4 hours ago, Vee said:

Very happy to finally see Jaleesa again. I never liked her disappearing, even though I believe it was because Dawnn got Mr. Cooper.

It was.

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Now please have her split up from the Colonel as I never believed that marriage.

Neither did I. To me, it felt like one of those out-of-left-field creative moves to give Jaleesa and Colonel Taylor more story. Unfortunately, I think the marriage and the baby just diminished Jalessa even further, which was likely what prompted Dawnn Lewis to jump ship for "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper."

4 minutes ago, Khan said:

It was.

Neither did I. To me, it felt like one of those out-of-left-field creative moves to give Jaleesa and Colonel Taylor more story. Unfortunately, I think the marriage and the baby just diminished Jalessa even further, which was likely what prompted Dawnn Lewis to jump ship for "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper."

It absolutely did. I can understand that the show had been moving away from Jaleesa more and more each season, even with the Sinbad relationship. I wouldn't have wanted them to just write her out but the method they chose was almost worse. Where can you go from there? They weren't going to be having a Taylor Time spinoff. And I don't remember much of any buildup. It made as much sense as if she'd married Mr. Gaines. That actually could have given her more storyline...

3 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

And I don't remember much of any buildup.

Yeah, IIRC, they just popped up on the season premiere and were like, "Yeah, we happened to be vacay'ing at the same place during the summer, and next thing we knew, we's married now!"

Honestly, it sounded like one of those rash decisions you make when you've had too many of those drinks with the paper umbrellas in them. Even Anthony's wacky, spur-of-the-moment Vegas wedding to Sheryl Lee Ralph on "Designing Women" got more buildup, lol!

Edited yesterday at 04:57 AM1 day by Khan

I’m kind of most interested in seeing what they do with Freddie in her guest appearance - is she the more polished lawyer (in training at that point) from the last season, or more so in line with Cree’s irreverent, free-spirited real life persona (she’s f.ucking hilarious in interviews to this day).

The more I think back on it, they had really run out of ideas for the longtime characters by season 6 and the new characters weren’t all that good or interesting. The premise of the show could always live on, but they didn’t have the characters to support that type of reinvention back then (nor was NBC interested when ratings started to decline sharply).

Edited yesterday at 01:20 PM1 day by BetterForgotten

On 2/26/2026 at 2:15 PM, dragonflies said:

Ooooo YES!!!! Super excited for both. And really excited to hear about Jalessa.

2 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

The more I think back on it, they had really run out of ideas for the longtime characters by season 6 and the new characters weren’t all that good or interesting.

I definitely agree that the new characters weren't as interesting as the original ones. Gina, Lena and Charmaine were okay, but Dorian and Terrell were dullsville, lol.

If I had been Debbie Allen or Susan Fales-Hill, I might've mixed it up a little, maybe even return to the original premise of a Caucasian student attending an HBCU. (Perhaps, a "bubba" from the deep South, who's had limited exposure to African-Americans, and whose roommate is a Black kid from some place like Camden, NJ). Or maybe even introduce an LGBTQ character into the mix (although, knowing Bill Cosby, he probably would've nipped that one in the bud right away).

2 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

I’m kind of most interested in seeing what they do with Freddie in her guest appearance - is she the more polished lawyer (in training at that point) from the last season, or more so in line with Cree’s irreverent, free-spirited real life persona (she’s f.ucking hilarious in interviews to this day).

I think Freddie should come back as a federal judge.

Edited 23 hours ago23 hr by Khan

11 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I can understand that the show had been moving away from Jaleesa more and more each season, even with the Sinbad relationship. I wouldn't have wanted them to just write her out but the method they chose was almost worse. Where can you go from there?

They could have made Jaleesa an academic advisor at Hillman. Instead, they had her start an employment agency, which presented the problem of islanding her even further from campus life.

17 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

I’m kind of most interested in seeing what they do with Freddie in her guest appearance - is she the more polished lawyer (in training at that point) from the last season, or more so in line with Cree’s irreverent, free-spirited real life persona (she’s f.ucking hilarious in interviews to this day).

The more I think back on it, they had really run out of ideas for the longtime characters by season 6 and the new characters weren’t all that good or interesting. The premise of the show could always live on, but they didn’t have the characters to support that type of reinvention back then (nor was NBC interested when ratings started to decline sharply).

14 hours ago, Khan said:

I definitely agree that the new characters weren't as interesting as the original ones. Gina, Lena and Charmaine were okay, but Dorian and Terrell were dullsville, lol.

If I had been Debbie Allen or Susan Fales-Hill, I might've mixed it up a little, maybe even return to the original premise of a Caucasian student attending an HBCU. (Perhaps, a "bubba" from the deep South, who's had limited exposure to African-Americans, and whose roommate is a Black kid from some place like Camden, NJ). Or maybe even introduce an LGBTQ character into the mix (although, knowing Bill Cosby, he probably would've nipped that one in the bud right away).

I think Freddie should come back as a federal judge.

The last season seems much harder-edged and honest than most of the seasons before it, in the way the characters talk to each other and behave. This worked for some (Freddie and Ron), not as much for others (Dwayne, Whitley). I agree that Lena was one of the only new characters worth remembering (I still think that was Jada Pinkett's best work), although I also liked Charmaine.

Sometimes I wonder what the last season would have been like if Cousin Pam had joined.

The season also gives the sense that Debbie and Susan knew the show was done so wanted to be less safe (the season before had started to curdle in the old format - I found Freddie to be just about unwatchable). I still think they could have told a white or lgbt character to add to the volatile dynamics.

TCS was already running out of steam when she joined, but I generally found Cousin Pam unbearable and it was clear Erika Alexander was still learning how to act on TV/sitcoms. I guess that’s why her turn as Maxine Shaw in Living Single was such a revelation to me - If I had only seen her as Pam, I wouldn’t have known she had it in her, lol.

Living Single, of course, was created by Yvette Lee Bowser, who got her start on ADW and so many of the cast made guest appearances.