Product Description

Living Single: The Complete First Season (DVD)

Bold, sassy and realistic, four upwardly mobile and very different African-American women share adventures, advice and an exclusive brownstone in New York City as they explore life and Living Single.Khadijah James (Queen Latifah) has it all--a great job running her own trendy magazine and part ownership of a fancy brownstone. Sharing the ownership of their home is her endearingly naïve cousin Synclaire (Kim Coles) who's also Khadijah's assistant at the magazine. Cramping their lifestyle is third roommate and sarcastic, selfish fortune hunter, Regine (Kim Fields). And even though she doesn't live in the brownstone, Khadijah's best friend, Maxine (Erika Alexander), a tough, aggressive divorce attorney in search of Mr. Right, spends more time here than she does in her own home.With love, laughter and a little bit of luck, these four women are on the threshold of the rest of their lives.

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When it appeared on the Fox TV network in 1993, Living Single was one of the first sitcoms to portray the everyday doings of a group of African America friends living ordinary American lives. It also pretty much launched the acting career of rap artist Queen Latifah (who performed its theme song) before she moved onto a thriving profession as a movie star. The format was nothing new, but it quickly became a hit and ran for five successful seasons. The setting was the office of urban-lifestyle Flavor magazine, where Khadijah James (Latifah) was editor, and the New York apartment Khadijah shared with roommates Synclaire (Kim Coles) and Regine (Kim Fields). There were frequent drop-ins by Khadijah's friend Maxine (Erika Alexander) and the duo of bickering best-friends from the apartment upstairs Kyle (Terrence T.C. Carson) and Overton (John Henton). From that formulaic setup came the good-natured storylines that allowed for plenty of Friends-like repartee (although Friends didn't premiere until the next year). It was also a little Seineld-like (which was just hitting stride in 1993), except that Living Single did not adhere to Seinfeld's "no hugging, no learning" policy. In episodes with titles like "Crappy Birthday," "Whose Date Is It Anyway," "Fatal Distraction," and "A Tale of Two Tattles," Khadijah and company engaged in familiar sitcom ensemble wise-cracking, back-stabbing, name-calling, and grudge-holding that elicited plenty of "WOOOOO!" responses from the studio audience, but everyone always went back to being supportive pals for the denouements. The series made it clear that Latifah was a charismatic and charmingly telegenic personality who had no problem sharing screen time with her co-stars. The bickering is most fun in episodes heavy on scenes between the gossip queen Regine and the upscale, quick-witted lawyer Maxine. The Ralph Kramden/Ed Norton dynamic between Overton and Kyle also makes for lively sitcom chemistry. There's no episode commentary on this first season, 27-episode four-disc set. The only extra is a 13-minute documentary, "How Ya Livin'? Season one of Living Single," which features new interviews with series creator Yvette Lee Bowser and some of the cast members (but not Queen Latifah). --Ted Fry