My Brother and Me

For the album by Ying Yang Twins, see My Brother & Me.

My Brother and Me
Intertitle
Format	Family sitcom
Created by	Ilunga Adell Calvin Brown, Jr.
Written by	Ilunga Adell Demtrius A. Bady Bootsie Calvin Brown, Jr. Donelle Q. Buck Bobby Crawford Merrie Dudley Angella Harris Fred Johnson J. Stanford Parker
Directed by	Arlando Smith Adam Weissman
Starring	Arthur Reggie III Ralph Woolfolk IV Jimmy Lee Newman, Jr. Aisling Sistrunk Karen E. Fraction Jim R. Coleman
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13
Production
Executive producer(s)	Calvin Brown, Jr. Ilunga Adell Bonnie Burns
Camera setup	Multiple-camera setup
Running time	approx. 22-24 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Nickelodeon
Picture format	480i (SDTV)
Original run	October 15, 1994 – February 2, 1995

My Brother and Me is a sitcom on Nickelodeon that premiered on October 15, 1994, and ran until February 2, 1995. The show is about a family living in the West Side of Charlotte, North Carolina, who experience the highs and lows of everyday life. Jennifer and Roger Parker have two sons, Alfie and Dee Dee. Alfie is the cool elder brother and Dee Dee is the younger brother, who always follows Alfie around. The family also has a smarter, older daughter named Melanie. Another main character of the show is Alfie's best friend Milton 'Goo' Berry.

Cast

Main cast

• Arthur Reggie III as Alfred "Alfie" Parker
• Ralph Woolfolk IV as Derek "Dee Dee" Parker
• Jimmy Lee Newman Jr. as Milton "Goo" Berry
• Aisling Sistrunk as Melanie Parker
• Karen E. Fraction as Jennifer Parker
• Jim R. Coleman as Roger Parker

Recurring cast

• Stefan Wernli as Donnell Wilbur
• Amanda Seales as Deonne Wilbur
• Christopher Guerriero as Milton Garcia
• Keith "Bubba" Naylor as Harry White
• Renaldo Ferguson as Himself
• Kym Whitley as Mrs. Pickney

Celebrity cameos

In the first episode of the series, Charlotte Hornets all-star Kendall Gill made a guest appearance. The young shooting guard came to the comic book store to impart wisdom to the children. It was here that Alfie famously remarked "Oh my God, it's Kendall Gill!"

The show also featured former Orlando Magic small forward Dennis Scott as a coach. In the episode Basketball Tryouts, he serves as the coach who picks the final teams for the juniors and seniors.

Episodes

Series #	Season #	Title	Notes	Original air date
1	1	"The Charity"	Alfie, Dee Dee, and Melanie are supposed to be helping their parents at a carnival by working the dunking booth. When Goo arrives and announces their favorite basketball player, Kendall Gill, is at the Comic Book Store signing autographs, the boys decide to ditch the carnival. This leaves Melanie and Jennifer to work the booth and both end up soaked. But the Comic Book Store is packed and much to Alphie and Dee Dee's surprise their father has to interview Kendall Gill.	October 15, 1994
2	2	"The Practical Joke War"	Alfie and Goo unleash harsh practical jokes on Dee Dee and his friends. Dee Dee retaliates and a huge practical joke war begins. Melanie tries to help Dee Dee but Alfie and Goo then go after her.	October 22, 1994
3	3	"The Weekend Aunt Helen Came"	The boy's mother, Jennifer, leaves for the weekend and she leaves the father, Roger, in charge. However, he lets the kids run wild. Alfie and Dee Dee's Aunt Helen then comes to oversee the house until Jennifer gets back. Meanwhile, Alfie throws a basketball at Goo, which hits him in the head, giving him temporary amnesia. In this case of memory loss, Goo acts like a nerd, does homework on a weekend, wants to be called Milton instead of Goo, and he even calls Alfie Alfred. The only thing that will reverse this is another hit in the head.	November 1, 1994
4	4	"Robin Hood Play"	Alfie's school is performing the play Robin Hood and Alfie is chosen to play the part of Robin Hood. Alfie is excited at this prospect, but he does not want to wear tights because he feels that tights are for girls.	November 9, 1994
5	5	"Basketball Tryouts"	Alfie tries out for the basketball team and doesn't make it because he is not a team player. However, Harry, Dee Dee and Donnel make the team.	November 30, 1994
6	6	"Where's the Snake?"	Dee Dee gets a snake, but he doesn't want his parents to know about it. However, things get complicated when he loses the snake in the house.	December 6, 1994
7	7	"Dee Dee's Girlfriend"	A girl kisses Dee Dee in front of Harry and Donnel. They promise not to tell, but it slips and everyone laughs at Dee Dee.	December 15, 1994
8	8	"Dee Dee's Haircut"	Dee Dee wants to get a hair cut by Cool Doctor Money and have his name shaved in his head. His parents will not let him do this, but Goo offers to do it for five dollars. However, when Goo messes up Dee Dee's hair and spells his name wrong, Dee Dee is forced to shave his head, as well as risk his parents finding out about it.	December 20, 1994
9	9	"Dee Dee Runs Away"	Dee Dee has been waiting to go to a monster truck show all week. But Alfie and Goo's baseball team makes it to the tournament and everyone forgets about the monster truck show. Dee Dee feels ignored and runs away from home.	December 28, 1994
10	10	'"Donnel's Birthday Party"	Donnel is having a birthday party and brags about all the dancing and cool people who will be there. Harry says that he knows how to dance so Dee Dee feels left out because he doesn't. So, he asks Alfie to help him learn how to dance.	January 5, 1995
11	11	"Alfie's Birthday Party"	Goo and Melanie pretend they are dating and they leave Alfie out of everything. He ends up bored and starts hanging out with Dee Dee and his friends. However, it just isn't the same without Goo.	January 19, 1995
12	12	"Candy Sale"	Alfie and Goo are selling candy to make money for some expensive jackets, but they are not having any luck. However, when Dee Dee and his friends start helping them sell candy, they start to make money.	January 26, 1995
13	13	"The Big Bully"	Dee Dee gets beat up at school and his friends try to teach him how to fight back. However, Goo tells him to bluff, but the plan backfires and Dee Dee gets hit because of it.	February 2, 1995

