All Hail the Queen! featuring Queen Latifah and Chip Hurd

Summary

Podcast Summary: ReLiving Single

Episode: "All Hail the Queen!"

Guests: Queen Latifah (Dana Owens), Chip Hurd
Hosts: Erika Alexander, Kim Coles
Date: November 12, 2025

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Overview

This special episode of ReLiving Single pays tribute to the cultural legacy and behind-the-scenes magic of the sitcom Living Single, featuring a vibrant and heartfelt conversation with Queen Latifah (Dana Owens) and the iconic Chip Hurd. The hosts, Erika Alexander and Kim Coles, guide an episode rich with reflections on pioneering Black sitcom history, the show's origins and impact, the intertwining of personal and professional lives, and the profound nuances of mother-daughter relationships — all through the lens of the classic “She’s Not Heavy, She’s My Mother” episode. The tone is nostalgic, insightful, and brimming with playful chemistry.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origins of Living Single

• Queen Latifah’s Journey to TV:
  • Started her career as a rapper, touring with artists like Will Smith, Public Enemy, Heavy D.
  • The possibility of a TV show emerged after seeing Will Smith's transition to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
    • “If Will can do it, we can do it.” (Queen Latifah, 04:13)
  • Partnership with Sha-Kim Compere (her manager and high school friend) secured a deal with Warner Bros.
  • Collaboration with writer Yvette Lee Bowser was foundational.
• Casting Evolution:
  • Kim Coles was in a holding deal, and the team “locked in those four girls” before adding the male cast members (05:40).
  • The show was originally titled My Girls; Queen Latifah wrote a different theme song for it.
  • A meeting with Les Moonves solidified the name change to Living Single (07:49).

2. Adjusting to Sitcom Life & Ensemble Chemistry

• Queen Latifah’s Learning Curve:
  • Credits Ellen Gittelson (director) and Kim Fields for teaching her about camera marks and comedic timing.
  • “I learned how to hit the mark... She taught me everything.” (Queen Latifah, 12:23)
• Unique On-Set Dynamics:
  • Erika Alexander crafted a safe, cozy quick-change room as a home away from home, helping cast bonding (16:18–17:43).
  • Queen Latifah confides about initial homesickness, flying to New Jersey every hiatus until she became "bi-coastal" (17:55).
• Music and Comedy:
  • Erika highlights how the show’s rhythm stemmed from the cast members' musical and comedic backgrounds, especially Queen Latifah’s "musicality" on the sitcom script (13:33).

3. A Mother’s Love On- and Off-Screen

• Recap & Memories of “She’s Not Heavy, She’s My Mother”:
  • Both Queen Latifah’s real mother, Rita Owens, and Kim Fields’ real mother, Chip Hurd, guest-starred as their on-screen moms.
    • “A lot of the episodes... this is very meta. Your mothers, real mothers, are these characters.” (Kim Coles, 21:12)
• Personal Connection:
  • Queen Latifah discusses losing her brother just before the show began and grieving during the first season, with her mother’s appearance an emotional milestone (21:41).
  • Chip Hurd (as Laverne Hunter) was also an acting coach on set, supporting Queen Latifah’s mom and many others.
    • “Chip was everyone’s coach. She coached me. She coached my mother.” (Queen Latifah, 22:58)
• The Impact of Family:
  • Queen Latifah credits her mother for connecting her with the DJ who became her first producer, shaping her music career (23:43).
  • Reflections on trust, boundaries, and the “cone of trust” established by both mothers, with touching stories showing generational wisdom (43:06–44:57).

4. Mother-Daughter Dynamics: Candid Reflections

• TV vs. Real Life:
  • The cast discusses the realism of the episode’s mother-daughter conflicts and the boundaries rarely crossed in Black households.
    • “You can’t talk back to your mother like that... you just gotta kinda take the L and tell your friends later.” (Queen Latifah, 38:36)
  • Kim Coles shares her own revelations about intergenerational patterns—realizing in adulthood the depth of her relationship with her own mother (40:02).
• Parenting Lessons:
  • Queen Latifah: “You are loved, you’re beautiful, you can accomplish anything you put your mind to.” Her mother’s mantra: “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” (64:41)
  • The discussion moves to how to strike the right balance of closeness and boundaries as both daughters and mothers (46:41–46:54).

5. Behind the Scenes – Music, Memory & Comedy

• Theme Song Creation:
  • Queen Latifah shares the creative process behind the iconic theme song—mixing hip hop and jazz, and including a pivotal, last-minute “button” that “made it perfect” (81:21–84:20).
    • “It was a mixture of this hip hop beat with these beautiful notes... that was perfect.” (Queen Latifah, 83:49)
• Favorite Episodes & Memories:
  • Top episodes mentioned: “Flow and the Flavorettes,” “Kick Assket” (with guest Jennifer Lewis).
  • The cast frequently broke character and sang together as a group, building camaraderie and lasting bonds (61:54–64:06).
    • “We threw things at each other and knew we could catch them.” (Erika Alexander, 64:08)

6. Chip Hurd Joins: Acting and Motherhood

• On Being a Mother and Actor:
  • Chip Hurd reflects on mentoring Rita Owens on set, feeling nervous, and balancing personal vulnerability with performance (66:58–68:35).
  • Shares bittersweet memories of not wanting to always “play the clown” and striving for dignity as an experienced actress and new wife (70:07).
• Resilience and Reinvention:
  • Hurd notes the cast’s ability to “reinvent themselves” and persevere through industry and personal challenges (72:09–72:27).

