The Secret Relationship Between The Golden Girls and African-Americans

Since its premiere in September 1985 on NBC, I bet you thought the seven seasons of the hit Saturday night sitcom "The Golden Girls" was just about four old White women sharing a home in Florida.  It was but you do not know that various episodes of the first three seasons were written and co-produced by Winifred Hervey, who happened to have been African-American.  I learned this fact when I purchased a coffee table book about the history of ESSENCE Magazine. 

Winifred Hervey started her career at the Garry Marshall Company as a staff writer.  She wrote for episodes for sitcoms like "Laverne and Shirley", "Mork and Mindy", and "The New Odd Couple." She also wrote for "Benson" and "The Cosby Show".  She was both writer and co-producer of "The Golden Girls" from 1985 to 1988.

In 1987, she won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series for "The Golden Girls".  She shared the honor with Barry Fanaro, Terry Grossman, Susan Harris, Mort Nathan, Kathy Speer, Tony Thomas, Marsha Posner Williams, and Paul Junger Witt.

During the 1990s, Winifred wrote and executive produced for "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "In The House".

She created, executive produced and served as head writer for "The Steve Harvey Show" in 1996.  The series won three NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2001, 2002, and 2003.

In 2003, she produced and wrote six episodes of "Half & Half".  She was nominated for a BET Comedy Award.

I noticed how references of African-American culture were made during the first three seasons when Winifred was on the staff of "The Golden Girls".  Dorothy referred to Rose as Sammy Davis Jr. in one episode. On the episode when the crochety neighbor bitched about a tree and Rose told her to drop dead if she did not enjoy life and people, the Girls (Dorothy, Blanche, Rose, and Sophia) let the funeral house director know Thursday night was not good for them to attend the neighbor's funeral.  They watched "The Cosby Show" at 8:00 PM on Thursdays.  On the episode when Dorothy's son, Michael, introduced the Girls to his new fiancee, an older African-American woman named Lorraine, Blanche and Rose wore mud masks on their faces.  Lorraine, her mother Greta and aunts Trudy and Libby assumed they were racist because the mud masks resembled blackface.  Dorothy explained they danced with the Huxtables of "The Cosby Show" fame.  Blanche and Rose let them know they didn't have a prejudiced bone in their bodies.  Sophia referred to Lorraine, Greta, Trudy, and Libby as "Martha and the Vandellas". It seemed after Winifred left, the African-American references disappeared.

During the seven seasons (1985-1992), there were episodes in which African-Americans were featured.
1. Sophia befriended Alvin, an African-American man who suffered from Alzheimer's disease.  Alvin was played by Joe Seneca.  Alvin's daughter Sandra (Janet MacLachlan) explained to Dorothy about her dad's condition.
2. The Girls hired a Caribbean housekeeper named Marguerite (Paula Kelly) who was not that bright when it came to performing her duties.  When she was fired, they assumed she was a voodoo priestess who placed hexes on them.  It turned out she was not into evil magical powers.  The supposed love potion she gave to Blanche was Chanel No. 5.  Marguerite was an aspiring actress who had to study her craft so the work was on the back burner.
3. Dorothy's son, Michael, introduced the Girls to Lorraine, his older African-American fiancee.  She was played by the late Rosalind Cash.  Dorothy was against the upcoming marriage while Blanche, Rose, and Sophia did not have a problem with it.  The audience thought Sophia would have been the one against her grandson's interracial marriage but Dorothy ended up the cockblocker.  Dorothy gained an unexpected ally in Lorraine's mom Greta (Virginia Capers), who wanted her daughter to marry an African-American man and not "a skinny White boy".  Lorraine's aunts Trudy and Libby (Lynn Hamilton and Montrose Hagins) were not vocal at all.  It was the first time in television history when African-American elderly women were featured with the Girls, with whom they ate cheesecake and chocolate ice cream.  Sophia asked Greta, Trudy, and Libby if it was true about African-American men having big penises.  While they looked at Sophia like she was crazy, Trudy confirmed it was true as did Blanche, much to everyone's surprise.  Blanche was even open for a relationship with an African-American millionaire.  We all know Blanche got dicked down by African-American males in Atlanta on Big Daddy's plantation and on the one owned by her grandmother.  Blanche did not discriminate when it came to sexual relations with men of all colors.  Dorothy hurried up and stated it was the big black penis myth was just that: a myth.  Dorothy and Greta tried to stop Michael and Lorraine from marrying at the Justice of the Peace but were too late.  After all, the mothers had no choice but to accept the marriage since Lorraine was pregnant. Sophia wondered how Thanksgiving was going to be like since Lorraine, Greta, Trudy, and Libby were now part of the Petrillo-Zboniak extended family. 
4. R&B crooner Freddie Jackson made a special guest appearance when Sophia asked him to sing a slow song.  He sang "It's A Small World After All" much to Sophia's dismay.
5. Blanche and Rose offered to be Big Sisters to two troubled wayward girls, one of which was an African-American named Marla (Shana Washington). 
6. Blanche received a visit from her old African-American nanny, Viola Watkins, who revealed that she and Big Daddy were lifelong lovers, even when he was married to Blanche's mother, Elizabeth Ann Bennett.  Blanche resented her for vanishing when she was a child but Viola had to leave because she had a torrid interracial affair with a White man in the South and Elizabeth found out about it.  Viola returned to retrieve a gift Big Daddy wanted her to have: a music box owned by Blanche.  They both felt stupid when the music box belonged to a second mistress.

