The Parent 'Hood

One of my favorite shows! Those kids were hilarious.

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.

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

An obvious WB version of The Cosby Show, except this show spent too much time preaching about cliché morals that have been told a thousand times on shows like Full House and The Cosby Show. Too many morals and not enough comedy. The parents are unlikeable (the mother is a snob and the father is too uptight) and the children are unlikeable too. Since the family members spent too much time getting into the typical trouble that leads to that big moral speech at the end, they didn't have enough time to be funny so they added flat boring neighbors to make the show bearable. TV shows like this didn't last because at the end of the day, we watch TV to be entertained, not to be preached to. And though family shows such as The Cosby Show and Full House preached, they were still charming at the same time.

I remember when this show first came on, I thought it was okay. But then after a few episodes, I came to the decision that it just wasn't funny. By looking at movies from the '80s (Hollywood Shuffle, for example), it was evident that Robert Townsend COULD act, but maybe he'd forgotten how for this show.

After the end of the third season, Kenny Blank (who played the eldest child, Michael Peterson) abruptly left the show, and he was replaced by an ex-con kid named T.K. (played by Tyrone Dorzell Burton). I initially thought the episodes with T.K. were better, but I've seen those episodes on reruns and now I know that I was wrong. With the possible exception of Burton, the acting on the show was TERRIBLE. And this includes the cast AND the guest stars. In fact, any time anyone yelled, it was overdone.

Also, as another reviewer said, the plots went from funny escapades to instilling wholesome family values in the most generic way possible. Approximately at the point where there were ten minutes of show left (including commercial time), Robert and Jerri came to the selected kid and said something like, "Don't change your image. Be yourself!" or "If you really care about her, you should tell her."

I have no idea how this show lasted as long as it did. Usually wack sitcoms only last on UPN.

Anthony Rupert