VirginiaHamilton

Who's biracial?

The morally corrupt Faye Resnick is either a biracial Black woman or the product of 2 black parents (as I initial said/thought).

I've only seen a small photo of her pre-bleached self, so I can't agree or disagree. What I do know is that I was shocked as sh!t to find out that she was, in fact, Black because she sure fooled me during the OJ trial.

Thanks for the background on the whole James Cleveland mess...

As for this past episode, I'm mad that the Midnight Star episode hadn't made a reference to Curious, as I do love that song. That said, I had no idea that the guys that sang "I Wanna Be Rich" were in Midnight Star (for some reason, I thought they were affiliated with Timex Social Club/Foster & McElroy/Club Nouveau). Good to know.

Can't wait for the EPMD episode, as I hope that they address the full details of their breakup (as well as Erick Sermon's [alleged] suicide attempt).

Poor Faye - all that skin-bleaching and denial of Blackness for acceptance in Beverly Hills society, only to get clowned on national TV by Grande Dame, Lisa Vanderpump.

How dreadful.

I actually think that Sherry would've been a better choice to launch a fitness video (if she had any inclination to put in actual work into building some sort of HW-influenced career instead of chasing after her cockeyed ex for child support checks). Say what you will about her ways, but her body was always on-point.

Not sure if this was posted yet:

Dina Manzo is splitting from her husband of seven years, Tommy Manzo, she confirmed Saturday.

"My secret ... I have been separated since October," the reality star, who appeared on Bravo's Real Housewives of New Jersey before moving on to her own show, Dina's Party on HGTV,Tweeted. "My heart hurts but Tommy and I will always share a very special love."

Dina, 41, and her sister Caroline, who also appeared on the show, were married to brothers Tommy and Albert Manzo, owners of N.J.'s Brownstone event hall. Dina's million-dollar wedding was documented for VH1's My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding, but Tommy never appeared on Housewives, and Dina has alluded to her husband's aversion to the media.

On Twitter, Dina thanked friends for their support. "I'm so grateful for the support of my loved ones during this time, especially my spiritual friends. You know who you are. And of course, my biggest supporter Lexi (her daughter from a previous marriage). Tommy adores her and they will remain close."

An EW article from 1991:

As 'A Different World' Turns

The evolution of ''A Different World'' -- How Debbie Allen, Jasmine Guy, and Kadeem Hardison brought new life to the ''Cosby Show'' spin-off

By Mark Harris | Apr 12, 1991

Jasmine Guy veers across the set of NBC's A Different World like a car about to spin off a racetrack, and everyone else stands clear. Guy is having a monster tantrum, bellowing, ''I'm Big Sister Gorgeous One! I'm Big Sister Gorgeous One! I am Big Sister Gorgeous One!'' to every flinching colleague within earshot.

''Nice,'' says actor-director Glynn Turman. As the scene ends, Guy, a petite, gregarious whirlwind who can shrug out of her performance as steel magnolia Whitley Gilbert in a second, assumes her human-scale off-camera persona. Chuckles erupt from crew members, their bellies shaking over their tool belts. Guy wheels and she's suddenly transformed back into leather-lunged Whitley. ''Hey!'' she yells. ''Save your laughter for the show.''

She doesn't have to worry. Something funny has been happening on A Different World, which is more than anyone who remembers the show's resolutely laughless first season might have expected. Conceived as a spin-off from NBC's The Cosby Show, the new series was to take teenager Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) from Brooklyn to a new life at Hillman, a black college in the South. Despite that pedigree, World began its run in 1987 as an ugly duckling sheltered only by the wide wing of creator Bill Cosby. Though its post-Cosby time slot guaranteed high ratings (the show was No. 2 its first year),World's on-screen dreariness and backstage chaos were public embarrassments for NBC, Cosby, and executive producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner (The Cosby Show, Roseanne).

Three years later, however, viewers are seeing a truly different World: an ensemble comedy about black college life that's brightly acted, politically and socially attuned, idiosyncratic, and yes, even funny. This season, the series has silenced those who claimed it was only a coattail ratings success by passing The Cosby Show in the Nielsens (broadcast at 8:30 Thursdays, World ranks fifth, while Cosby has dropped to seventh). And, in a development that's even more surprising, black artists behind and on-camera have assumed control of the series and helped it gain respect as well as viewers.

