I have no clever tag to add. I'm not all that creative at the moment. I've been seeing the promos and I'm surprised a thread hasn't started yet.



Full article here.

Okay, I'll bite. Personally, the promos are rubbing me the wrong way. The line about "screw a white woman and we're through" was crossing the line. No way would it have flown if it were the other way around. I'm ashamed that the NAACP hasn't said anything, and this is all the more reason for me to revoke my membership.

I agree it was unnecesary to highlight this as the impetus for ending this tv marriage. My other gripe is the line is also a poorly delivered; I cringe when I hear her shrill, somewhat smug delivery of that and every other line in the promo. The setup of that particular scene is also ridiculous, because if I recall she is seated with a biracial friend and a white friend, I suppose that the rest of the scene has at least one of those friends saying something to her about her statement.

I don't know too many people who have such conversations in mixed company - and I mean people of African descent, Caucasians, Asisan, what have you... One may overhear people saying things that highlight their own personal bigotry, but in mixed company, I think not. I could expand this though, but this is not that conversation.

My hope is that this show goes away very, very fast. I like Malcolm Jamal Warner for reasons other than his acting, so it is nice to see him on screen, but even the way he delivers his lines in the promo suck and make me want to see him on a beefcake calendar rather than acting.

I also hate the casting, particulaly because of Sherri's son; not only is ahe a bad child actor from what I have seen, he also looks doesn't look like either parent.

Get this show off the air quickly!

I really want to give the show a chance, and I will, but I don't see it being something I'll plan my evening around (i.e. 30 Rock). I respect MJW though. He's always done really well. I was just thinking about how good he was on Malcolm & Eddie the other day. He did an excellent job considering the content and his goofy co-star. Yep, I'm doing it for Theo.

Is it going to be on every weekday at 7 like it is for the first week? How many episodes have they done? It's scheduled like it's already in syndication.

This article explains more:

I'll tune in solely for Malcolm Jamal Warner. He's a really solid comedic actor.

The "screw a white woman and we're through" line is totally offensive to me. Can't believe Lifetime would allow that.

In one promo there is Sherri in a bar, no big deal, but coming on to a very young man, young enough to be her son. I hate that whole "cougar" crap. YMMV

So far for me the show seems too sterotype (in general) and IMO that is all kinds of wrong. Not a fair thing to put out there. But ratings and reviews will tell. I'll probably tune in just to make sure I'm not reading too much into this.

But then I tire of the real Sherri being so lustful, gluttonous, and desperate for a man.

Meh.

Typical schlocky sitcom fare. A couple of clever lines, uninspired performances, and completely unrealistic set-ups. Why do a mother, father & grandfather have to be there for an ordinary check-up at a pediatrician's office?

I kind of liked it.

I didn't really expect to like it, but the characters played well off of each other, and I was surprised to see not only Malcolm Jamal Warner, but also James T. Avery (Uncle Phil!) on the show. Plus, I know people have comments about Sherri, but she is a pretty good actress - at least, as far as being in a sitcom goes.

No way I'm going to continue watching this.

I was offended about the sleeping with a "white girl" comment.

And that she is playing the cougar - kissing a 17 year old that she thought was 21. She's 42. "I'm old enough to be your older, patient lover.

Somehow, I can't find the humor.

YMMV

Personally, I didn't think it was any worse than a lot of other stuff that's out there. I mean, yeah, it's pretty "by the numbers" - and a bit of a Wanda Sykes ripoff if you ask me. I think the show would have been better if they had followed the early Seinfeld format and had Sherri doing standup and then show the real life inspiration for the routine. Instead they have a ridiculous line of dialogue (ugh!) about how she does standup, etc etc.

Oh and glad I'm not the only one who thought it was odd to have a family reunion in the waiting room of a routine doctor's appointment.

