My Brother and Me facts for kids
Quick facts for kids My Brother and Me |
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| Created by | Ilunga Adell Calvin Brown, Jr. |
| Written by | Ilunga Adell Demetrius A. Bady Bootsie Calvin Brown, Jr. Donelle Q. Buck Bobby Crawford Merrie Dudley Angella Harris Fred Johnson J. Stanford Parker |
| Directed by | Arlando Smith Adam Weissman |
| Starring | Arthur Reggie III Ralph Woolfolk IV Jimmy Lee Newman, Jr. Aisling Sistrunk Karen E. Fraction Jim R. Coleman |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Calvin Brown, Jr. Ilunga Adell Bonnie Burns |
| Production location(s) | Nickelodeon Studios, Orlando, Florida |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 24 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Burns & Burns |
| Distributor | Nickelodeon International Program Sales |
| Release | |
| Original network | Nickelodeon |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Original release | October 15, 1994 – January 15, 1995 |
My Brother and Me is an American sitcom, created by Ilunga Adell and Calvin Brown Jr., that originally aired on Nickelodeon. My Brother and Me is about the Parkers, a family living in the west side of Charlotte, North Carolina, who experience the highs and lows of everyday life.
It premiered on October 15, 1994 and ended on January 15, 1995 with a total of 13 episodes over the course of 1 season. In June 2014, Nickelodeon released My Brother & Me: The Complete Series as a two-disc manufacture on demand (MOD) release through Amazon in region 1.
Contents
Plot
The show centers on the Parkers, a family living in the west side of Charlotte, North Carolina, who experience the highs and lows of everyday life. The series starred Arthur Reggie III as pre-teen son Alfie, Ralph Woolfolk IV as his younger brother Dee-Dee, Aisling Sistrunk as older sister Melanie, Karen E. Fraction as mother Jennifer Parker, Jim R. Coleman as father Roger Parker, and Jimmy Lee Newman, Jr. as Alfie's troublesome best friend, Milton "Goo" Berry.
Cast
Main
- Arthur Reggie III as Alfred "Alfie" Parker: Dee-Dee's older brother and younger brother to Melanie. Best friends with Goo. He is 11 years old. He turns 12 in "The Surprise".
- Ralph Woolfolk IV as Derek "Dee-Dee" Parker: Alfie and Melanie's youngest brother. He looks up to Alfie. Best friends with Donnell and Harry. He is 8 years old and hasn't built common sense, explored in one episode when he went against his parents and Alfie's wishes not to get a hair cut similar to Cool Dr. Money as the cut wasn't age appropriate. He gave Alfie good advice in "The Robin Hood Play" in not getting worked up in wearing tights and let it distract form his performance on TV. Dee-Dee has a stuff dog named Bernie.
- Jimmy Lee Newman, Jr. as Milton "Goo" Berry: Alfie's best friend who is in love with Melanie. He is 11 years old. His sweet talk often fools Jennifer, but Roger and the others see past it. Although he picks on Dee-Dee, Harry, Donnell and Dionne constantly, he has shown to consider them as friends. Goo is insulted in "Hit the Open Man" when the coach kept calling him "Glue" instead of Goo.
- Aisling Sistrunk as Melanie Parker: Alfie and Dee-Dee's older sister and the object of Goo's affections, however she is repulsed by him. She is also best friends with Dionne. She is 15 years old.
- Karen E. Fraction as Jennifer Parker: The kids' mother who often falls for Goo's sweet talk. She has an older sister, Helen. She is 36 years old.
- Jim Coleman as Roger Parker: The kids' father. He is 33 years old. Unlike Jennifer, Roger is more wary of Goo's sweet talk. He also has a habit of telling boring stories about his childhood and his older brother Lawrence (Melanie, Alfie and Dee-Dee's uncle) to his family, which they often run away from.
Recurring
- Stefan J. Wernli as Donnell Wilburn: Dee-Dee's best friend besides Harry and Dionne's little brother. He is 8 years old. He turns 9 in "Dance".
- Amanda Seales as Dionne Wilburn: Melanie's fast talking best friend and Donnell's older sister. She is 13 years old. Dionne has a habit of being pessimistic and comes up with negative scenarios which sometimes involves her crush named Tim that even annoy Melanie. She is also antagonistic towards Goo whenever he insults her.
- Christopher Guerriero as Milton Garcia
- Keith "Bubba" Naylor as Harry White: Dee-Dee's best friend besides Donnell. He is 8 years old.
- Renaldo Ferguson as Himself
- Kym Whitley as Mrs. Pinckney: The owner of the comic book store. She's sometimes bossy towards Dee Dee, Donnell, and Harry by kicking them out of her store if they did something wrong or don't have any money to pay. Pinckney was also supportive of Dee-Dee when he suggested that Kendall Gill attend the charity carnival. She's 33 years old.