But even on this Monday morning in late March, as the cast and crew gather on a Studio City soundstage to rehearse a spring episode, they admit that a long shadow is cast by that first season, which drew one of the most concentrated doses of critical vituperation ever to greet an instant ratings hit. ''A stiff,'' snapped one review. ''Bland and unfunny,'' said another. ''Awful.'' ''Calamitously drab.'' ''A big yawn.''

The verdict from those on the show was almost as harsh. ''We tried to follow the Cosby model: Pretend it's timeless. Make no references to current events. Make no references to race,'' says Susan Fales, a first-season staff writer who now serves as co-executive producer. ''And we were under orders from NBC to stay away from anything academic — they felt that was alienating. So we had a show about a black college that wasn't about college and couldn't be black.''

''It was a nightmare,'' says Dawnn Lewis, the indestructible actress whose character, Hillman alumna Jaleesa Vinson, is the only one to have survived all of World's regimes since the pilot. ''I've never seen so many people come and go.''

The gaffes were innumerable. A white roommate for Denise appeared without explanation. The sets and costumes looked musty and anachronistic. And Bonet proved hollow as the center of a sitcom. (''She's taken a lot of blame,'' says Fales, ''but the character was far more at fault. Denise was not very interesting, and we were asked to make her into Mary Tyler Moore or Tinkerbell, always bringing everyone together. We couldn't.'')

''The show took a particularly long time to find its way,'' says Carsey. A couple of changes worked well: The now-integral characters of Whitley and Dwayne Wayne (Jasmine Guy and Kadeem Hardison) were created after the pilot and frantically spliced into already-completed episodes. But misery ruled. ''There was an Alexander Haig complex,'' says Darryl M. Bell, who plays student and self-described ''campus tramp'' Ron Johnson. ''Everybody wanted to be the boss.''

''Coming from Broadway certainly gave me no credibility,'' says Guy. ''The attitude was 'Well, you don't know sitcoms.' Even if we dared to suggest something wasn't funny or realistic, it was discounted. And people we worked with one week were gone the next. It was very tense and frightening.''

When Bonet became pregnant at the end of the first season, World faced another crisis. ''We'd never even written her a boyfriend,'' recalls Fales. Rather than contend with an unwanted plot twist, the producers wrote her out.

After exhausting the talents of a series of sitcom fixers who came and went, Carsey and Werner knew the show needed a savior, and they found one. Bell glances at Guy and costar Charnele Brown (who plays premed student Kim Reese) as they sit around a table on the set of the Pit, the Hillman College cafeteria. ''You want to know why we're working?'' he says. ''We can say it together.'' The actors nod.

''Debbie Allen.''

'Ahhhh-HEMPHHH,'' says Debbie Allen, striding across a Hollywood rehearsal hall where she has taken a week off from directing and producing A Different World to choreograph the Oscar telecast (including a number showing off Guy). Barely 5-foot-2, even in a Davy Crockett cap, Allen doesn't look the part of a commander-in-chief, but she's one of the few people who can bring 28 dancers to attention by clearing her throat. ''Get in costume,'' she barks, whacking a jockstrap-clad dancer preparing to play a teddy bear in aHome Alone production number. ''let's get moving!''

''I'm aggressive,'' she admits, straddling a chair during a break. ''I can move people around and make them do what they should be doing. See? We laugh, but we work.'' Allen had won a Tony nomination for acting in the 1980 revival of West Side Story and collected Emmys for choreographing TV's Fame, where she also directed 11 episodes, when she arrived on the set of A Different World in 1988. ''I saw a show that had a lot of talent,'' she says, ''but was mindless, and being run in a dictatorial way.''

Allen had more than leadership to offer; as a 1971 Howard University graduate, she had firsthand experience at a black college. ''This show had waitresses in the school cafeteria,'' she moans, shaking her head. ''I said, 'Honey, what is this waitress [!@#$%^&*]? At this school you stand in line and you clear your own place.' '' Quickly, the writing staff was dispatched to Atlanta's predominantly black Spelman and Morehouse colleges. ''She insisted we look out into the world,'' says Fales. ''It's appalling that we were allowed to write about black colleges without having [done research]. There's a spirit of family, intimacy, and mission that we didn't know about.''

