Which of These Female-led ‘90s Sitcoms with 4-5 Seasons Was Your Fave?

[Adamantium]

Or you can put them in order from favorite to least favorite.

Blossom
Caroline in the City
Cybill
Ellen
Grace Under Fire
Suddenly Susan

[Adamantium]

Here's mine...

#1. Ellen
#2. Blossom
#3. Cybill
#4. Caroline in the City
#5. Suddenly Susan
#6. Grace Under Fire

Really, though, all the shows below Blossom are ones I don't consider to be funny. Both Cybill and Caroline in the City are watchable but I rarely laughed when watching. Suddenly Susan and Grace Under Fire really aren't that good in my opinion. Though to be fair, I haven't seen every episode. I have seen every episode of the first four sitcoms I've listed.

[RetroGuy2000]

#1. Roseanne - not on your list, but definitely qualifies
#2. Grace Under Fire
#3. Suddenly Susan
#4. Ellen
#5. Blossom

I never watched Caroline or Cybill.

[icecream]

1. Grace Under Fire- This is a much better blue collar comedy than the more popular Roseanne.
2. Blossom- Six rocks, you could say I'm a Sixist. Mostly good overall cast except Joey Lawrence who can't act.
3. Caroline in the City- I liked this more when I was younger. Ironically Caroline's long stint in my top 100 ended when Lea Thomson's more recent drama Switched at Birth replaced it. Caroline in the City still gets major props for being one of the few shows with a cat as a regular cast member.

I liked the little I saw of Cybill, but that is just one episode.
I can't stand Kathy Griffin and didn't like Brooke Shields on The Middle, won't be watching Suddenly Susan when it comes to Rewind.
I am not a fan of Ellen Degeneres or her sitcom.

[icecream]

Originally Posted by RetroGuy2000

#1. Roseanne - not on your list, but definitely qualifies

Actually Roseanne doesn't qualify based on his 4-5 season stipulation. I had thought of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Sister, Sister as omissions, but they don't fit that criteria either.

[merlinjones]

Didn't really like any of those especially well.

[Old School]

Living Single? Living Single had four female leads.

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by Old School

Living Single? Living Single had four female leads.

Yep, the show that ripped off so many female lead shows from the 80's. I remember Kim Fields comparing Living Single to The Facts of Life saying they were so much about female empowerment. I don't understand why Kim Coles is having people believe Friends ripped them off when Living Single ripped off The Facts of Life's format of four female friends. The Facts of Life girls even had two male friends just like Living Single's girls. Kim Coles should know her show was a rip off first.

Of the list in the first post, I'd rank them in this order:

1. Grace Under Fire
2. Ellen
3. Suddenly Susan

I have to stop there because I never saw the rest. If we include Living Single, then that would be number 4 on my list.

[Old School]

Originally Posted by Christopher

Yep, the show that ripped off so many female lead shows from the 80's. I remember Kim Fields comparing Living Single to The Facts of Life saying they were so much about female empowerment. I don't understand why Kim Coles is having people believe Friends ripped them off when Living Single ripped off The Facts of Life's format of four female friends. The Facts of Life girls even had two male friends just like Living Single's girls. Kim Coles should know her show was a rip off first.

Of the list in the first post, I'd rank them in this order:

1. Grace Under Fire
2. Ellen
3. Suddenly Susan

I have to stop there because I never saw the rest. If we include Living Single, then that would be number 4 on my list.

So what if both shows (TFOL/LS) were about female empowerment that's where the similarities end besides Kim Fields being in the cast of both shows. The Facts Of Life was based on school girls growing up together while Living Single was based on four African American women and two male friends living, hanging out in the same apartment complex (Max lived across the street).

Actually, Friends did rip off the Living Single template, friend.

It's not just Kim Coles saying that Friends ripped off Living Single...Erika Alexander, Kim Fields, John Henton, TC Carson, Queen Latifah have said it as well https://www.etonline.com/how-living-...nsecure-151597 .

Living Single was created by Yvette Lee Bowser for Warner Bros & debuted in 1993. One of the original suggested titles was Friends. Asked if he could have any show on TV, NBC’s president (Warren Littlefield) said Living Single https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3qwRHb616I .

In 1994 Warner Bros debuted a new production on NBC...Friends.

Living Single, in my mind, was a much better tv sitcom than Grace Under Fire, Ellen, Suddenly Susan, Blossom, Cybill or Caroline In The City as it was a groundbreaking sitcom.