7. Loss, Advocacy, and Moving Forward

• Honoring Rita Owens:
  • The latter part of the episode is dedicated to Rita Owens’ legacy and her battle with interstitial lung disease and scleroderma.
    • Queen Latifah details the symptoms, diagnosis challenges, and her mother’s advocacy for awareness (73:15–76:44).
  • The importance of medical vigilance and early treatment is highlighted.
• Grief and Solidarity:
  • Both Queen Latifah and Kim Coles reflect on entering the show while grieving the loss of siblings and parents, and how sometimes cast members were “ships passing in the night” with unseen struggles (79:30–80:03).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Show’s Creation:

  • “Nobody really — me, I wasn’t really thinking about a TV show until Will got one.” (Queen Latifah, 03:39)
  • “I’d only do it if I knew it was gonna be a hit.” (Queen Latifah, 10:11)

• On Mentoring and Learning:

  • “Ellen Gittelson... she taught me everything. Frankly, I didn’t know anything about TV.” (Queen Latifah, 12:23)

• On Mother-Daughter Love:

  • “My remembering of these shows that my mother was on was a little nerve-wracking because I was nervous for her. It’s like watching your child play a sport.” (Queen Latifah, 21:41)
  • “She believed that you could accomplish anything you put your mind to... Dream and do.” (Queen Latifah, 31:38)
  • “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Queen Latifah quoting her mother, 64:41)

• Comic Gold:

  • “You know what, Regina? I bet they’ll be a little nicer to me at Macy’s.” (Amber Watson, as Regine, 36:10)
  • “Just say you’re sorry before she even opens her mouth. She has no way of making you feel worse. It’s the perfect sucker punch.” (Kim Coles, 51:48)

• On The Name ‘Flavor’:

  • “Was flavor because of Flavor Unit?” – “Of course.” (Erika Alexander, Queen Latifah, 54:14)

• Theme Song Magic:

  • “I did a whole theme song for the original name... then they changed the show. Gotta get, take it back to the lab.” (Queen Latifah, 82:04)
  • “That part, which was a clutch part... it was the button on the end of the song that made it perfect.” (Queen Latifah, 83:48)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Living Single’s Origins and Casting – 03:39–07:49
• Show Title & Theme Song Discussions – 07:35–07:49, 81:21–84:20
• Mother-Daughter Episode Summary & Meta Connections – 19:22–21:12
• Rita Owens and Behind-the-Scenes Reflections – 21:34–25:02
• Lessons & Boundaries from Parents – 43:06–47:00
• Chip Hurd’s Reflections on Acting & Motherhood – 65:28–72:27
• Tribute & Advocacy for Rita Owens’ Illness – 72:34–77:39
• Theme Song Creation – 81:21–84:20

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Tone & Language

The episode remains deeply personal, playful, loving, and occasionally irreverent—true to the friendship and quick wit of the Living Single alumni. The language is casual, sometimes richly metaphorical, and peppered with humor and heart.

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Conclusion

With abundant laughter, candid vulnerability, and celebration, this episode honors Living Single's historical significance and enduring influence—both as groundbreaking Black television and as a crucible for deep personal connection and healing. Queen Latifah’s dual role as innovator and nurturer is foregrounded, while the appearance of Chip Hurd adds generational texture to the legacy of Black women in entertainment. The segment closes with a touching reminder that the love, wisdom, and boundaries of mothers (real and on-screen) echo across time—“The joy of the Lord is your strength”—and that the best sitcoms, like families, thrive on trust, perseverance, and a commitment to keeping it real.

Transcript

[Erica Alexander]

Sam. Hear ye, hear ye. Let it be known throughout the land, from the mighty kingdom of Brooklyn to the far away realm of Flavor magazine, that we gather here to honor a trailblazer, a queen, a sister of the screen, the first lady of Flavor. Khadijah once ruled the brownstone alongside her court, Sinclair the Sweet, Regine the Radiant, Maxine the Magnificent.

[Kim Coles]

She who has conquered the realms of television, film, music, and yes, even the talk show so far.

[Erica Alexander]

Supple of skin, ample of bosom, full of rhyme and rap, but she ain't no SAP.

[Amber Watson]

Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

A woman whose laugh can heal hearts, whose side eye can slay dragons, whose legacy still lives supreme decades after she first claimed the crown. What are you calling virtuous?

[Kim Coles]

No, wait.

[Erica Alexander]

No, no. Come on now.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Hold on.

[Kim Coles]

We got ready to read, baby.

[Erica Alexander]

Hold on.

[Kim Coles]

She always been impat.

[Erica Alexander]

Watch this.

[Kim Coles]

Let's do this. Okay.

[Erica Alexander]

Okay. Go ahead.

[Kim Coles]

And so by royal decree, we present.

[Erica Alexander]

Ladies and gentlemen, Her Majesty hath arrived. Queen Latifah.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Go get her.

[Erica Alexander]

Go get her. Look at her.

[Kim Coles]

Come here.

[Erica Alexander]

Those who lead deserve a car that leads with them.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Because a car that doesn't move you is a car that falls short of amazing. That's the Lexus standard. The standard of amazing.

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[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Look at my girl.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah. You see?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Look at us.

[Kim Coles]

We clean up well. We always did, right?

[Erica Alexander]

We'll keep just plume the whole time.

[Kim Coles]

Come on.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

The plume is now like it's changing. It's moving on.

[Kim Coles]

Oh, where's the plume?

[Erica Alexander]

It's back here. Just let me deplome.

[Kim Coles]

I forgot it was there.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You've been deprewed. Thank you, thank you.