Was it bugging anyone else that Lifetime can't decide how to spell Sherri?!? The onscreen Comcast guide and the credits at the beginning of the show had it as Sherri, but the bumper between the commercials had it as Sheri. They should figure it out and get it right.

Me too. It took me a while to figure out that they were in the pediatrician's waiting room. I thought they went somewhere to hand over the boy because it was the father's turn to have custody, and that things had gone so bad that Sherri needed her father to be a witness, or maybe he went with her to protect her. Anyway, that's why I figured they were so angry at him for being late, because they had thought that he was planning to get out of taking custody of the boy.

Not only did Sherri complain to her co-workers about her husband sleeping with a white woman, but she told the bank employee (who conveniently happened to be a black woman) that her husband had slept with a white woman, and that made the bank employee willing to forget about the necessary paperwork and let Sherri empty the account, no questions asked. So it seems that all women understand that if your husband sleeps with a white woman, it just cannot be tolerated.

Is Sherri's divorce final? I was wondering why she was so upset about the girlfriend being pregnant. The way she carried on, it was as if the pregnancy would affect HER. If the divorce is final, then why would the pregnancy affect her? I can understand it affecting her son, since not only does he have to cope with a divorce, he also has to cope with a new sibling, and possibly his father marrying the girlfriend. I was wondering if the divorce wasn't final yet, because that could mean that Sherri was still hoping for a reconcilation, but now, the girlfriend is pregnant, so that's off.

Or is Sherri the kind of person that makes everything be about HER?

I know, right? Here's what bugged me. She told her boss she had to leave @ 2 for the doc. appt. then she's back at work on break again when they decide to go to the girlfriends job. Then they're back at work on break again deciding to go to a club!! Jesus, how long is their work day!

So would she have given her husband a second chance if he'd slept with a black woman? I can't imagine CBS getting away with HIMYM's Robin breaking up with Barney because he slept with a black girl!

I didn't find it that odd. I just assumed that Sherri's father brought Sherri's son, and that Sherri's husband was supposed to meet his son there. Sherri's father did remark that the husband was ridiculously late.



In real life, the other woman's child is actually around Sherri's son's age. I am not sure why they didn't change the age of the white character's child for the sake of keeping it truer to Sherri's actual life. To me, it appears Sherri and her husband are divorced, though I don't believe she has specifically confirmed anything other than a separation on The View. At one point, she was paying a massive amount of child support and alimony to her ex-husband.

I'm black, and I'm not really going to discuss on the "white woman" comments in depth just because that type of discussion needs to be understood within a specific kind of historical and racial context.

I've liked Sherri since she was on the Jamie Foxx show, so I'll tune in again.

I like Sherri, too, so I'll watch but I hope they stop doing stupid things like:

If my employee made a big deal about having to take off work for a kids doctor's appointment and I found out that both the grandfather AND the kid's father was able to take him, I'd be pissed.

But this is a sitcom, not a reality show, right? I don't see what the actress' real life has to do with the life of a sitcom character she portrays on TV. I knew that the other woman's child is around the age of the actress' son's age. I also knew that the actress showed a photo of the other woman's child on TV and said that it was okay for her to show it, because he was her step-son. I had never heard that if your husband cheats on you and has a baby with another woman while he's married to you, the baby is your step-son, but whatever. Again, I don't see why anything that happened in the actress' life should have anything to do with the sitcom. And no matter what the actress' marital status is, I don't know what the character's marital status is, and if the character is actually divorced, then I don't know why she's so upset about her ex's girlfriend being pregnant.

Well, since they show is based on her life, I thought you were wondering how close to real life the sitcom was. Obviously, I misunderstood what you wanted clarification on. The show has only been on for one episode, so a lot of your questions haven't even been addressed on the show yet.

Gotcha. I didn't know that the sitcom was based on her life. For some reason, it reminded me of another sitcom that she was in, "Less Than Perfect." Hopefully, we'll find out if her divorce is final yet. Oh, and someone was wondering how long they work at that company each day, since they seemed to be there forever and took a lot of breaks. The supervisor said that the other woman could start feeling sad about breaking up with her boyfriend at 5:15 PM, so I guess that's when they leave home.

