'' plans a long, successful stay.

THE HUGHLEYS
ABC, tonight at 8:30
(Channel 7 in New York)

Matt Wickline, Michael Rotenberg, Dave Becky, David Janollari, Bob Greenblatt and Chris Rock, executive producers. A production of Greenblatt/Janollari Studio.

WITH: D.L. Hughley (Darryl Hughley), Elise Neal (Yvonne Hughley), Ashley Monique Clark (Sydney Hughley), Dee Jay Daniels (Michael Hughley), Eric Allan Kramer (Dave Rogers), John Henton (Milsap) and Marietta DePrima (Sally Rogers).

An Article from The New York Times

TV WEEKEND; He's Downright Lovable. Sure. Just Run for Cover.

By ANITA GATES
Published: August 6, 1999

It is D. L. Hughley's bad luck that his HBO comedy special tomorrow night follows Chris Rock's by only four weeks. Mr. Rock's ''Bigger and Blacker'' was the kind of star triumph that 99.9 percent of all stand-up comedians can only dream about. Mr. Hughley's ''Going Home'' has to be compared with its recent predecessor, if only because he and Mr. Rock deal with a lot of the same comic subjects: violence in white schools, gun control, the battle of the sexes, the state of the black family and the differences between black and white culture and attitudes.

The juxtaposition is unfortunate. Mr. Hughley is now best known as a sitcom star; in the ABC series ''The Hughleys,'' he plays a successful businessman and family man trying to adjust to life in a predominantly white suburb. But he has some original and funny things to say. Bothered that Charlton Heston is now president of the National Rifle Association, he shakes his head and observes that you know the world is in bad shape ''when Moses is packing.''

Confessing to a certain historical ignorance, he says, ''Maybe they covered this in the 65 days I was absent from history class.'' As Thomas Jefferson, he admonishes the young man serving tea to him and his 18th-century colleagues: ''Now, Silas, I've told you never to call me Daddy in front of the Founding Fathers.''

Mr. Hughley has some entertaining thoughts about corporal punishment in the South; ''because I said so'' parenting; why a dog would rather belong to a white person, and why Coretta Scott King has never remarried.

But the unnecessary presence of four-letter words in virtually every joke reflects his background on ''Def Comedy Jam'' all too clearly. His sex jokes indicate he might want to talk to his therapist a little more about the good girl-bad girl issue. And the variations on punch lines suggesting that black people don't think much of self-sacrifice, as in Secret Service careers, sitting in the airplane's emergency row, helping out a child during an alligator attack, are bothersome.

But humor is about taking risks, and he certainly does.

The crowd in Charlotte, N.C., where the special was filmed, goes wild for Mr. Hughley from the beginning. For the first 15 minutes or so, this seems uncalled for, but he eventually hits his stride and makes himself downright lovable by the end.

To read some articles about The Hughleys go to http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=h_BHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=B-0DAAAAIBAJ&dq=the%20hughleys%20tv%20show&pg=5456%2C3422994 and http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=w-pIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eoIMAAAAIBAJ&dq=the%20hughleys%20tv%20show&pg=1133%2C3726036