Mr. Cooper et nous

I loved "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper." I would watch it every chance I got. Mark Curry was an absolute riot as Mark Cooper the high school basketball coach who lived a gorgeous woman. His roommate was Vanessa Russell (Holly Robinson Peete) who he was always trying to get at.

Later the show added Geneval Lee (Sandra Quarterman) and her daughter Nicole (Raven Symone) which only enhanced the show. Raven was fresh off of "The Cosby Show" and still young and cute.

But the show was mainly Mark Curry. In fact, I just saw him last year doing stand-up in S. F. He was still hilarious and what made him better was his harkening back to his youth in Oakland which always resonates with local audiences.

Ok, so that may be a bit much. Nevertheless, it was a solid comedy that fit perfect into that TGIF-based Friday network programming.

Except it didn't rely on a quirky family set-up or a set of twins playing one person.

Instead it had a hilarious Mark Curry at the center of a hilarious show. His job and everything about him fit.

The side characters were all great, except when Raven Symone was nearly written into nearly as important as a character.

Vanessa was always the perfect babe. Geneva was annoying, but always at the right levels. PJ was the perfect principal to mock. And Omar Gooding, who excelled in Playmakers, was the perfect Ervin.

Frankly, I still miss the show.

And as for that Tyler kid, hilarious as always.

Come back Mark Curry. Celebrity Mole isn't enough!

I can't believe that a show like Mr.Cooper could ever become cancelled. All the characters are so funny... I laugh so hard when watching it that my sides hurt. I'm very thankful that there are still re-runs 10 years later!

I know a lot of people didn't like Hangin' with Mr Cooper but i did and i thought it was a funny sitcom. Mark Curry was just off the wall, as ex-basketball player Mark cooper, whose injury cuts short his sporting career and thus, he ends up being a science teacher/sports instructor at Oakland college, whilst Holly Robinson Peete proved that she can act in a sitcom, after her early stint in the 80s US hit drama, 21 jump street, playing Vanessa Russell. Dawnn Lewis from A Different World rounded up the cast as Robin Dumars.

The show did lose its momentum slightly when Geneva and her daughter, Nicole played by Raven Symone arrived on the scene, although i thought the romantic subplot involving Mark and Vanessa as the show progressed was interesting. I actually thought they looked cute as a couple; therefore i didn't have anything against it, i was just surprised that it wasn't until so late on in the series that the pair admitted their feelings for each other.The timing of it was rather inadequate and out of sync with the show.

I personally didn't think that Hangin' With Mr Cooper was trying to be like any other(black)sitcom but rather it had it's own agenda; although you could argue that whilst the main character Marion,in In The House was a former American Football player, Mark in 'Hangin' With...' was a ex- professional basketball player, who ends up sharing a house with two other women.

Eventually, the show got cancelled- much to my dismay- because it was and still is one of my favourite sitcoms ever and the ending was rather ill-timed and unfortunate, thus we will never know what the future holds for Mark and Vanessa as a couple.

Nonetheless, Hangin' with Mr Cooper was a fun-filled, humorous show, which should've got and deserved a much better conclusion to the sitcom.

"Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" was a pretty good sit-com. Mark Curry is an above average comedian and he had very good co-stars, including Holly Robinson Peete and the boy who played the neighbor. I laughed quite a lot when watching and was sorry to see the show cancelled.