I have always liked Sherri since her days on Everybody Loves Raymond. I always preferred watching her scenes than anything with Patricia Heaton.

I was happy to hear she was getting her own show. I wish her the best of luck and I will see how I like this show.

Thanks for posting that. I won't go into it either, but I felt like I understood that whole thing well enough and that it was legitimate for the character.

I had no problem with the "white girl" thing either, and I find it funny how up in arms some people are about it. Mixed company, I suppose.

The show reminded me of Less Than Perfect, too. I think it's the workplace humor. I hope we get to see more of Malcolm Jamal Warner.

An excerpt from Linda Stasi's review from NY Post:

It doesn't surprise me that Sherri permits herself to spew ugly bias. There's no excuse for it except ignorance, and even ignorance is wearing pretty thin as an excuse. Hatred that can be rationalized is still hatred.

You never know, some Jewish people might have had a problem if it had been a "Jewish girl" thing. For all I know, Linda Stasi might have had a problem with it, and I don't even know if she's Jewish. Some people don't appreciate racist "humor," even if their group isn't the one that's targeted. It's funny how this one black sitcom character can react with great distaste at finding her husband with a white woman, but a white sitcom character couldn't react with great distaste at finding her husband with a black (or Jewish) woman, or else everyone would be screaming holy hell. Do black people feel that white people are so disgusting that it's very evident why a black man screwing a white woman is SO unacceptable? I don't know how black people feel about Jewish people, since it seems that the sandwich maker isn't Jewish. Or Sherri doesn't know that she's Jewish. If she did, would she be screaming about her her husband cheated on her with a JEW, and that was totally unacceptable? And would the bank employee have agreed with her that cheating with a Jew was so, so wrong?

As to whether Sherri (the sitcom character) is divorced or separated, I have a feeling that her marital status will depend on what suits the particular episode. In the episode in which we met Terry Fabricant, Sherri said that her husband got a 23 year old sandwich maker pregnant. IMHO there's a difference between saying that your husband got a woman pregnant and your ex-husband got a woman pregnant. As far as I could tell from the first episode, Sherri and Kevin weren't together, and whether or not their divorce was final was left up in the air. Just like another sitcom in which the age difference between two brothers was either a year or two or four or five years differed, depending on the story-line, and another sitcom in which a woman could bake and cook, but in episodes that showed how funny it was that she couldn't cook or bake, and another sitcom in which someone had a cellphone and was familiar with computers suddenly never had a cellphone and was thoroughly unfamiliar with computers, this sitcom might follow the rule that whatever marital status fits into the storyline the best, that's the one we'll use for now.

The white woman comment doesn't offend me, as a black man because I undersatnd Sherri's context, which I think is not being addressed. The remark in context really doesn't have anything to do with "white women" as a whole or their desired attractiveness. The context is more about the history of black men preferring white women for whatever reason (there are many issues historiacally) that have nothing to do with love and honest companionship.

Like in Waiting to Exhale, when Angela Bassett's character is left by her husband for a white woman. Yes she is upset that her husband is leaving her for another woman, but the fact that the woman is white is more painful because the context is her husband is intentionally with a white woman because it is a status symbol to him as a black man who has achieved the "American Dream" to have a white woman on his arm instead of Angela Bassett. Now of course this has nothing to do with the attractiveness of Angela Bassett (who in my opinion is a goddess) or the "whte woman" in question.

There are just a lot more historically racial and social issues that the comment stems from than just Sherri having an issue with white women.