You all did not know that Rue McClanahan's fashions were designed by an African-American man.  I read about the man's identity in a fashion magazine a decade ago.

"The Golden Girls" is still a beloved classic sitcom in many African-American households, thanks to the reruns on The Hallmark Channel and WeTV and the DVDs of the entire seven seasons.  I watch it every night from 11 PM - 1 AM.  I will always watch it until I get tired of the Girls but honestly I will probably never get tired of them.

Thank You For Being A Friend,
Donald Peebles Jr.

Precious: The Trials and Tribulations of A Fat Black Girl

When I read PUSH by Sapphire (Ramona Lofton) a decade ago or so, I couldn't believe it when I read how the main character of Claireece "Precious" Jones was being raped, molested, and abused by her parents.  She was an extremely obese, illiterate, and dark-skinned young woman. She ended having two children by her father, who was also their grandfather.  Unfortunately, she contacted HIV from him due to his dalliances with other women.  That saddened me very much as a reader.  Regardless, Precious gained a valuable ally in the form of Ms. Rain, a teacher at an alternative high school for young girls who believed in her as a person and encouraged her to express herself by writing in her journal.

I never thought it was going to be a motion picture until it was announced that comic-actress Mo'Nique was cast as Mary, the abusive mother of Precious.  She was abused by her older brother as a young child, according to an interview she gave to ESSENCE in 2008.  The film was going to be directed by Lee Daniels, who was well-known for his controversial films: "Monster's Ball", "The Woodsman", and "Shadowboxer".  As a result of that, Mariah Carey was signed on as the welfare worker, Ms. Weiss, but she did not wear her makeup.  I originally thought she was going to play Ms. Rain. She looked just like her older sister, Allison, who has black hair.  It was so uncanny.  Mariah was the main actress in "Tennessee", a Lee Daniels film about an aspiring country singer who flees her abusive husband and joins two brothers in their search of their long-lost father.  As the weeks progressed, rocker Lenny Kravitz was cast as Nurse John McFadden, the male nurse, actress Paula Patton (of "Idlewood" and "Deja Vu" fame and the wife of blue-eyed R&B crooner Robin Thicke) was cast as Ms. Rain, and Sherri Shepherd ("The View") was cast as Cornrows, the school receptionist.  Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, who hailed from Harlem, New York, was cast as the long-suffering Precious after beating 400 other females out for the role.  Instead of the title being PUSH, it was renamed PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL "PUSH" BY SAPPHIRE.

Before the film premiered in selected and major theaters, it got major financial and distributive backing by two prominent African-Americans: Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry.  Instead of them being a rumored couple in the tabloids, they sympathized with the film because they were both physically and sexually abused by family members.  Oprah always speaks out against abuse on her show like she did with the Chris Brown/Rihanna issue in 2009. Tyler writes about sexual abuse in his plays and movies.

