The Hughleys

The Hughleys
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	D. L. Hughley Matt Wickline
Starring	D. L. Hughley Elise Neal Eric Allan Kramer John Henton Ashley Monique Clark Dee Jay Daniels Marietta DePrima
Theme music composer	Jonathan Wolff (seasons 1–2) Paul Buckley (seasons 1–2) John Butcher (seasons 3–4) Andrew Rollins (seasons 3–4)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	89 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Chris Rock Michael Rotenberg Dave Becky Matt Wickline (seasons 1–3) D. L. Hughley (seasons 3–4) Kim Friese (season 3) Marco Pennette (season 4)
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production company(s)	The Greenblatt/Janollari Studio Willowick Entertainment Fox Television Studios
Distributor	20th Television
Release
Original network	ABC (1998–2000) UPN (2000–2002)
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 720p (HDTV; season 4 only)
Original release	September 22, 1998 (1998-09-22) – May 20, 2002 (2002-05-20)

The Hughleys is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from September 22, 1998 to April 28, 2000 and on the UPN network from September 11, 2000 to May 20, 2002. It starred comedian D. L. Hughley as the main character, Darryl Hughley, and Elise Neal as Yvonne, his hard-working wife, who move their family from the inner city to suburban Los Angeles.

Plot summary

The show's main cast consisted of D. L. Hughley as the main character, vending machine salesman Darryl Hughley. Elise Neal portrayed Darryl's wife, Yvonne. Alongside starring in the series was ex-Living Single co-star, John Henton who portrayed the couple's best friend, Milsap, from the "old neighborhood", most often visit them and stopped by to help the family out (much resemblance to Willona visiting James and Florida on Good Times.), and including Yvonne and Darryl's two children: 12-year-old Sydney, played by Ashley Monique Clark and 10-year-old Michael, played by Dee Jay Daniels, who both sometimes acted out or got into complete chaos. Michael's best friends included: Ronnie (played by Preston Wamsley), Otto (originally played by Connor Matheus in Season 1 and 2, then Ian Meltzer from Season 3 and 4), and Miles (played by Martin Spanjers).

The initial plot for the story is Darryl Hughley, who owns his own successful vending machine business, moving out of a South Los Angeles ghetto to West Hills, a predominantly white neighborhood within the San Fernando Valley. Darryl and his family try to adjust to living in an all-white area, at the same time trying to not forget who they are and where they came from. Darryl and Yvonne befriend their new neighbors Sally and Dave who are literally the polar opposite of Darryl. The story has many racial themes to it but are usually comedic as Darryl makes fun of other races, especially his white and Korean neighbors.

Cast and characters

Marietta DePrima and Eric Allan Kramer played Dave and Sally Rogers, a primary, friendly, wholesome white couple that live in the suburbs, and Darryl's happy-go-lucky mother Hattie Mae Hughley, played by Marla Gibbs and his father, Henry Hughley, played by Ellis Williams.

In return, Telma Hopkins portrayed Yvonne's mother, Paulette Williams; opposite Hopkins, Sherman Hemsley portrayed Yvonne's father, Mr. Williams–who did not get along with Darryl, because in Darryl's own words, thought of him as a "jackass", including Patricia Belcher as the family's Aunt Jessie Mae Hughley. Adele Givens portrayed Yvonne's older sister Shari Williams, a wise-cracking, back-talking evil sister-in-law to Darryl.

The show spent two seasons on ABC. In its first season, it followed Home Improvement,^[1] but was canceled when ABC decided to revamp its TGIF lineup.^[2] UPN picked up the show in the fall of 2000 and it aired in the Monday night lineup along Moesha, The Parkers and Girlfriends.^[3] While The Parkers and Girlfriends had improved ratings, The Hughleys aired its series finale after its fourth season.

The series had many guest stars including Ashley Tisdale, Kelly Rowland, Lil' Romeo, Gary Coleman, Adele Givens, Telma Hopkins, Sherman Hemsley, Vivica A. Fox, Martin Spanjers, Mo'Nique, Tyra Banks, Rose Marie, among others.

from left: Marietta DePrima, Eric Allan Kramer, Ashley Monique Clark, Elise Neal, D. L. Hughley, Dee Jay Daniels, and John Henton