JBC334, I'm a black woman who was raised to think that way and I was offended, honestly. Since going out into the world on my own, I've realized that my parents' generation suffered from flawed thinking. No matter what the historical context, if we want true equality, we have to play by the rules. That line broke all of them. Had this been reverse situation, Al and Jesse would be all over it. All of these defenses and "explanations" are nothing but excuses, in my opinion. If we're going to allow Sherri to do it, then we should open the racist floodgates for every other form of primetime entertainment, is all I'm saying. But I know that would never happen, since equality tends to be a one-way street in this country.

I can't reconcile this way of thinking with raising an open-minded, well-adjusted biracial girl. Should I just raise her up to believe that people who look like Mommy can say bad things about people who look like Daddy, but it's only called racism when it's about Mommy? Sad.

In the episodes with Bo's birthday and Bo's first weekend with Kevin as per the custody arrangement, Sherri mentioned that their marriage ended when Kevin got the sandwich-maker pregnant. But in the first episode, that's NOT why their marriage ended. It had ended a while back (either in separation or divorce, I'm still not sure which), long ago enough that Sherri dated a guy who didn't want to see her boobs, and THEN she found out that Kevin got the sandwich-maker pregnant. Even if she hadn't gotten pregnant, the marriage would be over. The writers have already forgotten what happened in the first episode, and the series isn't that old.

And I'm wondering if the marriage ended long ago enough that Sherri dated a guy before the first episode, then why was this Bo's first weekend with Daddy.

YellowOctober, I think you may of misunderstood my post. I was offering an explanation as to the context of Sherri's statement. Now I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I also think that the acknowledgment of the racial issues of Sherri's statement need to be put out there. Labeling Sherri a racist is just a little too easy for me and dismissive of what the real issue seems to be.

Reversing the statement to me doesn't make sense, because there isn't a historical context of white men who become successful leaving their wives for black women as a status symbol. To me the statement is comparable to an older woman saying "screw me with a younger woman and we are done". Again there is a historical context of some men in general who tend to leave their age comparable wives for younger woman once they make it. I don't think that statement is offensive to young women in general. Now if there in fact wasn't a history or "societal norm" to the older man/younger woman dynamic, then yes as a young woman I would be offended.

Now me personally, I don't agree with what Sherri said nor do I condone it, but I will acknowledge the history and racial issues behind what she said. I would like to think that if I were going to combat Sherri or anyone else on the statement, that I would like to understand their context fully.

JBC344, I understood your point. I do agree that there should be an explanation. I used to hear a lot of "she put him through school and he left her for a white woman" stories from my mother and her friends, growing up. I've sat in plenty of beauty parlors and barber shops and I understand the dynamic quite well. However, it shouldn't be an excuse.



The difference here is, the "screw a younger/older woman" line would've been acceptable for both sides.

But if a white woman made the reverse statement of what Sherri said than it wouldn't mean the same thing because again there is no historical context of white men who leave their white wives for black women when they become successful.

Now personally I wouldn't want anyone making the statement, black or white, but our history gives credence to Sherri's statement, more than it would if a white woman said it.

I guess for me personally I would never imagine a white woman making the reverse statement, not because she's white, but because it wouldn't make any sense to me.

For example if we use the older woman/younger woman scenario. It makes sense to me if an older woman says "screw me with a younger woman and we're done" (Not a nice thing to say, but makes sense to me). Now if I was watching a show where a younger woman says "screw me with an older woman and we're done" it wouldn't make sense to me because there is no "societal norm" or "societal trend" where young men leave their young wives for much older women. To me that statement would seem like a personal attack against older women because of the fact that there is no precedence for it.

Lol I guess we can just agree to disagree. Great discussion though. All from an episode of Sherri.

I have a question about a joke Sherri told during her stand-up at the church. She said that Celia had a new hat and didn't keep it in a hatbox but in a warehouse down by the river. I have NO idea what this means or how it's funny. Anyone?

I get what you're saying now, but yeah, we're on opposite sides of the fence. : )

I hope I don't regret this later, but here goes: I hope the show gets picked up for another season. It's not bad, but I think it needs room to grow. Plus, the more successful Sherri Shepard is, the more belligerent Whoopi Goldberg becomes on The View and I'm a twisted soul. Hehe.

