Girlfriends is an American sitcom television series created by Mara Brock Akil that premiered on September 11, 2000, on UPN and aired on UPN’s successor network, The CW, before being canceled in 2008. The final episode aired on February 11, 2008.
The series debuted on UPN on Monday, September 11, 2000. After airing for several years on the network at 9/8C on Mondays, The CW moved Girlfriends to Sundays at 8/7C. After this, the ratings plummeted. On October 9, 2006, Girlfriends, along with The CW’s other African-American programs, moved back to Mondays. At this point, Girlfriends returned to its original time slot.
While UPN was still airing new episodes of Girlfriends, the network also began airing reruns five days per week. When the show moved to The CW network after UPN merged with The WB network, MyNetwork TV (which was created to take over UPN’s former affiliate stations) picked up the rights to air reruns of Girlfriends, although they eventually discontinued running them. WE tv, a network primarily focused on women’s programming, later acquired exclusive rights to air the limited-release episodes on Sundays and exercised an option to not allow broadcast television networks re-broadcast rights to these reruns.
Due to the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, the last episodes produced aired on February 11, 2008. The CW had announced plans to move the series to Sunday nights. However, it was later announced on February 13, 2008, that the series was canceled after 8 seasons and a proper series finale would not be produced. A representative from The CW stated that the network was going to cancel the series due to low ratings and that it would have been too expensive to re-enter production.
A retrospective episode was in development to conclude the series but was later scrapped. The network had offered the actors only half of their usual episodic salary to take part, and the actors collectively turned the offer down.
Main Characters
Joan Carol Clayton, Esq: (played by Tracee Ellis Ross) is considered the unofficial “den mother” of the group, as she frequently looks out for her friends even at the expense of dealing with her own problems, which are plentiful throughout the series. Originally from Fresno, Joan owns a home in the Wilton Historic District.[11] Joan met Toni when they were children and then met Lynn in college, and Maya is her assistant at the law firm. She has always had relationship problems and gave up her law career to pursue her dreams. She and Toni clash several times throughout the series, resulting in ending and reconciling their friendship. Major incidents involved Joan inadvertently revealing Toni’s cheating to Greg, and Joan’s jealousy of Toni’s marriage to Todd, but their friendship officially ends by the end of Season 6 when Joan fails to appear for Toni’s custody hearing. For much of Season 7, Joan mourned the loss of her friendship with Toni, eventually opting to resent and belittle her in front of the group. At the end of Season 7, she became engaged to Aaron Waters, whom she met while rehabilitating homes in New Orleans damaged by Hurricane Katrina; she moved into his home, in West Adams, Los Angeles, while Aaron was deployed to Iraq and rented her house to Lynn.
Maya Denise Wilkes (née Woods): (played by Golden Brooks) is a former assistant to Joan and a housewife/author. Maya grew up in Compton, California and is married to her high school sweetheart, Darnell (played by Flex Alexander). They have one child, Jabari. Maya is the youngest and sassiest of the group, and is often at odds with Toni over her ego-driven lifestyle. She is a devoted wife and mother, and is frequently depicted with stronger religious and moral convictions. Maya is the most “working-class” member of the group, especially in earlier seasons. In the first few seasons Maya was more obviously “from the hood”, with the associated stereotyped speech and mannerisms. However, as she becomes more successful in her career and interacts more extensively with the legal and publishing industries, she exhibits fewer stereotypes; while still obviously from a different social background as the rest of the group, she is no longer as caricatured. In the early seasons, Maya’s marriage to Darnell imploded after she had an emotional affair with an acquaintance. Later, after she launches a career as a self-help author, they reunite. In Season 8, the couple endured a miscarriage and later explored the possibility of adopting a baby girl. Over the course of the series, Maya lived in South Central Los Angeles, Leimert Park, and finally bought her dream home with Darnell in Lancaster. At the end of Season 7, Maya and Darnell sell their home in Lancaster and move to West Adams, Los Angeles.
Lynn Ann Searcy: (played by Persia White) was Joan and Toni’s roommate at UCLA and lived with Joan for eight years before the series begins. Lynn holds five post-graduate degrees. Born in Virginia to a black father and a bipolar white mother from a wealthy family, Lynn was adopted by a white family in Seattle (her dad affectionately calls her “Noodle”). She did not embrace her black heritage until college. When Joan decides it is time for Lynn to move out of her home, Lynn reluctantly becomes more independent by taking on various, mostly menial jobs. She previously lived with Toni, William, Maya, and Sivad (temporarily); and shared a garage with then-boyfriend Vosco before moving into her own apartment (after becoming a property manager at the complex where Maya lived). She produces a documentary on the HIV/AIDS pandemic, focusing on African-American women. While Lynn is depicted as the most sexually adventurous one of the group (with frequent mentions of one-night stands, group sex, sex toys, and her infamous “Lynn Spin”), she also dates frequently. She is most attracted to artistic and spiritual men, and over the course of the series has relationships with a Jamaican immigrant, a poet, a pastor, and a musician named Finn (the recording artist Tricky). She was also briefly married to William. Her romantic involvement with Lenny (who was so similar to Lynn that the others labeled him as her “brother”) was the catalyst for her to search for her biological father. After dating Finn, she discovers that music is her passion, and starts a band called Indigo Skye. Lynn is often considered the bohemian of the group, with her carefree nature and down-to-earth personality, and is a vegan. By Season 8, she had signed with “Dirty Girl” Records.