Allen made her influence felt in every corner. She had the Pit set redesigned to look more realistic, making the kitchen and its workers more visible. She oversaw new costumes to replace the rah-rah cheerleader look. She instituted a daily morning workout for the cast. ''I made them do some sit-ups and stretches. I put them through those paces because I wanted to make them an ensemble company, working together.'' Then she assembled the writers and actors.

''She said, 'Now this is what's going to happen — we're going to have a read-through, and then we're going to talk,''' remembers Hardison. ''We had spent a year doing what we were told, and now someone was listening to us.''

''Lines of communication opened,'' says Guy. ''For the first time, we saw how far this show could go. Debbie never stopped. I remember her saying, 'This is a Southern school — I want to see some grits in the Pit.'''

But Allen brought more than grits to A Different World: She brought grit. ''Debbie broke the Cosbyumbilical cord by saying, 'We've got to be topical,''' says Fales. And unlike most sitcoms, which falter in ''issue'' shows, World has thrived by diving into controversy. In recent months, the series has addressed date rape, apartheid (in an episode about corporate investment in South Africa), and religion (by exploring a student's decision to become a Muslim). This season, World has traced an interracial romance, and it's hard to imagine another TV comedy including a scene like the one in which Kim was belittled by a black friend for dating a white man. This month Whoopi Goldberg plays a professor in an AIDS episode. (''I fought for a year to get that done,'' Allen recounts, ''and finally said, 'If we don't do this, one day we'll look up and The Simpsons will have done it.'")

In January World became the first sitcom to address the Persian Gulf crisis, in a hard-edged episode about a black Army reservist (Blair Underwood) that was cowritten by Guy. When the soldier asked angrily if he was fighting for oil, the studio audience applauded. The show's supervisors insisted on a retake. ''They said [the clapping] was too political,'' says Cree Summer, who plays unreconstructed flower child Freddie Brooks. ''But we were so happy, so high from that.'' So were the ratings; more than 30 million viewers tuned in to give the show one of its biggest audiences of the season. ''All I did was set those actors free,'' says Allen. ''I gave them their show.''

Under Allen's guidance, A Different World has become steeped in black culture. It's evident in set details, from the ''Support Black Colleges'' poster in the Pit to an announcement taped to Whitley's refrigerator heralding the National Council of Negro Women's 1990 Black Family Reunion Celebration. Viewers can hear it as well in references to everyone from Aretha Franklin to Zina Garrison, made without elaboration. ''We don't have to explain everything,'' Guy says. ''If viewers don't understand something we say, they'll survive without having it spelled out. So what if we're not universal? All in the Family was about blue-collar WASPs in Queens. This show is about a specific culture too.'' Rarest of all, the show numbers more blacks (and, not incidentally, women) among its producers, directors, writers, and crew than does any other prime-time series.

This week, Allen is missed on the set. ''We moan and groan about the workout,'' says Guy, ''but we love it.'' So it's a less limber cast that prepares to rehearse a recent episode, in which a power-crazed Whitley becomes an ogress to her sorority pledges. In a corner of the Pit, actor Glynn Turman (Colonel Taylor, the campus ROTC commander), who's taking a turn as director, confers with Guy. Then she sits down to read her line. ''How refreshingly plump of you,'' Whitley says to Kim. Guy looks at her script and covers her mouth, mortified. ''How refreshingly prompt of you.'' The actors howl.

''We dog each other,'' says comedian Sinbad, 34, who plays counselor Walter Oakes. ''We look for anything. Don't say something stupid, don't blow your lines, don't wear your clothes too tight, because we'll wear you out.''

Guy laughs. ''I hate doing scenes with Darryl and Kadeem, because if I forget a line, they know all my tricks. They twist their hands, which means, 'Whitley's going through her Rolodex of lines,' and I lose it.''

She doesn't lose it often; since her debut, Guy has become a breakout star, complete with a burgeoning recording career and growing demands for her talent. ''We needed a bitch,'' Fales recalls of the decision to create Whitley as a haughty prima donna. ''But after the first season, we had to humanize her — nobody's an !@#$%^&*] for no reason and without interruption.''