This says it all for me. I think it's lazy backward thinking on behalf of the show. I've never known hate speak that didn't accompany heartfelt justifications from the user. The sponsor boycott is deserved.

Much as I dislike Sherri personally for her View opinions, she usually can rise to the occasion if given good material. I don't see any here, but ymmv.

Was it a big hat? Or a hat she wanted to surprise people with? Or a hat so cherished it required special security beyond a closet? I don't know, but it doesn't seem funny to me either.

It was a big hat. So I think the joke was that it was too big to store in a regular hat box.

Yeah, it was a BIG hat. And it was supposed to be big. Sherri had just made a joke about five women there with big hats who could have qualified as being covered parking, or something.

What I didn't understand was why her friend was so angry at her for being such a hit at the fund-raiser. Would she have preferred it if Sherri had bombed? I guess Sherri didn't know that she was supposed to be good, but not too good. And she had to improvise everything very quickly, because at the last minute, she found out that she couldn't talk about marriage, divorce, or sex. And why didn't her friend plan to sing at the fund-raiser? Sherri couldn't have been the only entertainment. Her friend told her that she was having the fund-raiser AND THEN asked her to perform.

Thanks guys, for the big hat explanations. I guess I've been spending too much time watching horse racing...I thought big hats were de rigueur at church as well as the track..and I love them, so it didn't even occur to me that the size would be the joke!

This show's almost like a throwback, it's so outdated with its hackneyed setups and broad one-liners. All the supporting characters have the exact same voice. Any one line of dialogue for them could just as easily be said by any other.

I wasn't offended by the "white woman" thing in practice, although in theory I guess it's offensive. Courteney Cox saying "My husband cheated on me. With a BLACK woman," wouldn't make anyone happy, and I'm also not one of those people that's all "Look at the historical context!" because that seems like a null sum that will never get anyone to move on, and at some point beating that drum gives the appearance that one is holding on to a chip on their shoulder. Ultimately I suppose the most hopeful read I can come up with is that since the show is based on Sherri, and since judging by The View Sherri clearly has a little to no education/common sense/awareness of others, it's fairly accurate to the "character," such as it is.

Re the whole Sherri saying if her husband had screwed a white woman topic. She should be pissed he screwed ANY woman regardless of her skin color. It reminds me of that scene in the movie Jungle Fever where the lead characater's wife finds out about his cheating on her with a white woman and a whole discussion ensues among this wife with her friends. Eventually in the end she feels betrayed regardless of the color of the woman in question.

Although the Sherri character might have a different view if she found out her husband had cheated on her with a man.

I'm just now watching the first epi of this show On Demand--did anyone else notice that Sherri's friend (don't remember her name) is played by the girl who played Greta on Family Matters?

Her name is Tammy Townsend. She also has a recurring role on Lincoln Heights (in fact, she was on tonight's episode).

Her marriage broke up because he cheated on her. I got the impression she found pictures of him with the other girl. After their breakup over the infidelity, he found out the girl was pregnant and told Sherri. So, yeah, the marriage was over regardless of the pregnancy, but it was his sleeping with her that led to the divorce, and his sleeping with her while they were married ended in her pregnancy, so, technically, saying their marriage ended when he got the sandwich maker pregnant was correct, in a roundabout way.

I didn't have a problem with the "he slept with a white woman" joke because it was just that - a joke. There are black women out there who feel that way, for reasons that have already been discussed, and I took it as a joke about the fact that there are women out there who do feel that way, not an indictment of black men sleeping with white women.

I'm surprised that I actually enjoy this show. I wasn't even planning on watching, but I caught one of the first episodes when they were running the reruns in the morning during the preview week of the first five episodes, and genuinely liked it. It's not on the level of shows like How I Met Your Mother or 30 Rock, but there are moments where I laugh out loud (like the "I Never" scene).