- Willie Brunson as Moo Berry: Goo's cousin, a classmate of Dee-Dee's.
- Florence Anthony as Aunt Helen: Jennifer's sister, Roger's sister-in-law and the children's aunt.
- Vanessa Baden as Janey, age 8
- Kendall Gill as Himself, age 26
- Mekia Cox
- Anais Adell
- Kenny Layne, age 13
- Misty Lee Gentle
- Micah Cox
- Patricia Kizzie
- Art Dohany
- Avis Marie Barnes as Mrs. Wilburn: Dionne and Donnell's mother
- Dennis Scott as Coach Hancock
Cool Dr. Money & The Money Girls
- Tony Delana as Cool Dr. Money
- Lee Hastings
- Ana Palmas
- Sunny Raskin
- Katrina Webster
Celebrity cameos
In the first episode of the series, former Charlotte Hornets basketball player Kendall Gill made a guest appearance. (Gill was a member of the Seattle SuperSonics at the time.)
The show also featured former Orlando Magic small forward Dennis Scott as a coach, in the episode "Hit the Open Man".
It would also feature Kenny Layne, the kid who had his hair cut similar to Cool Doctor Money. Layne is a professional wrestler formally signed to TNA Wrestling, where he is a two-time X Division Champion, and currently signed to Ring of Honor. He uses the ring name of "Kenny King".
Series structure
Interior monologues
The show extensively uses interior monologues. Almost every episode features the characters' "thoughts", usually overreacted responses to something another character says. This is especially prevalent in scenes revolving around the boys' father (Jim Coleman), who frequently tells painfully boring stories about his brother, the kids' uncle Lawrence, and forces the kids to endure his favorite dish, mumbo-jumbo gumbo.
Catchphrases
A common (though unofficial) catchphrase used in the show by multiple characters (usually Donnell, Dionne, and their mother) was "Don't hold your breath!" This was a typical response to an outlandish suggestion by another character (for example, Goo asking Melanie for a kiss, or Harry asking Donnell's mom to play country music at Donnell's birthday party). Another common catchphrase would occur when Dee-Dee would interrupt Goo in whatever story he was telling, and promptly after Goo telling Dee-Dee off, he would say, "Now as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted...." and would continue onward with his story. This occurrence happened quite often on the show. Alfie said in most episodes "Aw, man!" when faced with a situation or outcome that troubled him (ex, his father caught wind of his plans to cheat on a math quiz he ended up failing). In a couple of episodes, whenever the family goes upstairs to avoid listening to one of Roger's boring stories, Roger says "You gotta come down sometime."
There was also the use of the phrase "you didn't say Fuzzy Wuzzy" when Dee-Dee would convince Alfie to play the Fuzzy Wuzzy Bear Game.
One phrase, said by Dee-Dee and memorable for its unorthodox inflection, was "Hit me! Hit me!" He was being bullied at school, so his brother Alfie and Goo taught him how to bluff. After saying that phrase, Dee-Dee came home with a black eye and covered in mud. They came to find out, it was a girl that was bullying him and that she is the younger sister to their classmates, Toya and Trisha.
Episodes
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
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| 1 | "Nobody's Baby" | Arlando Smith | Donnelle Buck | October 15, 1994 | |
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Dee-Dee has been dying to want to go to a monster truck show for quite a while. However, when Alfie and Goo's baseball team make it to the big finals, they forget about the monster truck show. Dee-Dee gets angry and decides to run away feeling like he doesn't matter to anyone. It's up to Alfie and Goo to convince Dee-Dee to come home.
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| 2 | "Partners" | Adam Weissman | Donnelle Buck | October 23, 1994 | |
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A cute girl named Janaya who has a crush on Dee-Dee kisses him in front of his two friends. They promise that they won't tell a soul, but soon everyone finds out about it, due to Donnell and Harry's accidental slip up. Betrayed, Dee-Dee ends his friendship with Donnell and Harry. Alfie and Goo must have the boys make amends by telling them of their own experiences of what the other did. Dee-Dee is convinced to make up with Donnell and Harry, while Goo is angry over Alfie's slip up in mentioning his involvement in accidentally breaking the window in the school's gym.
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| 3 | "Dance" | Adam Weissman | Ilunga Adell | October 30, 1994 | |
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Donnell announces that he is going to have a "cool" birthday party with dancing and all. Dee Dee and Harry admit they can't dance and they take lessons from Alfie. Meanwhile, Alfie gets an F on his pop quiz for math and is grounded for planning to cheat on his quiz with Goo. He must get help from Melanie to get his grades up, who will only agree if he helps teach Dee-Dee how to dance. Jennifer eventually lets Alfie off his punishment after Roger bored the family to tears about his life stories.