But viewers didn't mind; they loved her. With an accent and intonation borrowed from her third-grade Atlanta schoolteacher, Mrs. Pinkard, Guy made Whitley into a quick crowd pleaser. ''I found a walk, too,'' she says of her character's prim yet sashaying gait. ''For some reason, I knew her physically. I just stepped into her.''

''She exploded,'' says Bell. ''She was a mushroom cloud. She could take a line as simple as 'That's what you think!' and make it funny.'' And when snobby Whitley fell in love last season with Hardison's nerd-turned-hero Dwayne, he of the distinctive flip-top eyeglasses, the couple ignited one of TV's most popular will-they-or-won't-they romances.

The next morning, as the two rehearse, story editor Glenn Berenbeim watches from behind a camera. ''I love them together,'' whispers the writer, who will draft a season-ending cliff-hanger involving the couple. ''They work so smoothly.''

''We get constant letters about Dwayne and Whitley,'' Fales says. ''The audience really roots for them.''

And at World's tapings, it's not just an audience — it's an awwwwwdience, an oooooohdience, and an uh-oh!dience that's relentlessly vocal. ''It's hard to do those mushy Dwayne-Whitley love scenes — you know, 'Dwayne, ah luuuve you!''' says Guy. ''They go crazy! I can't take it! I have to make a serious face at Kadeem until they calm down. The last show we did, there were just too many ooohs.''

''Those are real people making those sounds,'' adds Hardison. ''Can you believe it? I look at her and crack up.''

Sometimes, though, the laughter stops. Scratch the actors, and they bleed resentment at an industry that they feel still views the show as a malformed appendage of Cosby — and sees its appeal to a black audience as a limitation. A Different World has never been nominated for a major Emmy (although, tellingly, it sweeps NAACP's Image Awards), and the actors are blunt about what they see as show-biz disenfranchisement. ''[After Family Ties] Michael J. Fox got a movie deal!'' Sinbad roars, as his costars nod silently. ''[After Magnum P.I.] Tom Selleck got a movie deal! We're in the top five, and eight years from now, where are we gonna be? On the cover of Jet magazine in 'Whatever Happened to Them?'''

But others emphasize the reward of working on a show that's evolved from embarrassment to barrier breaker. ''The week Diahann Carroll was on, she called the cast together,'' Bell says. ''She told us how special we were — in all her years in the business, she had never worked with an all-black ensemble or been directed by a black woman. She said she was proud of us.''

Summer says the actors also thrive on public response. ''Do you know how many black people, not to say white people, had never heard of black colleges?'' she asks. ''I got one letter that said, 'I want to go to Hillman College.' I had to write the poor brother back and say, 'There are places you can go, but you can't come to Hillman unless you audition.'''

As World reaches year five, it's about to face another turning point: The show's mainstays are reaching graduation age. ''There are several ways of keeping them on or near campus,'' says Carsey, who notes that Dwayne is headed for graduate school. Adds Werner: ''I think we need to find a couple of talented actors who could play freshmen or sophomores. With the right people, this show could last a long time.''

''I have to keep a big foot in A Different World no matter what I'm doing,'' says Allen, who will star in her own NBC comedy next year. ''I'm the mama. It belongs to me now. None of us has a contract yet, but I'm already thinking, 'Where do I take the character of Whitley?'''

And the actors have ideas about one big topic: Dwayne and Whitley must consummate their relationship. ''We'll handle it carefully because it's such a big deal now,'' Guy says of the show that will mark her character's first sexual experience. ''Yes, her first. I don't know when this virgin thing started,'' she grumbles cheerfully. ''In my audition, Whitley was hot. Then suddenly her sexuality went out the window. If you see it, slam it up against the wall and bring it back here.''

''Dwayne is so upstanding,'' says Hardison disbelievingly. ''I try to loosen him up a little bit, but I don't think it's gonna happen.''

''He's a wimp,'' says Summer, poking Hardison in the ribs.

After rehearsal, the cast breaks for lunch. Hardison strolls up to the buffet and slings his arm around Turman. ''How's the directing going, champ?'' he says. ''You're doin' great, stompin' the [!@#$%^&*] out of it.'' Talk shifts to South Africa, to summer vacation, to Mike Tyson. And Debbie Allen turns out to be on the set after all, though only in spirit. In a corner of the cast's pantry, on a black drop cloth, someone has tacked up her picture. Around it are photos and clippings that testify to World's increasing respectability and to the cast's other pursuits and ambitions. And above it is a slogan that has been there long enough to be yellowing now: ''You reap what you sow.'' With that marching order, the cast goes back to work.