Wanted to like this show. Sherri is truly a funny woman. But it just doesn't click for me. Also, I agree from up top that there are so many setups for laughs, it's obvious. And so not humorous.

Agreed. And I doubt if a sitcom today could get away with a white woman being offended because her husband cheated on her with a black woman.

Lifetime seems to have a hard time with sitcoms (anyone remember Oh, Baby or Maggie?). They seem to do better with dramas (Army Wives, Strong Medicine, The Division) for some reason.

What I hate about the cable networks and new shows is that they need to offer different times to watch, like 3 slots, thru the week. Then, we can see if we like it or not.

Sherri was on Joy Behar's show tonight and Joy brought up the the line in SHERRI which garnered a lot of comments here regarding sleeping with a white woman. Sherri stated she received MANY responses on her Twitter about it. Sherri stated all of the negativity came from white women. How she knew, she didn't say. Perhaps the women mentioned their race, I don't know. Anyhow she went on to say what if the husband had cheated on the wife with a guy (which is what I mentioned above) she'd be just as upset. Her explanation was the feeling of, "What is wrong with me that you had to go to a white woman?" She then made the comment if a husband sleeps with a guy it would evoke the same kind of anger and shock because it makes a woman feel, "What is wrong with me that you had to go and be with a man."

I still say, if your man cheats on you with ANYBODY, you'd be pissed.

I watched for the first time tonight by accident and I found the show funny. I watched a couple of reruns before the new episode and I like both Sherri, Malcolm, and the supporting cast. I hope the show works out, there just aren't any good comedies anymore. I agree that some lines are predictable or obvious but the delivery is so great it makes up for it. I actually laughed out loud several times. I thought the comedy with Sherri and the Mom was pretty good.

Tonight's episode clarified a little of the timeline discrepencies. Kevin cheated with Quiznos girl, confessed, stopped seeing her. Things between Kevin and Sherri get rocky, she closes his accounts. After six months they are moving toward reconciling when Kevin finds out his Quiznos girl is pregnant. That's when the current show timeline begins, with Sherri ultra-pissed, K & S separated and getting divorced (but still technically married three months later). Sherri is Julian's "something".

Loved Jane Curtin's guest spot. There are advantages to filming in NYC.

Jane Curtin was great!
However, why did Sherri have a brand new tennis outfit when she had a wood racket? That was stupid.

FWIW if that happened to me, I would ask myself, "What is wrong with me that I couldn't figure out that he was gay or bisexual?" And THEN I would get angry that he cheated on me. And then I would get angry at him for concealing his gayness or bisexuality from me.


Yes! Yes! Yes! I was so happy to find that out! Comcast screwed up! Comcast called Sherri "recently divorced" in the pilot episode, which made me think that she was divorced when the show started. I would not call someone "recently divorced" if the divorce isn't final, which is why I don't work for Comcast, I guess. Anyway, since I believed Comcast, I figured that Sherri and Kevin had separated and gotten divorced, and that Kevin had never stopped seeing the Quiznos girl. I didn't know how long the separation had been, but it didn't matter. And then Sherri found out that the Quiznos girl was pregnant, and she went to pieces, and I couldn't understand why something that happened after the divorce should affect her like that. And I certainly didn't see why she claimed that the pregnancy caused the divorce, since, according to Comcast, the divorce was final way before Sherri found out about the pregnancy. Thanks a lot, Comcast!

But I don't see why Sherri is insisting on a divorce just because the Quiznos girl got pregnant. I did not get the impression that Kevin wants to marry the Quiznos girl. So why was Sherri willing to reconcile with Kevin after he cheated on her, but she was against the idea once she found out that there was a pregnancy involved?

I like this show. It's old-school but that's refreshing in a way. One thing that would improve the show 100% would be getting rid of that blonde with the heavy accent. I cringe every time she opens her mouth. It's the accent - not the character.