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| 4 | "A Stranger Among Us" | Susan Dansby | Fred Johnson | November 6, 1994 | |
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Dee-Dee is happy that he finally got a pet snake, but is afraid his parents will find out. He then he loses the snake in his house. It's the least of the boys' problems when Melanie and Dionne look for their teacher's pet rabbit, Duchess, whom also goes missing. To cover it up, Alfie and Dee-Dee give Goo their money to buy a replacement rabbit to pose as Duchess. After Dee-Dee finds the snake in his father's office, Alfie blames Goo for the mess and tells him to take the snake back. He will agree if Alfie gives up his Kendall Gill jersey and Dee-Dee must give up the hat. When Melanie and Dionne finally find Duchess, Jennifer demands to know who the rabbit in her cage belongs to.
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| 5 | "The Bully" | Arlando Smith | Fred Johnson | November 13, 1994 | |
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Alfie gets a new crush on girl named Toya. Meanwhile, Dee-Dee gets beat up at school by a fourth grader named Big Lou. Dee-Dee asks Alfie to teach him how to fight, but when that seems hopeless, Goo teaches him how to bluff. However when Dee-Dee is further beaten up, Alfie decides to talk to Lou himself. He and Goo discover that Lou is not only a girl, but also she is the younger sister of Toya and Trisha in their class.
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| 6 | "The Candy Sale" | Arlando Smith | Demetrius A. Bady & Calvin Brown, Jr. | November 20, 1994 | |
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Alfie and Goo want to buy new jackets. Goo's uncle agrees to front them candy bars to sell. They plan to buy their jackets with the profits, but are having a hard time. However when they notice Dee-Dee using his cute charm to get Roger and Jennifer's closest friends to buy the candy bars, the two take advantage of it. When Harry and Donnell notice Dee-Dee isn't getting his cut, they tell on Alfie and Goo to Melanie and Dionne who confront the boys. However, they're in for a surprise when they learned that Alfie and Goo used the money to buy themselves and Dee-Dee new jackets of their own as a token of their appreciation. Melanie, Dionne, Harry and Donnell apologizes to the two boys for their assumptions.
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| 7 | "Hit the Open Man" | Arlando Smith | J. Stanford Parker | December 4, 1994 | |
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The school basketball tryout are on for Coach Hancock (Dennis Scott) at the gym. Dee-Dee, Harry, Donnell and Goo make it on their respective teams, but Alfie is cut. When he asks why he was cut, Hancock points out to Alfie that basketball is a team sport. Instead of being a team player, he knew Alfie's showing off and ball hogging nature would be bad for morale. When he comes home, Goo tells everyone at the party that Alfie didn't make the team. Despite Melanie promising him to be nice to Goo, he refuses to come out and even his parents doesn't fare well. Goo and Dee-Dee go upstairs to his room to talk to him. Alfie tries to blame Hancock for not picking skill over being a team player, but Goo disagrees. He tells Alfie off that he had no one else to blame but himself for being cut. He is shocked when Goo mentions that Coach Hancock was in the right to cut Alfie because he was focused more on showing off his basketball skills that he ended up being a ball hog and wasn't a team player for it. When Dee-Dee attempts to defend his brother and will sit out for the games, Alfie refuses to let him do so. He tells Dee-Dee that he's the one who messed up and that his brother shouldn't miss out on playing for it. When he tries out on the basketball team again, Alfie will do a lot less showing off and more being a team player.
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| 8 | "Real Men Don't Wear Tights" | Arlando Smith | Bobby Crawford & Fred Johnson | December 11, 1994 | |
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Alfie is excited that he got the part of Robin Hood in his school play, but then backs out at the last moment because he find out that he needs to wear tights, which he thinks are for girls. However, Dee-Dee wisely tells him not to let it bother him and this leads to Alfie regaining the role of Robin Hood from Goo. Afterwards, he admitted to Dee-Dee that it was easy to get back the role of Robin Hood from Goo when he was shown embarrassing alterations Melanie did to fit the latter's frame.
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| 9 | "The Surprise" | Arlando Smith | Ilunga Adell & Angela Harris | December 18, 1994 | |
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Alfie can't understand why Melanie and Goo are constantly hanging around together, especially since Melanie hates Goo. But when the two confess that they are "dating", he faints and is forced to hang out with Dee-Dee and his friends. However, Alfie is in for a surprise when he learns that Melanie and Goo along with Roger and Jennifer had been planning his surprise birthday party. Goo mentioned that Dee-Dee and his friends couldn't know about it because they would've spilled the beans.