Jasmine Guy Whitley Gilbert
Age: 26
Birthplace: Boston (but she grew up in Atlanta)
Previous occupation: Broadway actress (Leader of the Pack, The Wiz)
Extra credits: Her first album, Jasmine Guy, was released last fall; she had a showy role in Eddie Murphy's Harlem Nights.
On her singing/acting career: DARRYL M. BELL: ''She has a twin. There's two Jasmines. It'll be announced soon.''
GUY: ''And she's prettier than I am, so when I get tired, I send her out.''
BELL: ''One of them is the intellectual, and the other is the performer.''
GUY: ''Yeah. She can sing her ass off, but is she stupid!''

Kadeem Hardison Dwayne Wayne
Age: 25
Birthplace: Brooklyn
Previous occupation: Bicycle messenger in New York City
Extra credits: School Daze, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Go Tell It on the Mountain for PBS, and frequent visits to The Arsenio Hall Show
On his character, Dwayne: ''He started out a little nerdy, but he's become a [groans] fine, upstanding young man everybody loves because his morals are so good. Next season, maybe he'll start doing cocaine and playing with prostitutes — no, no, no. I mean, I know he's important. Sometimes it shocks me. Grandmothers come up to me on the street and tell me how much they love him.''

Debbie Allen Director
Age: 41
Birthplace: Houston
Previous occupation: Played a teacher on the syndicated series Fame
Extra credits: Choreographing (the Oscars), directing pilots (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), acting (in next season's NBC sitcom Sunday in Paris), cooking pasta (for the World cast), mothering (she and ex-basketball star Norm Nixon are the parents of Vivian, 6, and Norman Jr., 3)
Cosby connection: She's the sister of Phylicia Rashad, matriarch of The Cosby Show's Huxtable clan.
On her actors: ''Not just because dance is my background, I believe that the best actors are physical — people who come to work warmed up, ready to go, not just eating a doughnut and drinking coffee. I don't know where they were the night before and I don't care. The work is the work.''

Camille needs to rejoin

^5

May not be true considering the source... NYC Cast Revealed

http://www.examiner.com/article/season-6-cast-of-the-real-housewives-of-new-york-city-finally-confirmed

In what cartoon world is Jill a "fan favorite"?

So, I decided to look up that scene of Holly finding Ross and Blake together and wanted to know - was Holly right for being mad at those two for getting together behind her back? Or did she need to sit her ass down and get over it?

From how that scene played, it could be taken as either Holly overreacting over a man that wasn't even hers (as JVD played it), Ross being a callous assh0le for sleeping with the daughter of the woman that he was seeing (as MG was playing it), or Blake tiring of her mother's selfish and overdramatic behavior and standing up for herself (as SS played it).

Last year was the interview with Bobbi Kristina, Gary, and Pat. Cissy didn't do an interview with them then.

Thanks for clarifying.

I'm late to the ATL party, but I'm more than ready for the pet gays (that'd be Derek J and Lawrence) to go now. Their original 'benefactors', Sherry and Wig, have moved on so there's no real reason for them to be on the show.

I'd rather she didn't, as I thought that she said all that she needed to say in her eulogy in Esquire (or was it their website?).

Yeah, *allegedly*, Rev. had inappropriate contact with Preston and even Sylvester in their youth (though JC isn't the original offender alluded to in Sylvester's Unsung, that was a clergyman at his boyhood Bay area church). Preston grew up to face his own charges of molestation and ended up doing time for them.

Apparently, JC had lots of "nieces" and "nephews" that he looked out for financially. Of course we don't know the true nature of all of those relationships, but nonetheless, a lot of them were living up under him and happy to spend his money. He did have one biological daughter and my heart goes out to her because I'm sure it was hell hearing all of that stuff about your own father and living in a home where God knows what was going on.

I suppose you all read the article(s) about Christopher Harris, one of JC's adopted (or "adopted"?) sons who sued JC's estate, claiming JC knowingly infected him with HIV. What a mess.