Antoinette “Toni” Marie Childs-Garrett: (played by Jill Marie Jones, Seasons 1–6) has been Joan’s friend since they were eight-years-old, they attended elementary, high school, and college together. Toni grew up on poor on a farm with an alcoholic mother in Fresno, California. Toni is considered the shallow and popular one of the girlfriends and is the self-proclaimed “cute one” of the group. During the first season Toni and Maya don’t get along (she considered Maya to be a lower-class intruder), but ultimately embraced her friendship. Toni is a real-estate agent who eventually opens her own brokerage. She rekindles her romance with Greg Sparks (the “love of her life”), but he dumps her when he learns she cheated on him with Dr. Clay Spencer. Toni unexpectedly finds love with Todd Garrett, a white, Jewish plastic surgeon, whom she marries after a short courtship. After a rocky year-long marriage, the two separate after Todd moves to New York. Toni and Todd have a baby named Morgan. They fight over custody, but at the end of the 6th season work out their issues. Joan misses the custody hearing leading to the fight that ultimately ends Toni and Joan’s friendship. Toni moves to New York City so Morgan can be closer to Todd, but has maintained her friendships with Maya and Lynn. Toni’s condo was located in Hollywood Hancock Park.
William Jerrowme Dent, Esq: (played by Reggie Hayes) is the girls’ closest male friend. He is a senior partner at Goldberg, Swedelson, McDonald and Lee. Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri he is portrayed as somewhat of a “mama’s boy”, but possesses self-confidence and a dry sense of humor. (One episode focused on his distant and complicated relationship with his father, who is a perfectionist.) After being left at the wedding altar by the woman he loved and police officer, Yvonne Blackwell, he reluctantly gets back into the groove of dating, including Donna, Kara, senior partner
Sharon Upton Farley (played by Anne-Marie Johnson), and the at-times vicious Monica Charles Brooks (whom he ultimately marries). Fearing that Joan would beat him to the altar, he eloped with Lynn on a whim; though he quickly realized that he wanted to find true love and they ultimately divorce. He later realizes that Joan is the right woman for him, but after three months of courting, the two end their relationship. He became a sperm donor for his sister Linda and her same-sex partner, and regards the baby as his “nephew-son.” He is also co-owner of the J-Spot restaurant with Joan. In later seasons, William forges a tight bond with Darnell, Maya’s husband. During Season 7, he was working on his marriage with Monica. According to William’s mother, his middle name is spelled with two “R”s, and a silent “W”.[12] Beginning in season 2, William owns a home in the Valley.
Darnell Leroy Wilkes: (played by Flex Alexander in Season 1, and then played by Khalil Kain, Seasons 6–8, main; 2–5, recurring) is Maya’s husband. He and Maya married at a young age and had their son, Jabari. Darnell was an airport baggage handler, before becoming a mechanic at a local car repair shop. For a while, he was a NASCAR pit crew mechanic. After Maya’s affair with Stan Wright the two divorce. In earlier seasons, he felt threatened by Maya’s friendship with Joan, Toni, and Lynn; though he ultimately put his issues aside and became friends with them. After the divorce, he dated a woman named Lena (Chenoa Maxwell) whom Maya disliked because she still had feelings for Darnell. At Lena and Darnell’s wedding, Maya professed her love for Darnell. The two reconcile and begin living together again in Season 6. In the end of Season 7, Darnell accepts an offer to buy back his garage and get Maya and Jabari a new house in Los Angeles. After suffering a miscarriage, the couple considers adopting a baby girl.
Monica Charles Brooks-Dent: (played by Keesha Sharp, Seasons 7–8, main; 3–6, recurring) is William’s wife. All four of the girlfriends (especially Lynn and Toni) hated her (Joan comes to see her vulnerable side and becomes her friend, and Toni moves to New York City at the end of the sixth season). In the seventh season, the girls slowly and later fully accept Monica as their friend as Monica does the same. Although engaged to William, the two date twice before; they meet at a bar the first time. Since the last time William proposes to her in Monaco, he has occasionally had doubts about ever doing so. Eventually, William and Monica get married, but on their wedding day, he has too much to drink and confesses that he has had and still has doubts about marrying her. Monica leaves William in Season 7, but returns shortly after the girlfriends go to Chicago to persuade her to get back together with William. On their visit, the girls discover that Monica, due to her father’s dementia and her mother’s power of attorney, has been cut off from her family fortune, so Joan offers Monica a job at the J-Spot. William is thrilled about Monica’s return until she demands half of what he earned while they were married. They manage to slowly rebuild their relationship but constantly clash at the J-Spot. In the Season 7 finale, Monica and William get back together. By Season 8, Monica was pregnant and is seen spending more time with the other three girlfriends, particularly Joan.