Sister, Sister (TV series)
Sister, Sister is an American television sitcom starring Tia and Tamera Mowry as identical twin sisters separated at birth who are reunited as teenagers. It premiered on April 1, 1994, on ABC as part of its TGIF comedy lineup, and finished its run on The WB on May 23, 1999, airing 119 episodes over six seasons. The cast consisted of the Mowry sisters with Jackée Harry and Tim Reid costarring as their respective adoptive parents, alongside Marques Houston as their annoying neighbor Roger. RonReaco Lee and Deon Richmond later joined the cast in the fifth season.
The series was created by Kim Bass, Gary Gilbert, and Fred Shafferman, and produced by de Passe Entertainment and Paramount Network Television. As a result of ABC removing Sister, Sister from its TGIF lineup for its second season, ratings declined significantly and the network ultimately canceled the series in April 1995. The series was then picked up by The WB as a replacement for Muscle on its Wednesday night lineup, where it aired for an additional four seasons until May 1999. In 2018, a potential revival of Sister, Sister was confirmed but was not pursued due to a lack of interest and copyright issues.
Overview
In the pilot, the twins are reunited during a chance encounter shopping at a clothing store at the mall with their adoptive parents.
Tia Landry (Tia Mowry) is the intelligent twin from inner-city Detroit, where her adoptive mother, Lisa (Jackée Harry), works as a seamstress; Tamera Campbell (Tamera Mowry) is the twin from the suburbs, where her adoptive father, Ray (Tim Reid), owns a successful limousine service. After their unexpected reunion, Ray reluctantly allows Tia and Lisa to move in because Lisa was about to take a design job in St. Louis, which would have separated the girls again. The girls’ neighbor is nerdy Roger Evans (Marques Houston), an annoying teenager who is infatuated with both of them. Tia and Tamera would often break the fourth wall and address the audience. In the final season when the girls go off to college, Roger ceases to appear in the series because he was still in high school, though he does return as a guest in the final episode. By the fifth season, Tia and Tamera ended up with steady boyfriends: Tia’s is Tyreke Scott (RonReaco Lee) and Tamera’s is Jordan Bennett (Deon Richmond).
In the sixth-season episode “Father’s Day”, the twins meet their biological father Matt Sullivan (played by Tony Carriero), a white famous photojournalist who never married their mother, Racelle Gavin, because they never got the chance: she was asked to paint a mural in Florida and he was assigned “the opportunity of a lifetime” in the Middle East; when he left, Racelle told him she’d join him in Tel Aviv but never mentioned her pregnancy, and after 6 months she stopped writing. When she died, Matt wasn’t allowed to see the girls because he couldn’t prove he was their father, and when he searched for them later, he never found them because they had been adopted separately.
Tia Landry (Tia Mowry) is honest, responsible, mature, and a straight-A student who graduates from high school at the top of her class; she aspired to go to Harvard but was rejected and attended the University of Michigan. Mostly she and Tamera break the fourth wall to the audience about their everyday day situation. Her main boyfriend is Ray’s mechanic, Tyreke Scott, who later becomes a police escort aka campus security at the University of Michigan. Their relationship started in the fifth season, though they broke up briefly in the sixth season then reunited. Tia’s often involved in Tamera’s schemes, and Tamera sometimes has Tia pose as her.
Tamera Campbell (Tamera Mowry) is Tia’s total opposite personality-wise. She is highly impulsive, less intellectual than her sister, and a big fan of Coolio. Mostly she and Tia break the fourth wall to the audience about their everyday day situation. She meets Jordan Bennett, editor of her school’s newspaper, and they start dating midway through the fifth season and their relationship grew stronger in the sixth season. Never afraid to speak her mind, she often voiced her penchant for the Hush Puppies shoe brand.
Lisa Landry (Jackée Harry) is Tia’s adoptive mother, a fashion designer; her personality is actually more aligned with Tamera’s, sometimes being even more impulsive, lustful, and reckless than Tamera. She often cracks jokes throughout the episodes, typically at Ray’s expense. She is prone to bouts of depression, during which she consumes high quantities of food (though it is also a running joke that she has a hearty appetite even when she is not depressed). Until season three, Lisa ran her fashion-design business, “Fashions by Lisa”, out of Ray’s house. In the third-season episode “History a la Carte”, Lisa moves her business to a cart in a local mall, which burns down because of a faulty popcorn machine in the season four episode “Sis-Boom-Bah”, after which she goes back to running her business out of Ray’s house. Unlike Ray, she isn’t strict with the girls, though she has her moments. She marries Victor Sims in the finale.
