Left to right: Jill Marie Jones, Persia White,
Golden Brooks, Tracee Ellis Ross
September 11, 2000: Girlfriends premieres on UPN, later moving to The CW, and running for 8 years. It stars Tracee Ellis Ross, daughter of music legend Diana Ross, as lawyer Joan Clayton; Golden Brooks as her secretary, Maya Wilkes; Jill Marie Jones as real estate agent Toni Childs, Joan's best friend from childhood; Persia White as artist Lynn Searcy, Joan's college roommate; and Reggie Hayes as William Dent, a partner at Joan's law firm, who spends so much time with them he gets called "The Fifth Girlfriend." He briefly ends up as a boyfriend of Lynn, and later Joan.
I'm not saying Girlfriends is a Los Angeles-based ripoff of the New York-based Living Single of the previous decade. I am saying there were a few similarities:
* It was an almost all-black, female-led cast.
* There was a boss lady, raised by a single mother after her father walked out: Magazine publisher Khadijah and lawyer Joan.
* There was a secretary to the boss lady: Synclaire and Maya.
* There was a high-strung lady lawyer: Max and Joan.
* There was a weirdo: Synclaire and Lynn.
* There was a freeloader who, or so it would seem, would sleep with pretty much any man: Max and Lynn.
* There was a self-centered career woman who wanted you to forget she was ever poor: East Orange, New Jersey native Regine; and Fresno, California native Toni.
* There was a self-centered career man who wanted you to forget he was descended from country folk: Cleveland-born stockbroker Kyle and Kansas City-born lawyer William.
* One of the big four ended up leaving, resulting in a lackluster last season, again pairing up Regine and Toni.
* And Michael Warren, best known as Officer Bobby Hill on Hill Street Blues, played the fathers of both Khadijah and Joan. Did you think I would overlook that? As Maya would say, "Oh, hell, no!"
There were, however, some significant differences:
* Living Single was recorded on videotape; Girlfriends, on film.
* On Girlfriends, one of the 4 women started out married with a child -- ironically, Maya, the youngest of them.
* None of the Living Single ladies lied about their ages, not even the very vain Regine. On Girlfriends, Joan used to tell people she was 4 years younger than she really was, while Toni said she was 1 year younger, to the point where even Joan, her childhood best friend, didn't know until she was 31 years old that Toni was 32. (Even a Season 1 fantasy sequence where Joan imagined Toni dead showed her tombstone giving her birth year as 1972, instead of 1971, which turned out to be correct.)
* None of the Living Single ladies was the child of a mixed-race couple, or adopted. On Girlfriends, Lynn was both. (Her birth father was played by Demond Wilson of Sanford and Son.)
* Living Single had Overton Jones, Kyle's best friend from Cleveland and roommate in New York, as the building's handyman, who dated and eventually married Synclaire. Girlfriends had no corresponding character.
Living Single lasted 5 seasons, 118 episodes; Girlfriends, 8 seasons, 172 episodes.
*
September 11, 2000 was a Monday. These Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 4-0 at Yankee Stadium. Rolando Arrojo (7 2/3rds innings) and Derek Lowe combined on a 5-hit shutout, to outpitch Orlando "El Duque" Hernández. The 5 hits were a double by Jorge Posada, and singles by Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez.
* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-2 at Shea Stadium.
* A doubleheader was split at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Phillies won the opener, 5-2. The Montreal Expos won the nightcap, 7-6.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Three Rivers was in its last year: The following April, the Pirates moved into PNC Park; the following September, the Steelers moved into Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium). In this game, Mark McGwire hit his 31st home run of the season, and the 553rd of his career.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-6 at Cinergy Field, formerly known as Riverfront Stadium, in Cincinnati. Sammy Sosa hit his 49th home run of the season, and the 389th of his career. Mark Grace went 4-for-5. For the Reds, Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-3 with a walk.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 10-3 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 8-7 at Enron Field (soon to be renamed Minute Maid Park, now Daikin Park) in Houston. Bill Mueller tripled Ramón Martinez home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning. Barry Bonds hit his 45th home run of the season, and the 490th of his career. Jeff Kent hit his 32nd home run of the season, and the 204th of his career. J.T. Snow hit his 17th home run of the season, and the 149th of his career. For the Astros, Jeff Bagwell hit his 42nd home run of the season, and the 305th of his career. And Moisés Alou hit his 28th home run of the season, and the 173rd of his career.
Respectively, they finished their careers with 762*, 377, 189, 449 and 332.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 6-3 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Colorado Rockies, 7-2 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack Murphy Stadium). Tony Gwynn did not play.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Anaheim Angels, 3-1 at Edison International Field of Anaheim (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Cal Ripken went 1-for-4.
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 5-1 at the Oakland Athletics.
* And the Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners, 6-3 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Rickey Henderson, running out the string with the M's, went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* And the Cleveland Indians, the Minnesota Twins, the Texas Rangers, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Atlanta Braves and the Florida Marlins were not scheduled.
And on ABC Monday Night Football, the New York Jets beat their arch-rivals, the New England Patriots, 20-19 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. As the new 21st Century wore on, Jet wins over the Pats would become rare.
