The Parent 'Hood

Robert Townsend, for some reason, felt the need to make a show that would uplift, present a positive model of a modern African-American family, etc, etc. Kind of a slightly more modern, slightly less establishment "Cosby Show." To this he added a few of his more anarchic comedy touches, like a couple of silly friends and brief fantasy sequences. Unfortunately, the writing and acting were often terrible, especially the actors playing the younger children. In later years, especially after older son Michael (Kenny Blank) left the show and troubled youth TK was taken in by the family after he mugged Geri, the show became dreadfully earnest, delving into "important issues" and sledgehammering the viewer with pathos. Any residual charm was gone after a year or two, and the fantasy sequences (the only unique element of the show) never rose above silly; every attempt at "hipness" and "street cred" failed miserably too. All involved deserve points for effort, but the show is often almost painful to watch.

The first few episode the comedy was a bit meh but it got better as it went along. The messages tho hit home and its better than alot of sit coms now a days. I love the cutaways.

At first I rated it low bc it wasnt what i remembered but as I watch it I enjoyed it.

So happy HBO max brought my childhood back. I watched this in Trinidad.

For some reason I really liked this show. Robert Townsend and the rest of the cast made this a show that was entertaining. Though it was compared with "The Cosby Show", it was more of a downsized & watered down version of it. The characters didn't have as much depth as "The Cosby Show" did, but the show had a charm of it's own. Sort of a WB charm, (meaning you know that it probably has a really low budget so you don't expect too much type of charm.) This show just seemed to leave the air with little fanfare. Even though it didn't get rave reviews, I was sorry to see this show get cancelled.

One of my favorite shows! Those kids were hilarious.

I've seen almost all of this show's run in reruns on BounceTV. It's basically a mediocre Sitcom starring a Black Family. Yes, it's been compared to the Cosby Show, but it wasn't near as funny, or as well written. I've seen Robert Townsend's early movies, (Hollywood Shuffle was great), and I just expected more from him, but maybe he wasn't writing on the show. I'm loathe to mention over reviews in my review, but I wanted to say this: Just because a show stars a Black Family, doesn't mean it's groundbreaking, or that it will even be good. What this show is to me, is a knock off of the Cosby Show. Both have an Upper Middle Class American Family, where the two Parents both have very good jobs, I.e. Doctor and College Proffesor, wives were both Lawyers etc. But in TPH the jokes were all easy, and sometimes lazy, and yes, sometimes racist. 4 out of 10 ⭐️s