[Erica Alexander]

You've been blessed and deep loomed stealing.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Everything, taking the Joyce. She's with me.

[Erica Alexander]

So you all may see us or hear us referring to as Dana Queen La Latifah. You got a whole bunch of names, don't you?

[Kim Coles]

But you know there's only one Queen. There's only one Queen and you're a phenomenon. You're a phenomenon. You're a Grammy winning, award winning, Emmy award winning SAG Golden Globe.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

That's gonna take a long time.

[Kim Coles]

No, here. We gotta say something.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I know how that goes.

[Kim Coles]

Kick ass Equalizer. Five seasons. First hip hop artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Come on now.

[Kim Coles]

I'm tired just talking about you. You're that girl.

[Erica Alexander]

We wanna start with your origin story for Living Single. How did you. How'd you get up to Living Single?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yeah. If I can recall correctly, because these was many, many moons ago. Many moons. I was a rapper, as you know, because y' all pretty much taught me everything I know about acting. I was rapping. And it was, you know, Shaqim. Me and Shaqim were on. We were on tour. We went out with Will Smith a lot. He headlined. So between Public Enemy and Heavy D, and Will and Heavy D, they headlined the tours that we were on. So we became like family out there on the road for months at a time. You know, you young teenagers making some money. I was 17, 18. I was like, 18.

[Kim Coles]

We were in this game a long time.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, yeah. We've been all doing this a long time. We were babies. Yeah. But when Will got his TV show, that's when it became, like, an actual possibility. Nobody really me and I wasn't really thinking about a TV show until Will got one. And then when Will did it, we, like, will got a TV show. If Will can do it, we can do it, you know? So we just started kicking around ideas, like, how can we make this happen? That was the next step. But then, still being on the road, on a tour bus. One of our favorite shows was Living Color, of course. And this one was who we watched all the time. Kim Coles. Like, we've been on the show. We loved everything. Phenomenon. And then we found out that Kim was in a holding deal.

[Erica Alexander]

Mm.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And Yvette Leigh, who was. She was Yvette Leigh. At the time, she was doing Mr. Cooper.

[Kim Coles]

Oh, right, right.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

But she was, like, one of the first woman writer producers.

[Kim Coles]

Absolutely.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

So you had her ready to make a new move.

[Kim Coles]

Cause you were already in a deal. We heard Warner Brothers.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

We got a deal with Warner Brothers, Shaqim and I. And then we found Yvette as well. So we all kind of locked in at the same time, and we came together with the idea of what the show would be. And then we found out she was in a holding deal. And we were like, yo, we gotta see if we could get her. Cause it's, like, supposed to be these two cousins. I'm like, can we please try to get Kim Coles? And then Kim Coles got down.

[Erica Alexander]

Was available Kim Coles. But in my meeting, they were like, what do you Think of Queen Latifah. I was like, I like her. So, like, you know, they didn't tell me what was going on, but it was like all forming. All forming.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

It was kind of all happening.

[Erica Alexander]

And then you.

[Kim Coles]

I mean, I did an audition, you know, I was found off the street like an urchin. And, you know, this bring me in.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

A professional maverick kingdom queen.

[Kim Coles]

You have to understand, I was coming from cousin Pam, which was nice, but there was no reason for me to be among the really cool chillsy people. Because I couldn't. No, really.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Because, yes, there was.

[Kim Coles]

Well, I appreciate you.

[Erica Alexander]

Your whole show was.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

But it wasn't cool. You was cool.

[Kim Coles]

Well, I appreciate that.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And to get you was like, what?

[Kim Coles]

Well, this is kind.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

No, you don't give yourself the proper credit. Cause first of all, you know, I want to, like. Actually, you shouldn't get the credit. Cause you messed up my laugh. I had a cute laugh. I had a cute, sexy, girly laugh as a kid.

[Kim Coles]

No.

[Amber Watson]

Oh, please.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And then somewhere along the line, it started going.

[Erica Alexander]

We all started laughing like, Erica.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I was like, what happened to my laugh?

[Erica Alexander]

Your influence has been felt.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Your influence is strong.

[Kim Coles]

Your influence is strong. We still going around acting like we own everything.

[Erica Alexander]

I remember one time I was like, I want to be a queen. And like, you are a queen. You got mad at me.

[Kim Coles]

What you talking about?

[Erica Alexander]

You are queen.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Because I had tell you that. But thank you, but you taught me great, amazing words. You're one of the smartest people I've ever met in my life.

[Erica Alexander]

We influenced each other.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

We sure did. Kim Fields, who was crossing over from Tudi, she was. The whole world knew her as Tootie, you know, but she had started doing Martin. She had started coming back with a whole different look, a different vibe. And then she got down. So we had the four girls, and that was kind of what it was. And then it was about getting the two guys, but it was really about locking in those four girls. That was the four. And actually, before the show was called Living Single, it was called My Girls.

[Amber Watson]

Do you remember that?

[Erica Alexander]

I remember My Girls.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I made a whole theme song and everything. You did?

[Erica Alexander]

You made a theme song just for that?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I did. I got a whole different theme song for my girls. And then they said, we're changing the show to Living Single. And I was like, okay.

[Kim Coles]

Do you remember that?

[Erica Alexander]

We went over to Les Moonvest's office to say that we didn't like the name Living Single Life. That's a stupid name. Do you remember that? We went to his office you cannot change the name from my girls to living Single. Nobody talks like that, I tell you.

[Kim Coles]

Inspired her to go around and tell the head of the studio. But that's cause you hanging around.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

That's right. The queen, right. It was just practice for stuff we would have to do later.