I finally got the chance to see "Precious" at the Jamaica Multiplex Theater in Jamaica, New York. I cried throughout the movie as Precious was being abused and berated by Mary, who brought her self-esteem down by encouraging to accept welfare instead of education, among other things.  I cringed when Mary forced Precious to eat the cold pig's feet and macaroni & cheese. I couldn't stand Mary at all.  I was glad when Precious finally found the courage to stand up to her and left the apartment with her two children: Mongo (a daughter born with Down's Syndrome, so coined Mongoloid by Mary) and Abdul.  I rooted for Precious, who began to believe in herself after Ms. Rain encouraged her to write her own story in her journal in order for her to establish her own identity apart from that set up by Mary. Precious began to get her life together.

What amazed me the most was how it took a gay woman (lesbian) like Ms. Rain to show love and comfort to Precious, unlike Mary, who was ignorant and homophobic towards gays.  It was good to see actress Kimberly Russell, who was best known for her role as Sarah Nevins on the sitcom "Head of the Class", after many years out of the media spotlight.  She played Katherine, the life partner of Ms. Rain.  Ms. Rain and Katherine displayed a poster of Ntokage Shange's classic play "For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Was Enuf", which was considered anti-Black male by many of the critics during the 1970s.  The film was already filled with its Black gay motif: Lee Daniels is an openly Black gay director, the author Sapphire is a Black bisexual woman, and the film had three Black lesbian characters - Ms. Rain, Katherine, and Jermaine Hicks (Amina Robinson). 

Although Precious was cared for by Ms. Rain, Nurse John McFadden, and Ms. Weiss, it was just obvious her saviors were played by biracial actors (Paula Patton, Lenny Kravitz, and Mariah Carey) while her tormentors were played by dark-skinned actors and actresses like Mo'Nique, Rodney "Bear" Jackson (Carl, Precious' dad), and Sherri Shepherd.  Even Precious had a colorstruck fascination on Tom Cruise, a light-skinned boy who was played by Barret Helms.  It was not a surprise at all that Tyler Perry would have agreed to financially back "Precious" because he is colorstruck when it comes to the casting of the Black men in his "Madea" movies.  Biracial actors Shemar Moore, Boris Kodjoe, and Rick Fox were the light-skinned saviors of Kimberly Elise, Lisa Arrindell Anderson, and Angela Bassett in "Diary of A Mad Black Woman", "Madea's Family Reunion", and "Meet the Browns".  Dark-and-brown-skinned actors Steve Harris, Blair Underwood, and Phillip Edward Lear were the villains and abusers.  Tyler has issues with his abusive father, who I think is dark-skinned.  He hails from New Orleans, Louisiana, which has been colorstruck since slavery and the formation of the Creoles as a third-tier class apart from White and African-American societies.  Most Black gay men like Lee Daniels aim for light-skinned pretty boys in the Black gay community while have sexual fantasies of dark-skinned, big-dicked, and thugged-out homothug Mandingoes banging their backs out.  Oprah even knows a thing or two about being dissed as a dark-skinned woman.  Her longtime beau, Stedman Graham, has been dating her, much to the dismay of his mother, who does not like her son dating a dark woman.  I found it surprising in the film of how Precious had to ask Ms. Weiss about her racial identity.  It mirrored Mariah's real life of sorts.  Her first husband, former Sony CEO Tommy Mottola, did not want the public to know she had any African ancestry at first, as if she was another White girl trying to sing Black. Even cultural critic Lisa Jones (the daughter of Amiri Baraka and Hettie Cohen Jones) wrote in her book, BULLETPROOF DIVA: TALES OF RACE, SEX, AND HAIR, about Sony trying to hide Mariah's biracial nose on the album cover for Vision Of Love. Mariah is African-American, Irish-American, and African-Venezuelan and had been riding on the multicultural coattail until the mass media wrote about her having a nervous breakdown and dissing her movie "Glitter" in 2001.  Mariah made a 360 when she found out some family secrets hidden from her by her White mother, Patricia Hickey Carey Vian, about her African-American/African-Venezuelan father, Alfred Roy Carey, before his death.  She became closer with her African-American side of her family and displayed her Blackness on her album "The Emancipation of Mimi".  She let Barbara Walters know she was not White and gave her a history lesson about the one drop rule, which was established during slavery.  She went ahead and married Nick Cannon, an African-American brotha who is several years her junior.  We don't even see Patricia in the media anymore. 