[icecream]

The Living Single cast is just full of sour grapes that their show never reached megahit status like Friends, both in first-run and syndication. The word friends has naturally been around a lot longer than either of those shows. It's not like Living Single kept the Friends title. Besides, an all black cast and an all white cast sure sound like identical premises.

[AB]

1.Caroline in the City
2.Cybill
3.Suddenly Susan
4.The Nanny
5.Murphy Brown
6.Blossom
7.Ellen
8.Grace Under Fire

(I added a couple to the list that I liked even though they ran more than 4-5 seasons)

[Old School]

Originally Posted by icecream

The Living Single cast is just full of sour grapes that their show never reached megahit status like Friends, both in first-run and syndication. The word friends has naturally been around a lot longer than either of those shows. It's not like Living Single kept the Friends title. Besides, an all black cast and an all white cast sure sound like identical premises.

I guess you are just overlooking what NBC's president, Warner Bros, said and did, huh? I deal with facts not opinions.

Living Single was a top rated show within the African American community when it was on the air. It might not have received the widespread ratings & acclaim that the rip-off show Friends did but that was due to a lot of related factors such as promotion, demographics and the like.

The Living Single cast is and has been pointing out the similarities of both shows and the differences in the promotion of both shows since the mid 1990s.


LA Times (1996) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-...941-story.html

It’s those billboards on Barham Boulevard outside Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank that really get to Queen Latifah as she’s driving to work.

One of the billboards shows a full view of the cast members of “Friends,” the high-rated Thursday night comedy on NBC about six men and women living and working in New York, all looking down at the passing cars with a confident gaze.

Next to that billboard is another one with several much smaller pictures of other Warner Bros. shows placed against a backdrop of blue sky--including one, barely visible from the street, of the cast of “Living Single,” the Thursday night comedy on Fox about six men and women living and working in New York.

Latifah, one of the stars of “Living Single,” said, “It just pisses me off every time I see that ‘Friends’ billboard and the little piece of our billboard. I mean, how much more of a push do they need?”

Judging from the consistently high ratings, the onslaught of gossip and national magazine covers, the mountains of show-related merchandise, highly publicized episodes with major commercial tie-ins and contests where viewers guess which cast member will drink the diet beverage, it’s clear that “Friends” is getting by with more than a little help from NBC, Warner Bros. and the entertainment media.

But while the cast of “Friends” cavort each week to the sound of their hit theme song, “I’ll Be There for You,” most of the “Living Single” cast and Yvette Lee Bowser, the show’s creator and executive producer, are singing a much different tune.

Bowser and the female cast members--Queen Latifah, Kim Coles, Kim Fields Freeman and Erika Alexander--claim that Fox and Warner Bros. have not been there for “Living Single.”

“It’s disappointing that we have never gotten that kind of push that ‘Friends’ has had,” said Bowser, one of the television industry’s few black female producers. “I have issues with the studio and the network over the promotion of this show.”

Bowser and her four actresses said they are not putting down “Friends” and that they find it to be a quality show. “When I watch it, I laugh,” Coles said. “It’s very well done.” They simply believe that if “Living Single” were given a similar sort of push, it would be doing better in the ratings.

In the ratings this season, “Friends” is ranked No. 3 out of 114 series that have been on the four major broadcast networks, while “Living Single” ranks 85th among all viewers.

“Living Single,” however, ranks among the most popular series with black, Latino and teen audiences, Bowser said. But Fox and Warner Bros. have put little energy into supporting the show, expanding its viewer base or catering to its current fans, she contended. The fact that Fox moved “Living Single” from last season’s comfortable Sunday night slot to a head-to-head losing battle with “Friends” has caused further distress on the series.

Bowser added that the difference in attention both shows receive is especially troubling because “you can’t deny the basic similarities between the two shows. And ‘Living Single’ was on the air first.”

Added Alexander, employing a term regularly used in rap music to describe a recycled tune: “ ‘Friends’ is a really good sample of ‘Living Single.’ ”

Both comedies feature attractive, young adult male and female characters who love to hang out together. Both are set in New York. Sex and the search for true love are dominant themes in both shows. There is or has been sexual tension within the groups of characters on both shows that has boiled over at times, more often on “Living Single.”

The most obvious difference is in the composition of the ensembles. “Living Single” has an all-black cast. “Friends” has an all-white cast.

“Fox takes our audience for granted,” Bowser said. “They feel our core audience is already there. We’ve been renewed for two seasons, and we’re definitely going into syndication, so it’s like they don’t have to worry about us. It’s unfortunate. My major problem is with promotion at the network level.”

