Another look at "Girlfriends"

[1 Woman of Virtue]

We've discussed this show before, but here is another take on the show by a reporter for Slate Magazine. Any thoughts???

Black Like Me. The TV show that does right by black women. By K.A. Dilday

Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2001, at 4:00 p.m. PT
UPN has one of the blackest audiences of any TV network, and Monday, when it broadcasts four sitcoms featuring predominantly dark-skinned casts, is its blackest night.
Three of these four shows—Moesha, The Parkers, and The Hughleys—have never captured my attention. (Although when I lived in Amsterdam, I did get perverse pleasure out of Dutch attempts to find subtitles for the Ebonics on Moesha.) Take The Parkers, the top-rated show for black viewers. Starring a robust mother and daughter, it's the kind of
show where one character says to another, "My baby's daddy, meet my future baby's daddy." Call me hopelessly bourgeois, but I just can't relate to that.
However, I'm addicted to the fourth show. Girlfriends features Joan, an elegant lawyer
whose wardrobe I covet; Lynn, her college friend, a perpetual graduate student and activist; Joan's childhood friend Toni, a woman who takes her cues from the film How To Marry a Millionaire; and Joan's secretary, Maya, a ghetto superstar who lords her sexual exploits with her husband over the other three.
The little "moments" in Girlfriends ring eerily true. Toni's new white beau keeps her up late at night in bed inspecting the texture of her hair, which fascinates him. There's William, Joan's law firm colleague and the girlfriends' male foil, who struggles with his failure to fit into conventional black stereotypes (the same stereotypes that once led Colin Powell to tell a reporter from The New Yorker, "I speak reasonably well, like a white person" and led Julian Bond, then-head of the NAACP to agree that Powell is "verbally, not black"). William and his ilk are usually caricatured on television as that most pathetic of all creatures, the white black man, an Oreo who can't dance, can't rap, and can't hang. Instead of poking fun at him, Girlfriends sympathizes. When the women chastise him for dating white women, he retorts that he's not popular with black women because he's not dangerous enough. "White women think I'm edgy just for being black," he explains.
Girlfriends addresses skin color prejudice, the dirty secret of the black community, both
implicitly and explicitly. Toni, the it-girl of the group, is the one with the darkest skin. This is a welcome anomaly. For all the instances of black pride bursting forth from The Cosby Show, the two women Bill Cosby chose to play his older daughters, i.e., sex symbol age, were biracial, light-skinned, long-haired black women. And on ER, one of my other favorite shows, it seems that every couple of years the producers issue a casting call for a beige black woman to play the love interest of decidedly nonbeige Eriq La Salle. Spike Lee, who has acknowledged his inability to write rounded female characters, usually casts a fair-skinned black woman—a visual descendant of Lena Horne—as his leading lady.
When Toni rejects a wealthy suitor because she thinks his skin is too dark, her friends
chastise her, telling her that she wouldn't exactly pass a paper bag test herself. Later Toni tells Joan (who is played by Diana Ross' biracial daughter) that Joan doesn't understand how hard it is to be considered attractive when you have dark skin and that she doesn't want a daughter to endure what she does. Refreshingly, there's no moralistic plot twist in which Toni learns to appreciate her dark skin.
Finally, Girlfriends is wonderfully void of studied Afrocentricity. Joan lives in a home that she's very pleased to have purchased for herself. Ordinarily a black TV home would be
resplendent with racial kitsch: African masks, Jacob Lawrence paintings, and maybe a bit of kente cloth. But Joan's home matches her cool, minimalist taste in clothing. And rather than presenting her boyfriend with a book of Pablo Neruda poems for Valentine's Day as Joan did, she would have handed him a book of Maya Angelou's finest since, in the world of television, an expression of love between two black people could never be captured by a nonblack writer. That would be unpridely.
Girlfriends probably wouldn't be on the air without Frasier's Kelsey Grammer, its executive producer and godfather. Grammer refuses to espouse politically correct platitudes to explain why a middle-aged white man is producing a show about four black women. When told that Spike Lee didn't like it, Grammer told the Seattle Times, "Fine, I don't care." And neither do I.

[onesavvydiva]

Hello...
I just wanted to comment. EVERY Monday night, I am in front of the tube at 9:25 to make sure that I get to see all of my favorite show. I used to watch Moesha and The Parkers, but they got a little outrageous for me, especially the Parkers. I just can't stand how Monique's character throws herself at that man (Professor), and how he totally disses her. I think it is quite pitiful (I know it's just TV, but still). But I absolutely LOVE girlfriends, it's like a SEX IN THE CITY spinoff for black women!

My two cents!

[Ideal08]

Originally posted by onesavvydiva:
But I absolutely LOVE girlfriends, it's like a SEX IN THE CITY spinoff for black women!

I agree, I agree!! I don't watch it every week, I usually forget (I'm not a big TV person). But I'm going to try to make it a part of my weekly routine.

[Eclipse]

Dang, looks like I am going to have to unhook the satalite dish and get the rabbit ears back out to check this show out. DirecTV does not carry UPN or the WB. Hidden Racism anyone??????

If there are any other DirecTV subscribers out there join me in sending them letters to start carrying UPN and the WB!!!

[Serenity]

I just can't stand how Monique's character throws herself at that man (Professor), and how he totally disses her. I think it is quite pitiful (I know it's just TV, but still).