When Precious ran out of the chicken place with the bucket of the chicken, it immediately reminded me of old Southern stereotypes of Black slaves and sharecroppers stealing chicken and watermelon from White people's plantations, homes, and lands.  Lee Daniels, screenwriter Geoffrey S. Fletcher, and Hollywood were aware of the centuries-old racial stereotypes of Black people's fascination with chicken and watermelon. 

While I have some issues with the film, "Precious" is a must-see and will become a classic for its courageous tackling of incest and sexual abuse in the African-American community.  While many people are quick to dismiss them as problems only in White homes, incest and sexual abuse happens in African-American homes as well.  The book and film versions of "The Color Purple" touched the issue when Celie was sexually abused, raped, and impregnated by her stepfather.  There are many Black boys and girls who are molested, sexually abused, raped, and impregnated by parents, grandparents, guardians, relatives, siblings, and other family members worldwide.  I thank Sapphire for writing PUSH and sharing the story of Claireece "Precious" Jones with all of us.  I thank Sapphire for telling her own testimony as a incest survivor.  Everyone has a story to tell and you never know what someone is going through unless you get to know them. 

I want to congratulate Mo'Nique on her Golden Globe Award win in the category of Best Supporting Actress.

I want to congratulate Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique on their Oscar nominations for "Precious" in their respective categories of Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. 

I want to thank Lee Daniels for his Oscar nomination in the category of Best Director.

I want to thank Geoffrey S. Fletcher for his Oscar nomination in the category of Best Adapted Screenplay.

I want to thank "Precious" for its Oscar nomination in the category of Best Picture.

Have a blessed Morning,
Donald Peebles Jr.

HAPPY 40TH ANNIVERSARY, ALL MY CHILDREN!

I cannot fathom the fact my favorite soap opera of all-time, "All My Children", has reached its 40th anniversary on ABC.  40 years of love, romance, family, and memories.  I cry at this milestone because I think about Grandma and Tootsie Roll.  They were the ones who introduced me to "All My Children" when I was a five-year-old mute child.  Grandma babysat me along with other children.  Tootsie Roll attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, so she taped "All My Children" on her audio tape recorder.  Although I was supposed to have been this dumb, slow, stupid, and mentally retarded child, I understood everything which went on around me.  "All My Children" was my first television show which I got emotionally attached to. 

I got to know about the fictional town of Pine Valley, Pennsylvania and its residents, created by Agnes Nixon.  Along with the Pink Panther, I was interested and introduced to supercouples like Dr. Cliff Warner (Peter Bergman) and Nina Cortlandt Warner (Taylor Miller), Greg Nelson and Jenny Gardner (Kim Delaney), and Jesse Hubbard (Darnell Williams) and Angie Baxter (Debbi Morgan), haters/jealous mofos/cockblockers like Palmer Cortlandt (James Mitchell), Liza Colby (Marcy Walker), Enid Nelson (Natalie Ross), and Les Baxter (Antonio Fargas), the love triangle involving Tom Cudahy (Richard Shoberg), Brooke English (Julia Barr), and Mark Dalton (Mark LaMura), the comedic presence of wacky Opal Gardner (Dorothy Lyman) and Langley Wallingford (Louis Edmonds), the meddling of society queen Phoebe Tyler Wallingford (Ruth Warrick), the wisdom of Mona Kane Tyler (Frances Heflin) and Myrtle Fargate (Eileen Herlie), and the fashionista flavor of Erica Kane (Susan Lucci).

Since I have been watching off-and-on from 1982 to 2010 (the present) for a total of 28 years, the storylines are too lengthy to discuss here.  I will countdown the top 40 memorable moments/storylines in the history of "All My Children" from my perspective.