A nephew of one of The Caravans wrote a scathing tell all with lurid details of lesbian sex, alcoholism, and related scandal. But he has his share of critics, to put it mildly.

At any rate, I find myself so conflicted because I love JC's music. Like, LOVE.

Do you know if the Sylvester's church's clergyman had any connection to Rev. Cleveland? Or was the (alleged) nature of Sylvester's relationship with both merely coincidental?

The whole Billy Preston story saddened me precisely because he wasn't able to truly recognize and conquer those demons that he'd acted out in self-destructive and abusive behavior.

I was under the impression that the Reverend only had "nephews"/"sons". Have his "nieces" ever spoken out about any (alleged) abuse? Furthermore, is his daughter still affiliated with (what's left) of his congregation?

Whatever happened to that case with Christopher Harris, anyway? I know it was written sometime in the (mid?) 90s, so I don't know how it was resolved in court (if it even got there).

The more I read (though I confess that I can't put faces to many names since I'm really out of the loop when it comes to gospel acts - past and present), the more I'm starting to agree with CH about a doc/factional biopic about this needing to happen.

James Cleveland! Wow! You guys prompted me to read up on him, and I feel like bathing right now (good thing I am about to get ready for work because I need a shower stat!). What a vile piece of garbage and hiding behind gospel too?

I would love to see a biopic on this guy! Time for Unsung to challenge themselves and take on this particular "Unsung"!

The whole (alleged) sordid, yet tragic, story made me livid and heartbroken at the same time, CH. I'm not sure what was worse - Rev. Cleveland's (alleged) self-hatred manifesting into a continuing cycle of (alleged) abuse that was (allegedly) passed on down to another generation or the fact that damn near everyone in his congregation (allegedly) chose to turn a blind eye to it all.

Was it a new episode? For some reason, I thought that they were rerunning an earlier episode from last year or before. If it is new, then I'll catch it at some point.

Re: Cissy's aversion to Whitney's (alleged) homosexuality. I can't say that I'm surprised that she'd say that, as she never struck me as the kind of woman that'd have a live and let live outlook when it came to this. I'm not sure how I feel about the claim (as per what I'd read in the Jezebel comment section) that she had a long history of being homophobic, though....

I found the stuff about her mom, Josephine Howard from The Caravans the most interesting. Almost every member of that group dodged gay rumors for decades. Well, James Cleveland didn't exactly dodge them. He is by no means "UnSung", he's the King of Gospel and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but damn, what I wouldn't give to see a program on him where people were willing to speak on camera about all the scandal that surrounded him.

Re: the Miki Howard episode - it just seemed as if that tidbit dropped from the sky and never expounded upon ("Oh, my mother was a gospel singer who just happened to be a lesbian...so, then after that, I moved to LA") and it was odd.

Admittedly, I know the bare minimum about gospel and even less about the behind-the-scenes gossip, so I was pretty surprised to hear that gospel singers had to contend with rumors about their sexuality just like secular singers. Hearing that every member of the group that Miki's mother was a part of dodging gay rumors adds a whole other dimension to that tidbit that I wished were explored in some capacity via some form of media (whether it'd be TV, print, or online).

As for James Cleveland, all I know of him was that he was a gospel singer/pastor who'd molested plenty of young boys/men for decades and (allegedly) died of AIDS (though barely anyone in the gospel industry/church wants to touch that with a ten-foot pole). I also read on another message board that Billy Preston's Unsung touched on it (without naming him) when they'd mentioned that he'd been abused by an elder statesman in the church as a boy, though I'm not sure if this is baseless speculation or an unspoken fact.

From Jezebel:

It's been nearly a year since Whitney Houston was found dead—after drowning in a hotel bathtub from the effects of chronic cocaine use and heart disease—and now Cissy Houston is sharing the intimate details of her daughter's life, both good and bad, in her new book Remembering Whitney. More than anything, Cissy comes across not as a grieving mother, but as a cranky old lady who hates everything.

The book starts out with Cissy being annoyed that someone rang her doorbell while she was busy inside her apartment, which really sets the tone for the book and gets the reader acquainted with the real Cissy and how she truly feels about things. Here, we present the best quotes from her book.

On marijuana:

I never could stand the smell of marijuana and didn't want to be around it.