One of my co-workers is a carbon copy of that character. I stopped watching because it was kinda spooky. You know what they say about truth being stranger than fiction...

[ZChi4Life]

I just got into watching Girlfriends last month and I really like it. I'm mad that I didn't start watching it sooner. It's pretty much like "Living Single" w/out Overton and Kyle. I miss that show! But yeah I give GFs two thumbs up

------------------
The Peach and Black is where it's at!
Zeta Sigma Chi Multicultural Sorority, Inc.

"Diversity: Often perpetrated, never initiated"

[exquizit]

I enjoy it too. It also gives us a first hand look at how different people can really get along. There are so many different things about each one of them and they really make their friendships work.

[LadyAKA]

Joan is sometimes a bit annoying but I do thoroughly enjoy sitting down to watch the show. Every Monday I make sure to tune in at 9 PM, Though I watch the Hughleys I really hate DL Hughley on the series but his wife has some funny parts ... The 8 PM shows, Moesha and the Parkers, have just fallen off!
But I really suggest giving 'GIRLFRIENDS' a try ... I like the sometimes ghetto topics they bring up. This past week was good about corporate America and being black ... it is a comedy but like the article states it is eerily true!

[This message has been edited by LadyAKA (edited March 01, 2001).]

[MS.REVLON]

I was just wondering out of all the characters on the show who do you either relate to or resemble? and why?

** Joan
**Toni
**Lynn
**Maya

[Soulful Soror]

I've been watching Girlfriends pretty much from the beginning...I remember a lot of people (namely us folks of color) didn't like the show at first. People mentioned that it was a boot-leg version of Sex In The City...they felt some of the subject matter was offensive & derogatory to us...So, I find this interesting. Maybe people complained (in writing) to the producers of the show & the network where it resulted in some changes and/or tweaking. I just, honestly, felt it deserved a chance since Kelsey Grammer was a producer of the show....and, being that Frasier is a very smart sitcom, I felt that Girlfriends couldn't lose...well, I hope the show continues to do well at bringing up real issues, as well as entertaining not just us...but, the people who ain't of color!

[MS.REVLON]

SOULFUL SOROR

I couldn't agree with you more. At first I was quite dissapointed for the same reasons like the subject matters and strerotypes. As time has past the show has improved alot. The producers I think realized how they were missing out on a certain type of viewers. It looks like they finally realized that intelligent humor and baffoon humor gets more of a well rounded audience.


You forgot to say which one you related to more

[Soulful Soror]

Originally posted by MS.REVLON
You forgot to say which one you related to more

Oh! Sorry ...the episode that I related to in particular was that one where Joan was dating the guy with the hips....there's a guy that I kind of liked, he had everything going for him-a good job, no kids/baby mommas, very nice smile, pleasant personality.... BUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTT...well, that was the problem....his BIG BOOTAY & HIPS! (ROFLMAO-granted my @$$ ain't big as his)!

I just couldn't see past that joint!

[korkscru]

I'll be the first to admit that I didn't like GIRLFRIENDS. However, after deciding to watch it for a while, I've come to realize that it grows on you. My interest in this show heightened when Joan began questioning her friendship with Toni. And the last season's finale really did it for me when Joan finally told that arrogant Toni where to get off (SHE WAS SOOO HURT, YALL, BUT SHE FINALLY DID WHAT WAS BEST FOR HERSELF). I was really feeling her at that time and I can't wait to see the new season's episodes. I was able to relate because I know how it feels to put your complete trust in a so-called life long "friend" and they take advantage of and betray you. As for Toni, I'm just hating on her right about now. Now Maya and Lynn, I don't pay much attention to (although Maya appears to be a little too much ghetto for me and Lynn acts basically like a confused leach). Thus far, not much focus has been put on them. But I'm looking for Kelsey Grammer and his writers to continue to amaze us with good story lines.

I agee that Traci Ross' character, Joan, is a classy and beautiful role-model for us aspiring African-American females (even with all of her faults). The LAST thing that I want is to be is the "typical" middle-class African-American female. It's all about being UNIQUE and that sums up Joan's character in a nutshell.

GIRLFRIENDS is a promising show and I would recommend that anyone give it a chance.

Oh yeah!! Plus that FIIIINNNNEEE dude from JUICE (the one that Tupac's character kills) is playing Maya's husband and he's ALWAYS wonderful to look at.

[DST Love]

Originally posted by korkscru
Oh yeah!! Plus that FIIIINNNNEEE dude from JUICE (the one that Tupac's character kills) is playing Maya's husband and he's ALWAYS wonderful to look at.

I met him my senior year in college. For whatever reason, he was in one of the AUC clothing stores on campus (my friend worked there and I used to keep her company). While I think he is cute, I definitely thought at that time that he's much cuter on TV than in person.

But I too love watching "Girlfriends". It definitely grows on you because last year I thought it was kind of ghetto and suspect. And last season I didn't think those girls (except Traci Ross) could act worth a dime. But the shows and the acting are a lot better this season.

[DELTAQTE]

For the past three weeks, I have been watching girlfriends. I like it so far.

But this past episode I watched where the married one(Maya?) having a thing for the man Toni was going to start dating. I just thought it was selfish of her to deny a "maybe" relationship with this guy cause she was diggin him(so what? you're married!).


I do like Sex and The City also though. I have a feeling if Girlfriends were on HBO, it would be more edgy like SATC.



QTE