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| 10 | "The Quest for Kendall's Autograph" | Arlando Smith | Calvin Brown Jr. | December 31, 1994 | |
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Alfie and Dee-Dee are supposed to be working the dunking booth at the carnival, but then Goo arrives to inform them that Kendall Gill is at the comic book store for autograph signing so the boys abandon their position to get their basketball cards signed. This leaves Melanie and Jennifer to run the booth. However in the comic book store, the boys soon learn their father is there to do an interview with him and are caught. Despite Goo trying to lie his way out of trouble, Dionne exposes his culpability in it and humiliates him. Roger tells Alfie and Dee-Dee that he will discuss their punishment later, even informing Goo that he will talk to his own parents. Dee-Dee comes up with a great idea to have Kendall Gill come to the charity carnival and his idea works well for everyone. At the carnival, Dee-Dee is seen helping Mrs. Pickney and his friends run the autograph booth. Alfie and Goo must work the dunking booth wearing monster masks as part of their punishment. Dionne takes advantage of it by promoting the two as such. Even Moo (Goo's cousin) gets revenge by dunking the older boys.
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| 11 | "Sensitive Goo" | Adam Weissman | Donnelle Buck & Merrie Dudley | January 1, 1995 | |
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Jennifer's sister and the children's aunt, Helen, comes to visit and keep an eye on the children when Roger proves ineffective. Meanwhile, Goo develops amnesia from an accidental basketball thrown in the head by Alfie. He is nice to Dee-Dee and Dionne, but is very rude to Melanie, prefers to be called by his real name Milton, calls Alfie and Dee-Dee by their real names Alfred and Derek and wants to do homework on the weekend. The only cure is another hit on the head.
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| 12 | "The Joke's On You" | Adam Weissman | Demetrius A. Bady & Calvin Brown, Jr. | January 8, 1995 | |
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Alfie and Goo began a series of prank wars with Dee-Dee and his friends after the younger boys' trick gum prank (as an earlier pay back for Alfie throwing water balloons at them). When Alfie and Goo's latest prank by making Dee-Dee, Donnell and Harry's chili dogs extra spicy, Melanie and Dionne get involve. They pay the two older boys by throwing pies in their faces and leaving them to face Mrs. Pickney's wrath for making a mess in her comic book store's carpet. Alfie and Goo declare war on Melanie and Dionne for their involvement. The older boys get them back by replacing their can for their school's fundraiser with one that says "Ugly Funky Feet Fund". Dee-Dee, Harry and Donnell pay Alfie and Goo back for humiliating Melanie and Dionne by squirting them with water guns. The children's prank war escalates further. Meanwhile, Roger and Jennifer wins Best Family of the Year award, but are humiliated by the children's prank war. They let Melanie, Alfie and Dee-Dee along with their friends know their disappointment. This includes explaining their behavior to Miss Honeycutt when she was presenting the award. Roger mentions that he will discuss proper punishment for Melanie, Alfie and Dee-Dee. Jennifer agrees and even informs Donnell, Dionne, Harry and Goo that they're not getting out of their own punishments either because she will have a personal talk with their own parents. The kids are soon arguing amongst themselves about whose to blame for the prank war, which Melanie, Dionne, Dee-Dee, Donnell and Harry agreeing that Alfie and Goo started it.
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| 13 | "The Hair Cut" | Adam Weissman | Ilunga Adell & Calvin Brown, Jr. | January 15, 1995 | |
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Despite having his parents and Alfie refusing to let Dee-Dee get his haircut similar to Cool Dr. Money as they know the cut isn't age appropriate for school, he gets one from Goo for $2. However when Goo messes up the hairstyle, Alfie tells on him and Dee-Dee to Roger and Jennifer. Angered by this, Roger forces Dee-Dee to get his hair shaved as punishment for disobeying them and Goo must pay him back. When Dee-Dee is laughed at by his friends, the three get into a fight. Soon, Alfie and Goo get into one of their own, which the teachers break up the fight. Alfie and Dee-Dee are sent home with Roger, who informs them that Jennifer will know about it. Despite Alfie trying to bribe him, Roger refuses and tells him that if she finds out from someone else, Jennifer will punish him for it. Dee-Dee then apologize to Roger for his earlier behavior. He also apologizes disobeying both him and Jennifer by getting the haircut, realizing just how inappropriate the cut was for someone his age.
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Cancellation
The show made history as the network's first show featuring a predominantly black cast. Despite its popularity during its premiere, the series only lasted 13 episodes. Ralph Woolfolk IV explained in an interview that the show was canceled due to disagreements between the producers and creators of the show; a second season was planned but the two parties had different visions for the show that caused a major fallout.
Awards and nominations
In 1996 and 1997, My Brother and Me was nominated for the NAACP Image Award (Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special).
