227

1 9 8 5 – 1 9 9 0 (USA)
116 x 30 minute episodes

227 first aired in September 1985 and ran for five seasons on NBC before its final episode in July 1990.

Based on a play of the same name, this situation-comedy was set around an apartment building (number 227) in a racially mixed neighbourhood of Washington DC.

227 succeeded in becoming a top-rated television programme, surviving criticisms and early comparisons to other television programmes with predominantly African-American principals (In its earliest episodes, the show was criticised as being too much like The Cosby Show).

The original play had been performed by Marla Gibbs’ own Cross Roads Academy, a local community theatre troupe in Los Angeles. After its successful theatrical debut, 227 was soon adapted and produced for television by Lorimar.

Most episodes took place within and around the apartment building, from the front steps to the laundry room to the individual apartments.

Mary and Lester Jenkins, who lived in Apartment E, were one of the families struggling to survive.

Mary (played by Marla Gibbs who had been the feisty, verbally aggressive maid Florence on The Jeffersons) was a mother of one, juggling the numerous household responsibilities, family and personal life with humorous results.

Lester (Hal Williams) was a small-time contractor struggling to stay on top of his own family and job responsibilities.

Mary and Lester had their hands full with daughter Brenda (Regina King), a studious, talented, and mostly well-behaved young adolescent who attended Wendell Willkie High School.

Sandra Clark (Jackée Harry), who lived in Apartment J, was a very beautiful woman who was a threat to other men’s wives (they “are jealous of my sexy walk, the way I act and the way I flaunt what I have”). Sandra called her stunning figure – especially her breasts, which she proudly displayed in low-cut dresses – “her equipment.”

Her favourite letter of the alphabet was M – “for money, men and me” – and she used her feminine wiles to get men to do what she wanted them to do – no matter what they wanted.

Sandra’s jobs included receptionist for the Stumer and Nathan Construction Company, sales clerk at Benson’s Department Store, door-to-door salesgirl for Luscious Lingerie, travel agent for Winslow Travel, and a brief stint as a television weather forecaster on Channel 87.

Rose Holloway (Alaina Reed-Hall) owned 227 when the series began, having inherited it from the original owner, Herb Calloway (not seen), who died suddenly and left it to her because “he liked my apple pies”. Rose often sat with Mary on the front steps, laughing and gossiping about various other residents.

Pearl Shay (Helen Martin) was an elderly busybody tenant. She was one of the first tenants at 227, having moved there when she was a teenager in the early 1940s. She would often lean out her front window to comment on Rose and Mary’s discussions.

Other regular characters included Mary’s not-too-bright friend Eva Rawley (Toukie A. Smith), who worked at an art gallery called Gallery Moderne; and Travis Fillmore (Stoney Jackson), who owned the one-car Fillmore Limo Service and shared Apartment L with Pearl’s grandson, Calvin (Curtis Baldwin) and public school teacher Dylan McMillan (Barry Sobel).

In the final season, Julian Barlow (Paul Winfield) became the new building owner when he bought it from Rose. He was not as rich as he pretended to be and called 227, the “Beverly Barlow Hotel”.

Mary Jenkins
Marla Gibbs
Lester Jenkins
Hal Williams
Rose Lee Holloway
Alaina Reed-Hall
Sandra Clark
Jackée (Harry)
Brenda Jenkins
Regina King
Tiffany Holloway
Kia Goodwin
Pearl Shay
Helen Martin
Calvin Dobbs
Curtis Baldwin
Alexandria DeWitt
Countess Vaughn
Eva Rawley
Toukie A. Smith
Julian C. Barlow
Paul Winfield
Dylan McMillan
Barry Sobel
Travis Filmore
Stoney Jackson
Warren Merriwether
Kevin Peter Hall