[Erica Alexander]

I'm glad I got that locked in early.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

We had to get up to, you know, I wasn't used to tv. I didn't know anything about tv. I barely. I didn't know much about acting at all. You know, I did like a couple school plays and so I was just the sponge. But the other side of me was like owned a company and was a artist and was a.

[Kim Coles]

And we're getting into that because that's the whole thing with Shaqim and all the things. The thing that you built is pretty outstanding because it has everything to do with sort of linchpinning on your God given DNA abilities which are astounding and we can't give enough to that. But also not everybody who wants to do things is an entrepreneur. You're a natural entrepreneur. And then you've been able to. You're gonna look at it. I'm giving you a problem. You're a natural entrepreneur who learned how to do it, but you built for other people. And that's to me, the real conversation going around there. If you go to Newark, y' all don't go anywhere near there. See how much they love this girl.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

She got some nerve with her Brooklyn self talking all this Philly, Brooklyn.

[Kim Coles]

You don't hear me telling people, don't.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Go to Philly and Brooklyn. Newark is coming up. You want a house music festival, you know where to go. Okay, okay. You want some soul food, you know where to go. Newark, you know you want some up and coming, you know where to go.

[Erica Alexander]

Noah.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Okay, you want an airport close, closer than an hour, you know where to go. Noah, you want the train station five minutes away, you know where to go? Newark, you need a bus, you know where to go. Newark, you need more cherry blossoms than in Japan. And Branch Road Park.

[Erica Alexander]

Really?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

In the whole United States.

[Erica Alexander]

Then you gotta go to Newark.

[Kim Coles]

Come on. That could be pulled out for the commercial.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

That's a commercial.

[Kim Coles]

That's brilliant.

[Erica Alexander]

Cherry blossom. Really? I didn't know that.

[Kim Coles]

I love it.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I didn't know that.

[Kim Coles]

So listen, where you off to go? You're off to the races here. You in the TV show Kim and you'd both headlining. We have Kim Fields, who's iconic, who's there is a third. I'm coming up on 4th. And then we have our two guys. Tell us a little bit. A little bit of what you remember at the pilot. Do you remember if you thought then it was gonna be a hit?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I always thought it was gonna be a hit. I wouldn't even have signed up. I only signed up and committed to things that I was fully committed to. And a lot of things at that age is not knowledge. It's your gut instinct. And you were what, 23 years old, right? Yes. Yeah, I was 23 when we actually started the show and moved to California. I was, you know, from Jersey. I mean, New York, New Jersey, but definitely not California. And this was like, really early years of your life. And. But I knew we had something. I mean, that was the goal, to create something. Success, successful. But once we got y', all, I mean, I was already like, okay, Kim Coles. This is crazy. Eyvette was like, on the come up, like. And then you. And then Kim Fields. Come on, Kim Fields. Are you kidding me? I can't say enough, you know, and then these two guys who I did not know. I mean, I knew John from his comedy, so I knew he was funny.

[Kim Coles]

I didn't know.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I knew a little bit about John from his comedy. I knew a little bit about TC.

[Kim Coles]

Cause he did living large with him in that movie.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

So they were both great. Yeah. To me, it was also the success of Martin and Fox being this, like, kind of burgeoning network trying to become the fourth network. There was, like, space for us to grow and do our thing. I mean, it was a fight because we had to fight for everything. Fight for the identity of the show, fight for the class of the show. To show four different kinds of women, to show two different kinds of guys, to show what black people look like who are upwardly mobile, headed towards success, struggling, you know, to be, you know, entrepreneurs. Like the whole. Yeah, we were all becoming. So we didn't want to become what we were not on camp, you know, on screen, all the things we're explaining and sometimes fighting for and locking arms. We, as you all know, we've done it before, many, many times. And a lot of it I learned from you. You know, frankly, I had to kind of look. And Ellen, Ellen Falcon Gittleson, like, she took pretty much.

[Kim Coles]

You know, I met her at Cosby.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Show, and I met her on the Fresh Prince.

[Kim Coles]

So there she was in our world. And did Celebi lock in? Yes. What did you learn from her?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I learned how to hit the mark. Just go stand right there. And when this one comes in there. Then the camera's gonna come to you. So I want you to point this way and face this direction. Cause this is. She taught me everything. Frankly, I didn't know anything about tv. I knew enough about shooting videos. I knew how to perform. I knew how to be in front of a camera. But as far as being in a four camera setup where it's just, you know, you have a fourth wall that's there. So it's just here, here, and here. So you kind of gotta play out. I mean, I can look at the show and see where. I didn't know where to put my hands. I wasn't sure which leg to cross or how to. How to point myself out a little bit, you know, so that the camera would get it, you know, and she taught me a lot of that. That. And then Kim Fields told me, like, everything is about timing. It's all about timing. So timing I knew because I'm musical, so I hear things in timing. Anyway.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

So I was like, okay, I got this. You just gotta. And off of this line and off the rhythm of this sound of your voice or your voice or whoever's voice was coming. Before I knew, da, da, da, da, da. Okay, so. So. So, you know, I just knew how to. Like, you brought your own to it too.

[Erica Alexander]

And I think what we hadn't. You know, I always laud you for taking the sitcom script and adding your own musicality to it. And so you coming in as music, adding your own. TC Being musical. John and I doing our comedy thing. And then, you know, Kim Fields, who's the queen of all this, I think we had our own rhythm that was off the. That was on the page in the words. But we brought our own. Our own thing.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

We had to figure this whole thing out because you are very smart, super smart, you know what I mean? And you know, a whole lot of big words, you know. And, you know, I still remember taking things from your. What your mom would say to you, like, soon.