1. Jesse Hubbard and Angie Baxter as first African-American supercouple (1982-1988)
2. Jesse dies in Angie's arms (1988)
3. Jesse and Angie's tearful reunion at the Pine Valley train station (2008).
4. Greg Nelson and Jenny Gardner 's Valentine Day wedding (1984)
5. Jenny's death (1984)
6. Stuart Chandler and Cindy Parker Chandler's touching love against the fear of AIDS (1987-1989)
7. The reign of Janet "From Another Planet" Green (1991-1992)
8. Bianca Montgomery Comes Out as a Lesbian (2000)
9. The funeral of Mona Kane Tyler (1994)
10. The wrath of Kendall Hart (1992-1995)
11. Skye Chandler Cudahy's plot to poison Barbara Montgomery (1988)
12. Natalie Marlowe Hunter Cortlandt's rape ordeal (1987)
13. Laura Cudahy dies at the hands of a drunk driver (1988)
14. Cecily Davidson blurts out to soon-to-be hubby Sean Cudahy's affair with her mother, Bitsy, at their wedding (1988).
15. The murder mystery of Will Cortlandt (1992)
16. Janet holds Natalie hostage on route to Canada before giving birth to Amanda (1992).
17. Hayley Vaughn McIntyre discovers her hubby Alec's affair with her mom, Arlene (1995).
18. Erica Kane's emotional breakdown (1995).
19. Anna Devane's tearful reunion with daughter Robin Scorpio (2001)
20. Julia Santos' face gets scarred during the Pine Valley tornado (1994)
21. Noah Keefer and Julia on the run in Jamaica (1996)
22. Maria Santos Grey (known as Maureen Gorman) dancing with the locals in the Bahamas (2003)
23. Adam Chandler seduces his au pair Dixie Cooney (1989)
24. Hillary Wilson gets ran down accidently by Edna Ferguson and Dottie Thornton on the way to her wedding to Tad Martin(1986)
25. Julie Chandler is nearly turned into a prostitute by pimp Creed Kelly (1987)
26. Mark Dalton conquers his drug addiction with the help of Erica, Brooke, and Ellen (1987)
27. Hayley Vaughn arrives in Pine Valley with a black punk-rock hairdo at Uncle Trevor's Thanksgiving (1990)
28. Rae Cummings runs into her mother, Myrtle (2000)
29. Dr. Jonathan Kinder's imprisoned wife turns out to be the long-lost Skye Chandler (1996)
30. Erica, Janet, and Skye team up to expose Jonathan (1996)
31. Bianca is reunited with her daughter, Miranda, who was raised as Bess Chandler, on Christmas (2004)
32. Kendall, Liza, Greenlee Smythe, Mia Saunders, and Simone Torres founded Fusion (2003)
33. Bianca kisses Lena Kundera at the airport (2003)
34. Maria regains her memory while saving Maddie from drowning (2003)
35. Dixie discovers Craig Lawson slept with Nurse Gloria Marsh (1992)
36. Brooke shoots Jim Thomasen, who took child porn pictures of adopted daughter Laura Kirk (1998).
37. Julia shoots Garnet Williams, who killed her hubby, Noah (2005)
38. Liza Colby returns to Pine Valley (1995)
39. Adam reveals to Skye that he is not her biological dad (2000)
40. Bianca and Reese Williams marries (2009)

As of 2010, "All My Children" will be videotaped at the ABC Studios in Los Angeles, California.  I cannot wait to see what this year is going to hold for the residents of Pine Valley.  I will watch as I have been watching since 1982. 

Happy 40th Anniversary, ALL MY CHILDREN!

Donald Peebles
A faithful viewer and fan till the end.

Alaina Reed Hall's Role on ABC Soap Opera "Ryan's Hope"

I had no idea that the late Alaina Reed Hall Amini had a small role on the defunct ABC soap opera "Ryan's Hope" as Ethyl Franklin, an actress hired by the evil Charlotte Greer (Judith Chapman) to assist in her schemes against the Ryan family.  Charlotte's easy target was Frank Ryan (Geoffrey Pierson), who supposedly married her in St. Louis. Charlotte enlisted Ethyl, a struggling actress who needed the money desperately or she could have ended up either on drugs or prostitution to pose as her secretary.  Frank and his sister, police officer Siobhan Ryan (Marg Helgenberger), interrogated Ethyl about her involvement with Charlotte. 

