Living Single
Friends Like These
TV Flash files “Friends Like These” as hour 21 of 118 in the TV Flash guide — Living Single (1993–1998) on Fox, season 1, episode 21, aired 1994-02-27, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E21: listed hour 21 of 118 in the Living Single guide, hour 21 of 27 in season 1. It aired 1994-02-27 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Hot Fun in the Wintertime” (S01E20). Next is “Who's the Boss?” (S01E22).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Khadijah's college friend Jackie comes to town for an audition. She stays at the girls' apartment, and convinces Khadijah to give her a job at Flavor. Max is extremely jealous, and warns that Jackie is an opportunist who will hit Khadijah up for a loan. In college, Jackie convinced Max and Khadijah to start a sandwich business, only to drop it after two weeks. Khadijah is furious at Max for interfering in her affairs. A few days later, Jackie asks Khadijah to loan her money for a tattoo business. Khadijah turns her down, and orders her to return the 200 dollars she had borrowed from Synclaire. She tells Jackie that she needs to get her priorities straight and stop changing directions every few weeks. Jackie decides to go mooch off her parents. Just as Max boasts that Jackie never comes through, talk show host Arsenio Hall shows up at the apartment for the interview Jackie had promised to arrange. Overton buys several fish for the apartment. Kyle grows attached to them, and decides to get his own fish, Kyle Barker. When the new fish eats all the others, a guilt-ridden Kyle buys Overton a puppy, even though Kyle is allergic to dogs.Tag:Outtakes and photos with Arsenio.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Friends Like These sit in the Living Single guide?
S01E21 is listed hour 21 of 118 — hour 21 of 27 in season 1, season 1 episode 21.
When did Living Single S01E21 air?
Friends Like These aired 1994-02-27 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Is this "the Black Friends"?
That comparison is the discourse, not the origin story. Bowser's brownstone ensemble premiered in 1993 and treated Black professional friendship as default sitcom physics.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Four women, a Brooklyn brownstone, and sitcom chemistry that never needed a Central Perk comparison to land. Queen Latifah’s magazine hustle, Kim Coles’s comic spark, and an ensemble that treated Black urban friendship as default, not special episode. The friend-com with better clothes, sharper mouths, and a legacy still arguing in group chats.
Flash: four women, a Brooklyn brownstone, and a group chat that still thinks *Friends* stole the furniture. Yvette Lee Bowser's Fox sitcom (1993–1998) put Queen Latifah's magazine hustle at the center of a Black professional twenty-something ensemble and treated urban friendship as default, not a special episode. Someone's publicist will call the comparison a compliment. **It is the discourse, not the origin story.** Bowser's room premiered in 1993. The other couch can wait in the lobby.
Filed against
- Queen Latifah as Khadijah James
Queen Latifah played Khadijah James on Living Single, the 1990s Brooklyn brownstone friend-com of four women and sitcom chemistry that never needed a Central Perk comparison to land. Magazine hustle, Kim Coles’s comic spark, an ensemble…
- Kim Coles as Synclaire James
Kim Coles's Synclaire James sparked Living Single from a Brooklyn brownstone — four women, sitcom chemistry that never needed a Central Perk comparison, Queen Latifah's magazine hustle, Black urban friendship as default. TV Flash files…
- Erika Alexander as Maxine Shaw
Erika Alexander made Maxine Shaw Living Single's sharpest brief — Brooklyn brownstone, four women, Black urban friendship as default, not a special episode. Queen Latifah's magazine hustle had a lawyer who would not soften the joke. TV…
- Kim Fields as Regine Hunter
Kim Fields grew up on camera as Tootie Ramsey on The Facts of Life — roller skates, Eastland wing, very special episodes as a feature — then walked into Living Single’s Brooklyn brownstone as grown sitcom chemistry. Girls-lead multi-cam,…
- John Henton as Overton Wakefield Jones
John Henton’s Overton Wakefield Jones gave Living Single its super’s heart — four women, a Brooklyn brownstone, Queen Latifah’s magazine hustle, Kim Coles’s comic spark, an ensemble that treated Black urban friendship as default.…
- T.C. Carson as Kyle Barker
T.C. Carson charmed Living Single as Kyle Barker — four women, a Brooklyn brownstone, sitcom chemistry that never needed a Central Perk comparison to land. Black urban friendship as default, not special episode. TV Flash files him as…