You could write an entire dissertation on the cultural weight Black ’90s sitcoms carry. From “Living Single,” “Martin,” to “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” these shows transcended entertainment; they were community. And as Erika Alexander recently reminded us, that connection ran just as deep behind the scenes as it did in our living rooms.
In a new episode of the “ReLiving Single” podcast, Alexander, who famously played “Maxine Shaw, Attorney at Law,” sat down with TC Carson, who played the suave Kyle Barker on “Living Single.” In their reunion, the two reflected on working together and got real about the ripple effect of Carson’s exit from the show.
“I missed you. You were my comedy partner,” Alexander said, with tears in her eyes. “And so, doing things without you was weird.”
Carson’s character was a series regular up until the final season, when he left and ultimately returned for the series finale. In 2020, the actor revealed that his sudden absence from the show’s final season was a result of Warner Bros. executives firing him after he challenged the network for prioritizing the show “Friends,” which was heavily inspired by “Living Single.”
“We were getting less all around. And then they created ‘Friends’ and gave them everything. Both shows were Warner Bros. shows on Warner Bros. lots,” Carson said in a 2020 interview. “So to watch that, to be on our lot and to watch that, was really kind of a slap in the face.”
As previously reported by theGrio, Carson explained that he was often the spokesperson for the cast when confronting producers with issues. Though they had cultivated a space with the show’s creator Yvette Lee Bowser that welcomed discussions and changes, the Warner Bros. executives were not as welcoming, eventually firing Carson for his advocacy.
“Part of it is, even now, if you’re African-American, you shut your mouth and do your job,” he added. “Don’t ask questions. Be happy that you have a job. My whole time on ‘Living Single,’ I was happy I had a job, but I understood the importance of the job I had. I understood the importance of what these characters meant to my community. And so when I come to you with a problem, it’s because of that, not because of ego. They looked at it as ego.”
Just as fans felt the impact of the actor’s departure, the cast felt it, too. Both Alexander and Kim Coles echoed how upset they were about the network’s decision, particularly Alexander.
“You didn’t just leave. There was a huge void. And I think that left a lot of us paralyzed,” Alexander told Carson.
Comparing the experience to someone taking her twin and ripping her soul out and asking her to move on, the actress explained: “I actually didn’t even know how to be Max without you. Part of her, the architecture of Max, exists inside of a conversation and a duel with a man named TC Carson, who’s playing Kyle…As my comedy partner, like Fred Astaire needs his Ginger (Rogers), I just want to let you know that you were the best comedy partner I could ever have.”