Alaina was on the soap in May 1983 while acting on "Sesame Street" simultaneously.

Alaina Reed Hall Amini can now be included as one of the African-American alumni of daytime television and the soap opera industry.

Have a blessed morning,
Donald

Alaina Reed Hall Amini FINALLY Gets Death Coverage In Media

After arguing on Facebook for the recognition of the death of actress/singer Alaina Reed Hall Amini (1946-2009) in the mass media, she FINALLY gets acknowledged in the American and international media, even all the way in India! This was all many devoted fans of the late Alaina were asking for: the proper respect afforded to a wonderful down-to-earth woman who brought joy to children, laughter to adults, and soulful music to both for four decades.  While the mass media is focusing on the drug-related cardiac arrest death of young Hollywood actress Brittany Murphy (1977-2009), it seemed Alaina was about to take a back burner.  Many of us advocated for that not to happen and it looks like the mass media took suit and posted on the World Wide Web about the passing away of Alaina Reed Hall Amini.  While I had my issues with the mass media not giving her proper due for her roles as photographer Olivia Robinson on "Sesame Street" and landlady Rose Lee Holloway on "227", I was accused by some, Black and White, of playing the race card when I took the mass media at task for the coverage of certain deaths and the downplay of others.  I was only arguing for Alaina's death to be covered alongside Brittany's death since they died during the same weekend.  I grew up idolizing Alaina's Sistergirl spirit and personality when I was a little boy.  Although I never met her, I felt close to her since I was one of those 1980s children who watched her on "Sesame Street" singing her marvelous lungs off and watched her every Saturday night with Grandpa, Grandma, and Tootsie Roll (Aunt Rogina) on "227" being the best friend to the ladies of the building in Washington, D.C.  She was my shero and I will always love her down-to-earth spirit. 

When I wrote my previous blog about her, I was unaware of her second marriage and I apologize dearly for that.  After the death of actor Kevin Peter Hall of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1991, Alaina would later meet and marry Tamim Amini, an Afghan-Persian actor.  He helped her with her two-year battle against breast cancer.

Besides her acting credits on "Sesame Street," "227", "Cleghorne", "ER", "Ally McBeal", "Any Day Now", "A Different World", and commercials for Detrol LA and K-Mart, I did not know she had her cooking show "Cooking With Alaina Reed Hall".

After almost a week after her death, Alaina FINALLY gets coverage in the mass media.  100 percent satisfied at the result of Black people not allowing one of our greatest treasures to go under the rug, my case for the inclusion of her death is closed.

Alaina Reed Hall Amini, you will be missed!

A ROSE IS STILL A ROSE !!!

The bottom picture of Alaina was taken by Tamim at a party given by their family friend, publicist Billy Laurence. 

Rest In Peace: Alaina Reed Hall Amini (1946-2009)

Actress/Singer Alaina Reed Hall Passes Away

Before going to bed for two hours this morning, I couldn't believe it when actress Saundra McClain wrote R.I.P. Alaina.  Something tripped me out because the only Alaina I knew about in Hollywood was actress/singer Alaina Reed Hall.  I look it up online about her death and it seemed nothing was available.  The only person who reported it was Shavar Ross, a former child actor who is like one of the sane survivors from "Diff'rent Strokes" on which he played Dudley Ramsey, one of Arnold's best friends.  He also went on to play Weasel, the friend of Eddie Winslow and Waldo Faldo on "Family Matters".  He is currently an actor, film director, screenwriter, film producer, editor, photographer, author, and entrepreneur.  Alaina's death from breast cancer was first reported on his website, ShavarRoss.com
(http://shavarross.com/2009/12/17/actress-alaina-reed-hall-passes/).

I called up my best friend, Ra Shawn Chisholm, to notify him about the news.  We were both saddened because we grew up watching her as Olivia, the kid sister of Gordon (Roscoe Orman), on the children's show "Sesame Street" from 1976 to 1988 and as Rose Lee Holloway, the tenant-turned-landlady and the best friend of all of the residents on the hit sitcom "227" from 1985 to 1990.  Alaina was the down-to-earth Sistagirl to me. 