Main characters

• Darryl Hughley (D. L. Hughley): the main character of the series. He is a thirty-five-year-old successful salesman and business owner. His wife is Yvonne, and they have two children; Sydney and Michael. He moved from his old black neighborhood into a white surburbian neighborhood. He is the son of Henry and Hattie Mae Hughley. Upon the show's move from the ABC network to UPN, the character was featured in a crossover appearance on the UPN series The Parkers in the Season 2 episode "Who's Your Mama?". He is best friends with Milsap (who is also his sales manager), and later Dave Rogers.
• Yvonne Williams-Hughley (Elise Neal): Darryl's wife, the mother of their two children, and best friend of Sally. She does not get along with Darryl's mother, Hattie, who constantly criticizes everything she does. Darryl commonly refers to her by her nickname "Vonnie", as does Milsap sometimes.
• Sydney (Ashley Monique Clark) and Michael Hughley (Dee Jay Daniels): Sister and brother Sydney and Michael are the twelve-year-old and ten-year-old children of Darryl and Yvonne.
• Dave (Eric Allan Kramer) and Sally Rogers (Marietta DePrima): the Hughley family's Caucasian neighbors and close friends. They often hang out, and travel together. Initially, Daryl was unwilling to befriend them out of fear that they were racist people. Dave can be described as a "jolly giant". He owns a sporting goods store, and is very knowledgeable about sports, vehicles, and extreme activities. Sally and Daryl have a sort of brother/sister-like friendship, as sometimes he'll turn to her for advice or jokingly tease her. Dave and Sally have two children - a son named Otto, and a daughter named Gretchen. Sydney and Michael often address Dave and Sally as "Uncle Dave" and "Aunt Sally".
• Milsap (John Henton), Darryl's lifelong best friend, the sales manager of his company. He frequently visits the Hughley household, and provides much comic relief throughout the series. Unlike Darryl, Milsap is unmarried with no children which sometimes saddens him. Early in the series, Dave becomes Milsap's second best friend after the two form a strong friendship - which Darryl was jealous of at first until he learned to be friends with both men. Darryl, Yvonne, and Dave often refer to him by his nickname "Sap", whereas Sydney and Michael address him as "Uncle Sap" or "Uncle Milsap".

Recurring characters

• Hattie Mae Hughley (Marla Gibbs), Darryl's somewhat aggressive mother, who made her first appearance in "The Thanksgiving Episode". She criticizes Yvonne, from her cooking habits to everything else she finds wrong with her. She also appears to have a firm handle on Darryl as the no-nonsense mother who refuses to let him get away with anything, despite his adulthood. This is shown in many episodes, one example being Sydney and Michael failing to "punish" Daryl for drugs from his past, in which they get their grandmother to do it instead. She made her last appearance was "How Hattie Got Her Groove Back".
• Henry Hughley (Ellis Williams), Darryl's "father", who made his first appearance in "The Thanksgiving Episode". In the 2nd season episode, Darryl discovers that Henry isn't his biological father; but still Darryl sees him as more of a father for raising him. He made his last appearance in "Bored of the Rings".
• Jessie Mae (Patricia Belcher), Darryl's maternal aunt. She made her first appearance in "The Thanksgiving Episode", where the Hughley women attempt to Thanksgiving cooking. In a few other appearances, she is shown more confrontational than Hattie Mae, but still may have her moments.
• M'Dear (Virginia Capers), Darryl's maternal grandmother. She makes her first appearance in "The Thanksgiving Episode", where the Hughley women attempt to take over Thanksgiving cooking. She appears to be less insulting than Hattie Mae.
• JoJo (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.), Darryl's older brother, who worked at an airport.
• James Williams (Sherman Hemsley), Yvonne's father who is not-so-approving of Darryl, and the two failed to get along whenever they're around each other.
• Paulette Williams (Telma Hopkins), Yvonne's mother who is less than confrontational with Darryl.
• Shari (Adele Givens), Yvonne's older sister, who, like her father, does not get along with Darryl.

Episodes

Series finale

The Hughleys ended with a cliffhanger. On the two-part series finale entitled "It's a Girl!" (aired on May 13 and May 20, 2002), Darryl Hughley's niece, Carly (guest star Kelly Rowland) is preparing for college (the college was unknown), with peace, tranquility and no expectation of her relatives coming to annoy her (implying the entire Hughleys clan). Carly then receives an unexpected visit from her cousins Sydney and Michael. Darryl and Milsap go to their twentieth high school reunion and Milsap learns that his "old" girlfriend, Shandra, has a child, and he is the father.

Ratings

Syndication

Reruns of The Hughleys started airing in syndication in mid-September 2002 to 2003. The series aired on FXX from 2013-2014. On January 5, 2015, Bounce TV began airing reruns on weeknights at 7pm and 7:30pm.

References

External links

• The Hughleys at the Internet Movie Database
• The Hughleys at TV.com