An Ode to the TV Shows That Explored the Nuances of Friendship Between Black Women

Earlier than Issa and Molly, there was Joan and Toni.

Though Girlfriends premiered over 21 years in the past, each viewer—irrespective of how younger you really had been—can nonetheless bear in mind the place they had been when Joan and Toni’s friendship dissolved in heartbreaking trend proper earlier than Toni’s wedding ceremony.

However earlier than that second (and after), we eagerly watched as Joan (Tracee Ellis Ross) and Toni (Jill Marie Jones)—together with Lynn (Persia White) and Maya (Golden Brooks)—took the world by storm as 4 Black professionals of their early thirties navigating life, love and all the things in between.

Girlfriends, which ran for eight seasons till 2008, helped set the tone for illustration for Black girls on the small display within the early aughts. Nevertheless, let’s not overlook that exhibits like A Totally different World (who didn’t need to be Whitley Gilbert marching round campus at one level?) and Residing Single additionally paved the best way for celebrating the nuances of friendship between Black girls within the early ‘90s.