On "227", Rose was the widowed mother of a daughter named Tiffany (Kia Goodwin), the best friend of Brenda Jenkins (Regina King).  Tiffany disappeared at the start of the 1986-1987 season.  Rose became the unexpected landlady of the building after the stingy slumlord, Mr. Calloway, left it to her because she made the best apple pie he ate.  Rose's upward mobility did not sit well with resident sexpot-vamp Sandra Clark (Jackee Harry), who assumed she was going to became the landlady of 227 since she had been sleeping with Mr. Calloway, whom we never got a chance to meet.  Throughout the seasons, Rose did not have good luck when it came to men until she met Warren Merriwether, a tall police officer.  Rose gave up being a landlady and sells the building to a new flamboyant landlord, Julian Barlow (Paul Winfield, whom most of the audience suspected or knew was gay)during the season finale of the fourth season.  They fell in love and got married.  The late R&B crooner Luther Vandross serenaded the couple with his first pop hit "Here and Now". 

Warren was portrayed by Kevin Peter Hall, who was best known for his "monster" roles in films like "Predator", "Predator 2", and "Harry and the Hendersons".  He met Alaina while doing a guest spot on "227" as Warren.  He joined the cast permanently during the final season of 1989-1990.  In real life, Kevin and Alaina married.  Their married bliss was short-lived when Kevin contracted AIDS from a contaminated blood transfusion prior to filming "Predator 2".  He announced the news while he reprised his role of Harry the Sasquatch on the television series adaptation of "Harry and the Hendersons" in 1991.  He passed away from pneumonia that same year. 

Alaina went on to play Lena Carlson, the mother of Ellen Carson, a single mother trying to get her television production company off the ground, on the short-lived sitcom "Cleghorne", which was in honor of Ellen Cleghorne, the African-American alum of "Saturday Night Live". I am sorry but I wasn't totally feeling her role on the corny-ass show.  It took a lot away from her talent.  Although she guest-starred on other shows, I hadn't seen her in a while until she played the crossing-guard who had to constantly use the bathroom on one of the commercials for Detrol LA, the pill used to treat overactive bladder.  I also saw her on a Christmas commercial for K-Mart on which her character and her husband were shopping for their grandchildren.

Alaina still looked great when she and her "227" co-stars Marla Gibbs and Jackee Harry were interviewed during the making of the release of the sitcom on DVD.  

Alaina died this morning on Friday, December 18, 2009 at the age of 63.  She is survived by two children from her first marriage.

Rest In Peace, Alaina Reed Hall (1946-2009)

 

LisaRaye and Michael Misick's Cancelled Soap Opera

It looks as 2009 nearly comes to end, the story of the Princess and the Frog (not the Walt Disney version) but the version with actress/model LisaRaye McCoy and ex-husband Michael Misick, the former Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands, has definitely come to an end with some surprising hitches.  I guess some of us were rooting for the Black version of Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly to take off with a Caribbean flair but unfortunately most things without the foundation of love has to come to an abrupt end.  The soap opera is on the brink of cancellation, much to the delight of the majority.

LisaRaye is preparing for her reality show on TVOne in the winter/spring of 2010.  She is about to aim at her former celebrity friends, such as Vivica A. Fox, Star Jones, Duane Martin, and Tony Rock.  If yall notice, she is not going to dog out Will and Jada Smith. Let's keep it real now: she was well advised not to fuck up with her residuals from "All Of Us". 

LisaRaye's daughter, Kaienja, is finally getting her time in the limelight and that is good and all, but let's hope she has talent and poise and not just a pretty face.  There are many celebrity parents with talentless children.  Sometimes the DNA is not the dominant determant in the equation.