[Erica Alexander]

You remember soon what? Oh, little soon.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

What? You little.

[Erica Alexander]

My mother, there's a phrase she said, you know, so and so's a little soon. And soon is like, not too early. Yeah, it came out a little too early. Then I looked all the way. Not stupid, not slow, but just soon, you remember that she'll.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, it's so many isms that your mom had that you would say that were fantastic. But we had to figure out with Yvette, you know, like, how do we make Sinclair, Sinclair? Because some of these words can sound Stupid, but they are. She's not stupid. She's actually. I mean, you've explained it to me.

[Erica Alexander]

She sounds like wonder and marches to the beat of her own body.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

But you brought that to it. You brought that to him. And just like John brought what he brought to Overton. And we. They're like, really, they're heroes to us. That's like the mark of what a relationship is on what character is like and what people should be like.

[Kim Coles]

Cause it's pure and beautiful.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Exactly.

[Kim Coles]

And they say to people, those characters, you have to be very intelligent. And they both are.

[Erica Alexander]

And were.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

They sure are.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

For sure.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

For sure.

[Amber Watson]

Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

So here you were, adjusting to this new life, this new place, this new world.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Mornings and mornings and mornings.

[Erica Alexander]

What time, you know, and I've said many times that, you know, you came from a world in which everything nothing happened until you showed up. And this is a whole new.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And a lot of it happened at night.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah, that's real.

[Erica Alexander]

So when did you. When do you feel that you adjusted to this new morning? I think we did push back the hour. We. We start. Let's not even try to do 9am let's just go do 10.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

10 feels right. 10 feels much, much better than I. With me.

[Kim Coles]

Everybody want extra hour.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I was tired. I was like, okay, I've partied enough these past three years. From 15 to 18. Wow, New York.

[Erica Alexander]

Wow the world. And you travel across New York.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Go do something with my life now. You know, some roots.

[Kim Coles]

But you know what? Then it was interesting that Kim always talks about the home that y' all made together in the quick change room. Because being on set is like being in another home, right? So she tell about the quick change room, please.

[Erica Alexander]

So remind everybody that you know on a set so that you don't have to go all the way back out to your trailer. Cause we had trailers. We had these quick change booths, and they are designed so that you can go in and quickly change it to the next outfit for the next scene. Yeah, you all were each separated, but for some reason they never separated our room.

[Kim Coles]

That's kind of weird.

[Erica Alexander]

I wanted to make it a safe.

[Kim Coles]

You think they would because you guys were the leads?

[Erica Alexander]

No, they kept us together.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Fantastic.

[Erica Alexander]

It was wonderful. I think I put a little rug. I went to Pier 1.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I rugged it up.

[Erica Alexander]

Had a little rattan sofa, a little table with play a rattan.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

See what I mean by the words? This was a regular basis.

[Erica Alexander]

And then if you. If you remember, there was an ashtray. We were both smoking cigarettes at the Time.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, man.

[Erica Alexander]

And if you were.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

She feels harassment. Harassment.

[Erica Alexander]

She would take my cigarettes and break them apart. Like, how dare you?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, my. I know.

[Erica Alexander]

I got another. Did the same thing to me. I provided a place where we could. So, Dana, real quick, y' all may.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Have a whole conversation.

[Erica Alexander]

We'd have a whole conversation. We'll be right out of sex.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You did pretty good, though. I saw you practice one time. I was like, she don't smoke, but you did good.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And I'm glad you did not smoke.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you. No.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You hooked us up. I wanted to make it good at striking up conversations. So she'll be like, did you see this? And that? And I remember I was doing.

[Erica Alexander]

What do you mean, Shay? You're good at striking up conversation. Mean I talk too much? Is that what you're trying to say? I wanted you to feel at home. Cause you felt like you might be a little homesick.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, I was definitely homesick. Oh, she got so homesick. I went crazy on Livingston. I mean, I needed to go home every three weeks. Every time we got a hiatus, which was every three weeks.

[Erica Alexander]

I'll do three weeks on, one week off. Three weeks on, one week off.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I was gone. I was gone. I was on a flight to New flight to New Jersey every time that we got a break. Because I also felt like California was a little slower. First of all, they sent. You got this whole group of friends and family and people, and they just send you out to California. Okay, we gonna come out there. Nobody came. I was like, no one ever comes. Crick. Crickets.

[Erica Alexander]

Crickets.

[Amber Watson]

Cricket.

[Erica Alexander]

Like, crickets.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Is anybody out there? You know, it's like the silence was dead.

[Erica Alexander]

They coming to visit me.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Y' all don't. I got this for all y' all to come, and nobody is coming out here. So I would go home every couple weeks if I could. As soon as we got a break, I was gone. And then finally, one winter, I think I did not make it home. And that was the shift when I.

[Kim Coles]

When I was.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

When I felt like, oh, okay, I'm gonna make this work. I'm getting into California. I'm. I'm kind of. I started become. I'm definitely bi. Coastal at this point. Like, I've split half of my adult life in la. So I feel like I'm from here and I'm from where I'm from, you know? But that was important to have those, like, those moments with you to just kind of be normal. Cause you were from where I'm from, right?

[Kim Coles]

Well, look, we have lots to talk about. We have lots to talk about.

[Erica Alexander]

We gotta get ready for the show. We do, we do.

[Kim Coles]

We do. Let's do this.

[Erica Alexander]

Let's do this.