On her children and their generosity with the neighborhood kids:

They were sometimes a little too friendly for my taste…Mommy works hard. I don't mind you sharing, but let's not get crazy about this, you know?

On teaching a grade school-aged Whitney, whom she called Nippy, about bullies:

"Sometimes you have to just tell people to kiss your ass and keep on walking." I tried to explain that to her, but she'd just say, "Mommy you don't like anybody."

On being a stage mother:

Nippy thought I was hard on her, too, but really it was just that I wouldn't let her relax and get lazy. "You gotta represent!"

On Japan:

Nippy loved Japan, even though she couldn't understand what anybody was saying and they couldn't understand her.

On Whitney pretending to be from the projects:

Trying to be like the other girls in East Orange, she started bragging about being from the projects, or "the bricks"-a habit that drove me crazy, especially since John and I had fought so hard to give our kids a solid middle-class upbringing.

"What bricks?" I'd snap. "You ain't never lived in no damn projects! You ain't from no bricks. You're gonna get a brick upside your head."

On drugs:

I grew up in a time when young people would drink liquor if they wanted to get high.

On Robyn Crawford, Whitney's lifelong friend:

I had a bad feeling about that child from the first time I saw her. There was something about the way she carried herself, a kind of arrogance, that I didn't like. Though she was a pretty girl, in my opinion Robyn wasn't as bright as Nippy. She also seemed abrasive and unapologetic about that…As I would later learn, she was also gay, although that had nothing to do with why I didn't like her.

On whether or not Robyn and Whitney were lovers, as they were rumored to be:

I knew I didn't want Robyn around my daughter, and I told Nippy that. There wasn't much I could do, though. Nippy liked Robyn, and she was past the age when I could forbid her from seeing someone. Kids have a mind of their own-when they get older, they want to experiment with all kinds of things. I know there has been a lot of speculation over the years about the friendship between Nippy and Robyn and whether it was more than that. I don't honestly know what exactly when on between them, back when they first met or later on. Nippy never shared details of her personal life with me about things like that, but I do know that NIppy and Robyn cared a lot about each other.

On the bullshit rumor that Aretha Franklin was Whitney's godmother:

I would tease Ree about supposedly being Nippy's godmother-a story that started years before, when I was touring with her and she came over to our house on Dodd Street. Nippy was so impressed with Aretha that she started telling all her friends she was her godmother and the story stuck because Ree never denied it. Eventually, reporters picked it up and everybody assumed it was true. And Nippy never did stop telling people that.

Speaking to Whitney's first stylist:

"You can put all that crap right back…I don't know who you got that for, but Whitney is not wearing it. She is not shaking no butt, showing no skin, nothing like that."

On Whitney grinding her teeth:

I can't get any sleep with that noise!

On Bobby Brown:

Supposedly he even got shot once at a block party, which didn't impress me very much.

On her ex-husband remarrying:

Now, John was a Virgo, so he wasn't above trying to hurt people.

On "I Will Always Love You" being called Whitney's best song:

Well, I didn't know about that. Nippy's rendition of "Greatest Love of All" was one of the most beautiful songs she ever recorded, as far as I was concerned, and it had become her signature song.

On "Humpin' Around":

Now, I knew Bobby had some success as a singer. I knew his group New Edition was popular, and that kids seemed to think he was cool. But I really didn't care for his music. And I especially didn't understand the appeal of his big hit song at the time, something called 'Humpin' Around.' It may have been successful, but I couldn't stand that song or the video he made to promote it, where he was dancing and fooling around with a bunch of women on camera.

On Bobbi Kristina's birth:

They Named her Bobbi Kristina-which wasa a hell of a lot better than what they'd initially chosen for her. A few days earlier, when I had asked Bobby and Nippy what they were naming the baby, Bobby said some kind of crazy name I couldn't even pronounce-Tekatia, or Takeka, or some mess like that.

"Oh no, That is not happening. You can't do that to that poor child! Just name her Christina or something, some nice name like that."

On Nelson Mandela:

I'll tell you something, Nelson Mandela is an impressive man.

On Whitney's infamous "Crack is Wack" Diane Sawyer interview:

I hated that whole interview, and while I know it wasn't Diane's fault, it was obvious that Nippy wasn't ready for prime time, you know?