LisaRaye looks like she is having fun in the sun with "best friend" Lil' Kim.  Many people wonder if they are a pair of clucks in the bathroom fucking like Biggie rapped in his classic "Unbelievable".  I still find it unbelievable that Lil' Kim is into her.  She is strickly dickly and prefers mostly big black dicks like I do.  Lil' Kim is merely having fun and still looking for publicity in Hollywood.  The Black ghetto world took a shit on Lil' Kim after her numerous plastic surgeries and her beefs with Violetta Wallace, Faith Evans, and Naturi Naughton.  She is doing early promotion for the release of her memoir so she already figures she will have her gay fans, so why not frolick in Miami and the after-parties with none other than LisaRaye, who looks happier than when she was with Michael Misick.  I am not saying anything here or maybe I am but I always believe true happiness comes when one is living his or her truth. A person who grew up sheltered, restricted, and rigid early in life will end shaking his or her ass and living wild later on.  There are lesbian rumors about LisaRaye out there already despite LisaRaye assuring the African-American press and her African-American sistagirlfriends she is looking for that man who will love her.  I wonder if she is ready for the lesbian rumors to come full circle and haunt her once her reality show premieres on TVOne.  It is rumored that Vivica was one of her lesbian lovers in Hollywood.  We know that Star married Al Reynolds, the businessman with the questionable sexuality and LisaRaye was aware of the issues Star went through with Al.  I am sure Star knows about the lesbian rumors of LisaRaye and discusses it with her best friends, Vanessa Bell Calloway and Lela Rochon.  Vanessa had a nerve to ask a lesbian aggressive if she ever had her hymen broken on her short-lived talk show "Oh Drama" which aired on BET and co-starred Kym Whitley and Mari Morrow. She acted as if the lesbian aggressive was an oddity.  She felt so stupid when the lesbian aggressive put her back into her place.  Vanessa thought Kym or Mari was going to help her but they couldn't say a thing.  After that, Vanessa faded from an actress/host to Star Jones' best friend on "The View" and the wife of a prominent Black doctor in the upper-class community of Baldwin Hills, California.  Kym and Mari were relegated to the unknown straight-to-DVD Black movies like "House Party 4". Mari was even replaced off "The Parkers" during its first season by Yvette Wilson, who played Andell. "Oh Drama" got rid of Mari or she quit, either one.  I always believed when they tried to get shady with the lesbian aggressive, they lost many viewers after that.  We all know Duane was involved in an affair with another man and his wife, Tisha Campbell-Martin, was aware of it.  Tisha was and is still rumored to be sleeping with Tichina Arnold, her best friend since the film version of "The Little Shop of Horrors" and the airing of the popular sitcom "Martin" as best friends Gina and Pam.  Tisha played a lesbian in the obscure cable series "Linc's" which aired on Showtime during the 1990s.  Since people claimed HIV/AIDS was a gay disease, Tisha was equated with it when some misguided Black folk gossiped about her having it by getting fucked by the late rapper Easy-E.  Ironically, she guest-starred on "A Different World" as Josie, an HIV-positive student at the fictional Hillman College.  Tichina was linked with rapper MC Lyte in the 1990s by radio and television shock jock Wendy Williams.  Anyway, the tit-for-tat about who's gay and not gay can go back and forth between LisaRaye, Vivica, Star, and Duane.  LisaRaye better be prepared for questions from the African-American press once her reality show hits the air in 2010. 

Her ex-husband, Michael Misick, has vacated from his Premier position of the Turks and Caicos Islands due to charges of corruption from the government of Great Britain.  He has dumped his mistress, Rocsi, the Afro-Belizean/Honduran hostess of BET's "106 and Park".  He has moved on with Tania Mehra, a woman of color and a reality-show personality who was eliminated off VH1's "My Antonio".  Obviously, Tania is not Antonio's personal type.  It seems that Antonio deals with both men and women of the Caucasian-Mediterranean persuasion.  I am not saying that he is bisexual but he does play in many gay/bisexual flicks which are played on LOGO.  There are some White men who do not like Black women like Antonio and "The Bachelor" and it is not racist.  However, Michael is into Black women who are light-skinned or biracial.  He started with LisaRaye as a trophy wife to parade in the Turks and Caicos Islands, then went on to Rocsi, whom many consider to be LisaRaye-lite, and now Tania, whom he impregnated during his lackluster joke of a marriage to LisaRaye.  I even thought Rocsi was the only homewrecker but I guess Tania's pregnancy was the boiling point towards the end of the soap opera. 

I am just waiting for LisaRaye to write a book.  That's all for now from moi.  The soap opera looks like it's been cancelled.  Please stay tuned for LisaRaye's reality show on TVOne in 2010.

Have a blessed morning,
Donald