Ray Campbell (Tim Reid) is Tamera’s widowed adoptive father. He runs his own successful limousine service. He becomes Tia’s father figure and is very strict with both girls. His biggest weakness is attractive women, who often seduce him. A recurring joke is how he slips when talking to women, like saying “breast” when he means “rest” or “chardonaked” for “chardonnay”. He dated Lisa for a time during the fourth season, though he and Lisa once accidentally kissed while dancing in the season-one episode “The Concert” (only to find out that they were both thinking of their high-school crushes while kissing). Though Ray is Tamera’s adoptive father, he clearly aligns with Tia’s personality; both are intellectual and have more dignified personalities than Lisa and Tamera. In high school he was a male cheerleader nicknamed “Ra-Ra-Ray” by his classmates. Ray is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and the Republican Party. Ray is conservative and sometimes very cheap.
Roger Evans (Marques Houston) is Tia and Tamera’s nerdy annoying neighbor and friend. The girls frequently reject his advances (which often include sexual innuendo), and the repeated chorus by the various members of the household was “Go Home, Roger!” Roger did actually date them on different occasions (only twice by their choice); after going through a growth spurt in the season-four episode “When a Man Loves Two Women,” he asks out both Tia and Tamera, along with several other girls at Roosevelt High. Roger eventually matures into the twins’ confidante. Around the time the series began, Houston was a member of the R&B group Immature (later known as IMx); Houston’s real-life persona was written in as his character’s cousin in the season-five episode “A Friend Indeed”. For a number of episodes in season 5, Roger appears infrequently with little to no explanation (Marques Houston’s mother had cancer at the time). At the end of season 5, after Tia and Tamera graduate from high school, Roger is not seen or mentioned again (it is presumed that he is still in high school while Tia and Tamera are in college, as it is made clear in earlier episodes that Roger is a year younger than they are). After a long absence, he was written back into the series as he appears in the final episode as a guest at Lisa’s wedding and sings a song for her. At the twins’ high school graduation, Roger sings “Never Say Goodbye.” It is explained that he left the show to tend to his ill mother and the fact that he was about to be written off of the show anyway because his character is a year younger than the twins made it easier for him to leave.
Tyreke Scott (RonReaco Lee) is Tia’s boyfriend during the final two seasons of the series, though he and Tia briefly break up in the sixth season. After realizing he’s still in love with Tia, he eventually gets back together with her. He is a high school drop-out, after having a run-in with the law and being arrested for his older brother’s grand theft auto. He eventually decides to get his GED. And, with some help from Ray, he was permitted to graduate with the girls and Jordan. He goes on to attend and get a job as a security guard at the University of Michigan. He is shown to be laid-back, soft-spoken and fairly mature. Still, he can be chauvinistic and temperamental at times. He appears in season 5 as a recurring cast member and is a series regular in season 6.
Jordan Bennett (Deon Richmond) is Tamera’s boyfriend during the final two seasons of the series, eventually going to college with the girls. He’s goofy, outspoken and just as passionate as Tamera. He’s shown to be highly intelligent and ambitious, seeing as he was class president and editor of the school paper during his senior year. We later find out that Jordan suffers from a traumatic event in his childhood, where his mother ran off with a deacon at his church. This left him bitter towards congregations until Tamera helps ease his pain and find his faith again. He also pledges and eventually join the Gamma Psi fraternity in his college. Like Tyreke, he appears in season 5 as a recurring cast member and is a series regular in season 6.
Awards and nominations
1998 – Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Comedy Series – George Spiro Dibie (Nominated) 1997 – Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Comedy Series – George Spiro Dibie (Nominated) 1996 – Outstanding Individual Achievement in Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Comedy Series – George Spiro Dibie (Nominated) 1995 – Outstanding Individual Achievement in Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Comedy Series – George Spiro Dibie (Won)
2000 – Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Won) 2000 – Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Jackée Harry (Won) 2000 – Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series – Tim Reid (Nominated) 1999 – Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Won) 1999 – Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Jackée Harry (Won) 1999 – Outstanding Comedy Series (Nominated) 1998 – Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series – Tim Reid (Nominated) 1996 – Outstanding Comedy Series (Nominated) 1996 – Outstanding Youth Actor/Actress – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Nominated)
1998 – Favorite Television Actress – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Nominated) 1998 – Favorite Television Show (Nominated) 1997 – Favorite Television Actress – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Won) 1996 – Favorite Television Actress – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Won) 1996 – Favorite Television Show (Nominated) 1995 – Favorite Television Actress – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Won)
1999 –Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series: Supporting Young Actor – Deon Richmond (Nominated) 1997 – Best Performance in a TV Comedy: Guest Starring Young Performer – Verner, Robin Marie (Nominated) 1997 – Best Performance in a TV Comedy: Leading Young Actress – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Nominated) 1996 – Best Performance by a Young Actress: Guest Starring Role TV Series – Selico, Krista Sherre (Nominated) 1996 – Best Performance by a Young Actress: TV Comedy Series – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Nominated) 1995 – Best Youth Comedian in a TV Show – Marques Houston (Won) 1995 – Best New Family Television Series (Nominated) 1995 – Best Youth Comedian in a TV Show – Victor Togunde (Nominated) 1995 – Best Youth Comedienne in a TV Show – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Nominated)
2017 – Choice Throwback Tv Show – Sister Sister (Nominated)