Bowser and cast members pointed out that while it’s impossible to walk into a bookstore or gift shop without bumping into “Friends” cookbooks, coffee mugs, CDs, hats, T-shirts and calendars, “Living Single” merchandise is not available. The show has no major promotions or commercial tie-ins, Bowser said.

Executives at Warner Bros. denied that “Living Single” was getting the cold shoulder, saying they felt the show was one of the best on television. Fox declined to comment.

David Janollari, executive vice president of creative affairs for Warner Bros. Television, said he was distressed about the charges by Bowser and the actresses. Janollari, who oversaw the development of both series, denied there was a great deal of similarity between them.

“Both shows have different tones and different attitudes, and are about different things,” he said. “I think one of the main reasons this is in everyone’s face now is that the shows are on against each other. I wish ‘Living Single’ was not scheduled against ‘Friends.’ It’s one of the best shows and one of the most unique voices on television.”

But he added, “ ‘Friends,’ for whatever reason, has become a national phenomena, the likes of which we haven’t seen in the last decade. Naturally, in a case like that, the merchandising soars. That comes out of the show becoming a mega-hit. It doesn’t work in reverse. ‘Living Single’ was a very special and important show when we launched it. I wish it had become as much of a mega-hit as ‘Friends.’ If we felt there were merchandising opportunities, we would sure exploit them.”

“Living Single” was originally developed as a vehicle for Queen Latifah and Coles, “and what happened in the casting was that it emerged as an ensemble of six people,” Janollari said. “ ‘Friends’ began life as a show that would center on two men and two women, with one other man and woman as supporting characters.”

There are stylistic differences between the two shows as well. “Living Single” was developed as a hipper, edgier show for the younger Fox audience while “Friends” is aimed toward the more leisurely “Seinfeld” audience. “Friends” has three stories running together in every episode and is filmed like a movie with more sets and faster pacing, Janollari said.

Despite their frustration, the “Living Single” principals said they’ve also learned to laugh about being in the shadow of their NBC counterpoint.

“But the minute they start referring to us as ‘Black Friends,’ that’s when I’ll go off,” actress Freeman joked. “It’s better to call them the ‘White Living Single.’ ”

Bowser noted that preliminary plans are underway for a “Living Single” album. “The network has started to do a little more in the last few weeks. I just hope it isn’t too little, too late.”

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by icecream

The Living Single cast is just full of sour grapes that their show never reached megahit status like Friends, both in first-run and syndication. The word friends has naturally been around a lot longer than either of those shows. It's not like Living Single kept the Friends title. Besides, an all black cast and an all white cast sure sound like identical premises.

I agree with you: in late 1994, I was working at Waldenbooks. Every fourth or fifth request was for one of two calendars: Friends or the Jonathan Taylor Thomas calendar. We got exactly one case of the Friends calendars and then they were gone.

If they had made a Living Single calendar, we would have sold copies. But JTT and Friends fandom were through the roof. You couldn't get away from it. It was everywhere.

[TVLegend]

Originally Posted by Christopher

Yep, the show that ripped off so many female lead shows from the 80's. I remember Kim Fields comparing Living Single to The Facts of Life saying they were so much about female empowerment. I don't understand why Kim Coles is having people believe Friends ripped them off when Living Single ripped off The Facts of Life's format of four female friends. The Facts of Life girls even had two male friends just like Living Single's girls. Kim Coles should know her show was a rip off first.

Of the list in the first post, I'd rank them in this order:

1. Grace Under Fire
2. Ellen
3. Suddenly Susan

I have to stop there because I never saw the rest. If we include Living Single, then that would be number 4 on my list.

So while we’re at it we might as well compare the show to The Golden Girls or The Exes or Hot In Cleveland

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by TVLegend

So while we’re at it we might as well compare the show to The Golden Girls or The Exes or Hot In Cleveland

Well nothing's original anymore. It hasn't been for many decades. The whole trend for sitcoms about a bunch of friends living together started in the 80's with The Facts of Life and The Golden Girls. We could go back further and say Laverne & Shirley is the original Living Single and Friends. It had Laverne, Shirley, Lenny, Squiggy, and Carmine living and hanging out in the same apartment complex since that is one of Old School's key points of how Friends ripped off Living Single. Everyone gets their ideas from something but I seriously doubt Friends got their ideas from Living Single. The times I watched Living Single, it reminded me more of The Facts of Life and The Golden Girls because it focused on their core four females. I agree with Old School that it should be in a poll of female lead shows in the 90's since that was its focus.