[Kim Coles]

Here.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Easy.

[Erica Alexander]

Wow. Yay.

[Amber Watson]

Here. Easy.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you, love.

[Erica Alexander]

It's time for the rewind where we watch and relive living single with you.

[Kim Coles]

Okay, today we're watching. She's not heavy. She's my mother. And Khadijah's mom comes to town for Mother's Day. And the gang is ready to celebrate until a surprise guest arrive. Regine's mother, Regene is instantly on edge, especially when her mom starts asking Kyle for advice on why Regine can't keep a man.

[Erica Alexander]

Meanwhile, Overton goes completely overboard shopping for a gift for his own mom. It's written by Ellen Savko and Colleen Tabor, directed by our beloved Ellen Gitelson. We have some extra guest stars. Come on special. We have Chip.

[Kim Coles]

Special guests.

[Erica Alexander]

And Rita Owens. Who's Rita Owens?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

My mother. The real life mother.

[Erica Alexander]

And the real life mother to Kim Fields. So Chip heard. Chip heard. Because she's married now. Also known as Chip Fields, as Laverne Hunter. Chip is. Come on. She's an icon, actor, director, producer, master, teacher, who played the infamous Lanella Byrne, the baby face.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And it was an iron with that iron, remember?

[Erica Alexander]

And Gordon, also in a good time.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yes, that's what that was.

[Kim Coles]

And the great Rita Owens as Mama James. The real Rita Owens majored in drama and was a high school teacher at Irvington High School in New Jersey. And in later years, Rita became a health advocate for interstitial lung disease, which she battled. She fought that battle until she passed away in 2018. And we wanna do a special shout.

[Erica Alexander]

Out to your father, who, by the way, you're looking more and more like your dad and daddy is, oh, what a good looking man. Listen, shout out to your father, Lancelot Owens, a New Jersey police officer. Thank you for your service. Who's still with. We also have to send some much, much, much love to our beloved Winky, your interstellar love, your brother, interstellar love, Lancelot Jr. Who passed away in 1992, who was also a police officer. Thank you. Salute. We do.

[Kim Coles]

So it's funny because this episode is heavy because of that reason. A lot of the episodes I think that we do, we're playing characters, but this is very meta. Your mothers, real mothers, are these characters. And in a way, they both have iconic daughters in showbiz that have made a huge amount of change and have been pioneers.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

My mother loved us so Much. She was so very proud of us. And she did come visit me.

[Amber Watson]

She did.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

But as you said, my brother. I lost my brother in 1992. We started living single in 1993. So I was coming off of that and coming off of grieving. Yeah, yeah. Definitely wasn't through it yet, you know, Definitely was not through it yet. But my remembering of these shows that my mother was on was a little nerve wracking because I was nervous for her. I was nervous. It's like watching your child play a sport. You know, you're out there like, or the dance recital or, like, you can talk, you're ready, and you're like, my body was so tight. And when that show was over, I was like, yes. I could not wait for it to be over, kind of, because then I could, like, calm down. And Chip was amazing. Chip was everyone's coach. She coached me. She coached my mother. She's brilliant. You know, obviously, you know, the brilliant Kim Fields. But she became kind of the coach of the show. So she would jump in on anybody who needed help, anyone who needed help along with their acting. Because this was the first time for a lot of us, and we introduced a lot of people to television, to sitcoms through our show. So it was good to have somebody like Chip to help them along. If they came from rap, which we already fighting for these roles, which some actors were not, like, happy with us doing this because it's a very competitive field. And to their credit, any trained actor's credit, we should have to learn and step up and, you know, and learn the craft and really respect it and do our thing that way. But. But we had people like Chip who would help us along. So she coached my mom while she was on the show as well, and they just hit it off.

[Erica Alexander]

I love it.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You know, they were the moms of, you know, they got to just be mothers sometimes even doing mother acting.

[Erica Alexander]

How did your mother feel about it?

[Kim Coles]

She loved it. She loved it.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

She did. She loved it.

[Kim Coles]

She looked like she was passing low key hams. Both of them.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Both of them met being hams in a doo wop group on an army base. I said, born hams.

[Erica Alexander]

Born.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Y' all want to be in these things. But it's also, if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have been a rap artist because I would have never met DJ Mark the 45 King, who she hired to do the high school parties. She was a class advisor, so when they had to raise money for their field trips, they would throw parties and they would Tell her hire the 45 king. So she would hire him, this guy, DJ Mark. The 45 king went on to become my first producer. Made my demos and helped get me signed to Tommy Boy. So there goes my career. And so she was always behind us. She rooted for us. She knew we could do it. It didn't matter how young we were. She supported Shaquem like they have a whole different relationship. My partner slash manager, if you wonder who Sha Kim is.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah, you all went to high school together.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

We went to high school. He was a grade ahead of me, but I transferred into my mother's high school my sophomore year, so I'd taken algebra already. So we were in a geometry class together.

[Erica Alexander]

Are you kidding?

[Amber Watson]

And still together today.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

He sat in front of me and we just talked the whole thing.

[Kim Coles]

Putting the numbers together, making math, new algorithms. Go ahead, Shaki.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yeah, that's what's up, you know. So it was fun to have her there. It was nice to have a piece of home.

[Kim Coles]

Well, we're gonna talk about that and get more going through. We're gonna also be able to talk about, you know, how you built. Please.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And how amazing it is.

[Kim Coles]

Doesn't it look good?

[Erica Alexander]

And how many.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you, Jeff.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I really want to squeeze those balls. Yes.

[Erica Alexander]

Go get it.