Interior monologues

The show extensively uses interior monologues. Almost every episode features the character's "thoughts," usually overreacted responses to something another character says. This is especially prevalent in scenes revolving around the boys' father (Jim Coleman), who frequently tells painfully boring stories about his brother, the kids' uncle Lawrence, and forces the kids to endure his favorite dish, Mumbo-jumbo gumbo.

Catchphrases

A common (though unofficial) catchphrase used in the show by multiple characters (usually Donnell) was "Don't hold your breath!" This was a typical response to an outlandish suggestion by another character (for example, Goo asking Melanie for a kiss). Another common catchphrase would occur when Dee Dee would interrupt Goo in whatever story he was telling, and promptly after Goo telling Dee Dee off, he would say, "Now as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted...." and would continue onward with his story. This occurrence happened quite often on the show.

There was also the use of the phrase "you didn't say Fuzzy Wuzzy" when Dee Dee would convince Alfie to play the Fuzzy Wuzzy Bear Game.

One phrase, said by Dee Dee and memorable for its unorthodox inflection, was "Hit me! Hit me!" He was being bullied at school, so his brother Alfie and Goo taught him how to fight. After saying that phrase, Dee Dee came home with a black eye. They came to find out, it was a girl that was bullying him.

Cancellation

The show made history as the network's first show featuring an all-black cast. Despite its popularity during its premiere, the series only lasted 13 episodes. Ralph Woolfolk explained in an interview that the show was canceled due to disagreements between the producers and creators of the show; a second season was planned but the two parties had different visions for the show that caused a major fallout.^[1]

After the series

Arthur Reggie III made a few more appearances on television, before turning to rapping. He raps under the name Show Bizness. Amanda Seales went on in the industry as a musician known as Amanda Diva. The rest of the cast with the exception of Karen Fraction and Jim Coleman, fell into obscurity. Some fan sites found the cast on Facebook and reported that most have graduated from college and pursued careers in the private sector. Ralph Woodfolk studied English at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA and seeking Law School at either Harvard University or William and Mary Law School in Virginia. He is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc, the first historically black fraternity on a collegiate level. On October 30, 2007, Karen Fraction died after a 5 year battle with breast cancer.

Awards

In 1996 and 1997, My Brother and Me was nominated for the NAACP Image Award (Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special).

References

1. ^ My Brother and Me Actor Attends Morehouse: Tells What Happened To Show in the "CAU Panther Student newspaper" Nov. 2007

External links

• My Brother and Me at the Internet Movie Database
• My Brother and Me at TV.com
• Retro Junk - My Brother and Me