Frank's Place

Going on twenty years later, and it was one of a kind. Best show hands down.

Too funny, without being sexually explicit with adult material. Brilliant.

Beah Richards would deservedly win the guest actress Emmy as the widow of the man who "may" have killed himself, but to this day I enjoy fellow nominee Conchata Farrell from the same episode as the lawyer representing Richards. The lines "I spit up on her. My mother died in her arms" is a chilling, stunning setup.

"In other words, gentlemen, I am your worst nightmare come true."

Fantastic.

The Rosalind Cash-Lynne Thigpen episode. Subtle, yet memorable. Cash was the old voodoo ways, Thigpen was the updated voodoo ways. Too classic.

Loved the "spell" being carried in by Thigpen in a paper bag covered in aluminum.

I had forgotten about the dead body being removed from the funeral home. The "body" would tip his hat and smile at the very end after credits rolled.

The boxing match. Sensational.

I suppose my fave was the restaurant episode with the country band, the drag queens, the white family and "Pick a bale of cotton." Around the same time, Robin Williams had pulled the same joke on a special "Carol, Carl, Robin & Whoopi" but it was still funny here.

My brother managed to record most of the episodes, only missing a two parter dealing with drugs.

I still think about this grand show.

Daphne Maxwell-Reid and Virginia Capers. Hilarious when she got mad and was in that wheelchair.

And the reverend! How could I forget him! "But the Lord loves me!"

He would have a quick scene in the boxing match that was too funny.

Toward the end, Frank would be told that Daphne was getting married to a football player and he would meet the guy, who had a voice like a cartoon character. Frank felt vindicated. At the very end, he mimicked MIckey Mouse giving football calls.

This show would be replaced with that horrendous retirement community show that starred Glynis Johns, Alan Young and the fellow who played Wimpy in the Robin Williams-Shelly Duvall Popeye movie.

Was Frank's Place ahead of its time? Who knows?

It would receive numerous nominations in the only year it was on, and other than Richards' guest win, it would only receive writing.

Yes, it seemed to be because they were Black. Even in the eighties it could be too much. It was a shame.

But thankfully the show was done for that year.

This show was a victim of CBS. As other posters here have so adroitly put it, this was a wonderful, well done show about a New Orleans restaurant. The setting, the characters, the little touches throughout were positively intoxicating. The episodes I remember are "The Bum Out Front" and "Dueling Voodoo". The "Voodoo" episode was especially memorable because the lead character literally had to use magic powder to undo a curse. I remember when the show aired, it did have low ratings, but I thought they would renew it and give it another shot, because the show was of such high quality. I thought CBS would do what NBC did when it renewed the low rated but high quality "Cheers" and "Hill St. Blues" and gave them the time to find their audience. It was canceled by CBS and I have never forgotten how disappointed I was at that decision. Part of the reason it was taken off of the air, was so that the leads actors in the series, Tim Reid and his wife Daphne Maxwell Reid could do a forgettable hour long detective show called "Snoops". "Frank's Place" truly was a victim of CBS, I'd love to see the series on DVD or on Nick at Night again.

Frank's Place was loved by both viewers and critics. Too bad sponsors and networks were too jittery about black people as they really are and not as stereotypes. The episode where the "guys" take Ed's body from the funeral home for a night on the town is the funniest ever shown on TV. Even Lucy and Ethel would vote it the best.

I've got to agree, this is closer to real Louisiana folks & New Orleans than anything else you'll find, and there's a lot of heart to it. I sense that the series was a labor of love, and I wish I could have it on DVD, along with Evening Shade.

The classiest sitcom ever on television, Frank's Place did not insult the intelligence of the American public, but used humor to make people think and perhaps come away from the thirty minute episode a better person for having watched. Perhaps the most innovative idea was the casting of Don Yesso, who was so fluent in the native tongue of New Orleans that sometimes captioning was used so that viewers could follow the dialogue! Wonderful. I can remember waiting all week for the show to come on, and taping each one, but over the years the tapes were worn out and/or lost. What a shame to not be able to buy this wonderful show on DVD. Someone who has influence, please help those of us who have a jones on for a Frank fix!