[Amber Watson]

Go get it.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I'm using one of the. Ooh, it's soft, too.

[Erica Alexander]

Thank you.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And it's blonde. It's got braids. It's natural, dimensional.

[Kim Coles]

I knew you were coming. Look, let me tell you, I'm sitting next to two queens. You know, I'd make sure I get roped. You know what I mean?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

We can both get one.

[Kim Coles]

Come that way.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Come that way.

[Kim Coles]

Okay.

[Erica Alexander]

Take the Lord.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Okay, hey, listen.

[Kim Coles]

Okay, now this episode, I've got to do a little maintenance here because for y' all who don't understand, this is a very special episode. Because this episode was first presented in Aromavision during Fox's interactive Fox O rama event in 1994. Viewers could buy 35 cent kits at 7/11, and that included 3D glasses for Married with Children and two sealed scratch and sniff cards for Living Single. And the synths were cheetahs and cedar.

[Erica Alexander]

We couldn't get no peppermint or eucalyptus.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Or Blue Nile stored.

[Kim Coles]

Wait, look, it was. It wouldn't have been a. It was Regine's stored outfit. Aroma from her mom's cedar closet abandoned gift. She didn't want it. All right, let's check it out.

[Erica Alexander]

Let's watch.

[Kim Coles]

Roll em.

[Erica Alexander]

Well, I just can't wait for you guys. To meet Aunt Rita. She is terrific.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Mm.

[Amber Watson]

All the kids in the neighborhood wish they had Khadijah's mom. Especially me.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I remember that wig, but that wig.

[Erica Alexander]

Was covering up a bunch of braids.

[Kim Coles]

What wig was it? Look what you see on the side to me. Darth Vader. You know that's Darth Vader.

[Erica Alexander]

The hat.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah. She had a front mask. She just have to breathe. And she looked just like him. Yo looking Darth Vader.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And the food just ain't no good.

[Erica Alexander]

Here she come. Here she comes.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, baby.

[Erica Alexander]

You look great.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I know.

[Erica Alexander]

I know. Rita, Rita, Rita. Good to see you.

[Amber Watson]

And I have a little surprise.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Ta da.

[Erica Alexander]

Right, Here we go. It's Mother's Day, and the gang is buzzing with excitement for the arrival of Khadijah's beloved mother, Rita. Just as the memories start flowing, Rita arrives right on time. And she's not alone. To everyone's surprise and Regine's horror, she's brought a special guest. Regine's mother, Laverne. Chip's real name is Laverne. So I love that we named the moms their own real names.

[Kim Coles]

That's right.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I think everybody loved the mom. Yeah. I mean, we knew who the moms were, and Yvette was good with this kind of stuff. You know what I mean?

[Kim Coles]

She put so many of my friends down to this day who have careers. Exactly. So to bring in two mothers who are capable of doing it.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And that's the thing. That's the thing.

[Kim Coles]

That's when I realized, I said, oh, our mother acts. And I go, well, why shouldn't she? Would she? She's got a creative child. The creativity usually comes from the parents.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, right. I love it.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I got double trouble on those.

[Kim Coles]

I love it.

[Erica Alexander]

You got to play with us.

[Kim Coles]

And we know that you were nervous for her. How'd she do?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

She did great. Yeah, she did great, actually. I mean, the parts were all built around, you know, so everybody, I think, did great.

[Erica Alexander]

I love that your mom let me ad lib Aunt Rita.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Rita, Rita.

[Kim Coles]

How'd you do that?

[Erica Alexander]

I was like, I just.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I just saw her. I did it. I just. I was like, can I do the.

[Erica Alexander]

I think I told her, I said, no, if it's all right with you, I'm gonna call you.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Cause she's that polite. She really is.

[Erica Alexander]

You know, I hadn't yet established woo, woo, woo, which is, you know, the comedy of threes. And so I was like, I'm gonna call you Aunt Rita. Rita.

[Amber Watson]

Rita.

[Erica Alexander]

Is that. She was like, uh, huh. Sure, do it. Aunt Rita. Rita. Rita. Cause I wanted to have something that my aunt and I would have. Yeah. And so I thought she did. She felt warm and real. But I'm gonna ask you, how close was the Rita.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

To the real Rita? How close was that?

[Kim Coles]

She seemed like she gave you a lot of leeway. Did your Rita at home give you leeway?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Enough to get myself in trouble?

[Erica Alexander]

Don't get enough trouble.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

She'd be like, I told you once, I told you. No, she definitely. She explained things to me. There was a whole lot of talking before it became corporal around that mug. But no, my mom, she was very, very supportive. And our house was very communicative. You know, my parents, like, sat down and explained everything, like, to the point where when you were in trouble and you knew you were supposed to get a spanking, it was like the half an hour lecture before it.

[Erica Alexander]

At five years old, I'm like, please.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Just give me a.

[Kim Coles]

Just meet me here.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You know, I'm like, can we wrap this up? Cause my father talked in metaphors. He spoke in metaphors.

[Erica Alexander]

Oh, wow.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

So I was trying to decipher what he was saying half the time. And then my mother was very clear, elegant, eloquent.

[Kim Coles]

You look like you'd have to be a free range child to be doing what you were doing at 17 and have amassed that kind of, you know, accomplishments.

[Amber Watson]

She.