On Being Bobby Brown:

I only watched part of one episode. That was all I could stand…She was such a mess.

On the mess in Whitney's Atlanta mansion, the day Cissy showed up with two sheriff's deputies to take her to rehab:

Somebody had been spray-painting the walls and doors, painting big glaring eyes and strange faces. They were evil eyes, staring out like a threat. Who would do such a thing? It just seemed crazy, having these strange images painted right on the walls all through the house.

Considering that I only know 3 songs of theirs (Slow Jams, No Parking on the Dance Floor, and Curious), it'll be interesting to learn about them.

I still don't consider Isaac Hayes to be an 'Unsung' artist, but I nevertheless enjoyed his episode.

The weirdest Unsung episode that I've seen is Miki Howard's. I'm not sure if it was because of her obvious crackish demeanor or the haphazard way that they told her story (with gaping holes in between), but something was definitely off about that one.

You have to understand that Cosby wanted to maintain a very wholesome image for TCS and he wanted the show well represented by the actors/performers, especially since the show was the first in a long time, if ever, to introduce a successful black family with values. LB's porn debut was the total opposite of that goal. That was not art, and I understand wny BC had a problem with it. Perhaps LB was rebelling, but she picked a sucky time to do it.

Was there ever a good time for her to rebel?

On one hand, I completely understand where Dr. Cosby was coming from, yet I definitely take issue with him trying to police her sexuality (by punishing her for getting pregnant by her new husband - and yes, I'm aware that Romeo Blue hadn't become the Lenny Kravitz yet) as well.

On another note, I've read some Denise haters state that it'd have preferable if Theo were the Huxtable kid that they centered ADW around. I'm not sure how I feel about that (again, because of my affection for Denise, as well as my satisfaction with how Theo's story ended on The Cosby Show with him graduating with honors from NYU).

It was on ADW. I liked the episode where Claire and Vanessa went to Hillman and Vanessa and her friend got dates with Ron and Dwayne lmao

ETA: Just thought about that fine ass man Whitley dated in Season 3. Julian? Boy I used to have a crush on him

Last time I saw Dominic Hoffman was on an episode of PC way back when. I have no idea if he's still acting...

Ah, Vanessa's silly ass shenanigans with her equally silly friends. That was a funny episode, though nothing tops Big Fun in Baltimore (from The Cosby Show) in my heart.

remind me again who that is

Its a damn shame she was dimissed and never was brought back to the show. I hated how Cosby handled LB. I did like that Dwayne and Whitley at least got to reunite with her a few years later in that one episode. Cant even recall if it was on The Cosby Show or A Different World

Randall was the guy that used to make snarky comments in class (mostly directed at Freddie, though sometimes at Whitley)...

That Denise reunion was on A Different World. I liked the fact that they allowed Dwayne to say goodbye to her while putting his crush on her to bed.

Bill Cosby vs. Lisa Bonet is a whole other can of worms, though I'm honestly trying to figure whether it was truly impossible to keep her on for Season 2 (while she was pregnant with Zoe) of the show or if they could've tried (albeit with potted plants) to hide her pregnancy (since I know that he would've never entertained the thought of writing in an unwed college student - especially if she were a Huxtable).

Yep, her name was Maggie Laughton (sp?).

As for S1's flaw, there was no indication that this was the HBCU that Dr. and Mrs. Huxtable talked up on The Cosby Show. Denise's college years could've taken place at Random-University USA, though I do think that it was a shame that she* didn't get to reap the benefits of Debbie Allen's vast improvements to the show like the rest of her castmates did.

*I've always have a soft spot for Denise Huxtable, as she was my favorite Cosby kid.

Speaking of recurring characters, I always had a special place in my heart for the sarcastic Randall.

I wonder if Lisa Bonet and Marisa Tomei would ever do a cameo appearance? Not to stay, just an episode. It's always kind of cool that Tomei's character Maggie went to a (fictional) HBCU before it became a headline on Oprah.

In spite of this show being connected to Bill Cosby, I see Lisa Bonet making a cameo appearance - after all, she did pop up for the Nick @ Nite 'class reunion' a few years back. Marisa Tomei, not so much, considering that they'd fired her - though she could surprise me.

Can we bring Millie along, too?

*ducking rotten tomatoes*

you can't have ADW without Whitley