[Kim Coles]

At some level, she trusted you.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I think she did trust me, and she trusted God more than anything and trusted her spies. My mother had a network of spies. This is what really happened. You know, you a teacher, you can enlist all these kids to report back. They was snitching on me left and right. My mother. Oh, yeah, they love Ms. Owens, so. They like Ms. Owens. You know, I was. Oh, my God. When she found out I smoked cigarettes, I almost lost it. I was like. Because I hated to disappoint my mother more than anything. It wasn't about getting yelled at or it was about the look on her face of disappointment. Like, that would hit me in the heart, like. Like, dag. Wow. I disappointed my mother. And, you know, it was accidental how I even got into it. It was the industry that hooked me. I blame them. Big tobacco, good marketing in those movies. But, you know, she definitely. She believed she was an artistic person. She was an art teacher. She. She believed that you could accomplish anything you put your mind to. It was always promoted in my household, like dream and do. And there was, here's art and here's how you write perspectives, and here's how you draw a horizon line, and here's how you make those buildings like the art they sell in, you know, in Times Square. So life was three dimensional at least.

[Kim Coles]

Was she an art teacher?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

She was an art teacher.

[Kim Coles]

Okay.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

So every time she had to do a project. And my mother also got her degree while we were kids. So sometimes we went to school with my mother, like, we literally went to college when she couldn't find someone to watch us. And there was this janitor at the school, this older woman who would keep an eye on my brother and I sometimes while she was in class. So we would hang out in the rec room with the college kids. And that's why I was like, I can only really hang with people four years old. I don't know what y' all about. You can't tell me anything. If you're my age, I need to see what's coming. I need hope for the future.

[Kim Coles]

I know that's right.

[Erica Alexander]

We can tell that you observe and you talk about communication, your use of language, not only in your writing and your music, but you are. I've always been really impressed with how well you are able to communicate something. So there were times you may or may not remember on the set where I would whisper, could you just tell them that this is what we feel about so and so. And you would be the mouthpiece because you could articulate in a way. And I think that you have this beautiful balance of understanding the emotions of the situation and the power in the situation and describing it and sharing it in a way that they can hear and understand. And you're telling me now that this is what your parents taught you.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

They taught me that. And then there was that Mikey commercial. Give it to Mikey.

[Erica Alexander]

Give it to Mikey. He likes everything.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I can try anything. So you kind of pushing me up there was kind of me being Mikey, wasn't it? Okay, you set me up with that. All right. No, honestly, I think you're right. I remember telling the writers, and I know they used to get. I would get on their nerves, but you remember us telling them they needed to go to Brooklyn over the summer. Come on. Sometimes we would walk into things. Who made this, like, y' all need to go to Brooklyn. Go to New York over the summer. Enjoy it. Go have fun and just check out the city so you can kind of be informed when you come back and write and really feel the same feeling.

[Erica Alexander]

So.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Exactly. Because there was so much to. To write about. And then we had to kind of stick up for. For what we were selling, and we're like, this is actually what they wear in Brooklyn. This is actually because we. I mean, we brought clothes, we brought jewelry, we brought hairstyles. Erica's hairstyle. Who was doing that on tv?

[Kim Coles]

Red Salon, Brooklyn.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Exactly. So you brought that hair. I mean, even the yarn, like that was so ahead of its time.

[Kim Coles]

Brooklyn was doing all sorts. I mean, New York every. To be anywhere. You had to be in the tri state area. Exactly. To me, Pennsylvania. But I mean, New York and New Jersey was just the place to be.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

It was the place to be. That's why we really wanted to write about. We wanted to. To play the place to be. So if anything felt like a little. We, like, we had to. We had to fight a lot, you know, to make it authentic. Happy to jump into those battles.

[Erica Alexander]

There are times I was like, just say it like this. Just explain to them what this is. Here's what we're going to do.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And that's what.

[Erica Alexander]

What was that third line? Because I don't know how to say. I'm going to say. I'm going to be really emotional. I'm not going to say it. And one time. You won't. One time you said to me. I said something you like. Yo, you gonna make us lose our street cred, yo. And I was like, I went to private school. I ain't even got no street cred. But say it like this. Yeah. So you helped me out a great deal. Thank you. There you go.

[Kim Coles]

All right, so we gotta get back to the show.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

We gotta get back to the show. Oh, show.

[Kim Coles]

Forget it.

[Amber Watson]

Khadijah, how about some hot chocolate?

[Kim Coles]

Okay, I'll show you where it is.

[Amber Watson]

Yeah, well, I'll take a double. Uh, baby, now you know how chocolate makes you hyper.

[Erica Alexander]

Let me make you some herbs.

[Amber Watson]

Terrible tea.

[Erica Alexander]

Chocolate made your hyper. Your mother is a hoot.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You. That was a real lie.

[Amber Watson]

She was a riot upstairs, rifling through my underwear drawer. Man, thank God I hid my.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Deja.

[Amber Watson]

You've been in such a good mood. I bet your mom being in town does that to you. Girl, it has nothing to do with me. It's her new boyfriend, Alonzo. Aw. Well, since we're on the subject, Regine. No, Ma, there is no man in my life. No, Regine, a little respect would be nice. I am the only mother you've got. Yeah, well, I didn't have much of a choice, now, did I? Woo.

[Erica Alexander]

Boy, I think I may be having.

[Kim Coles]

A heat stroke up in here.

[Amber Watson]

You know what, Regina? I bet they'll be a little Nicer to me at Macy's.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Well, aren't you gonna go after her? Why can't she come back to Regine?

[Amber Watson]

Because Laverne is her mother.

[Erica Alexander]

So what?

[Amber Watson]

Laverne started it. Stop tripping.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Stop tripping.

[Kim Coles]

Look at how you lookin.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I barely watch you for me to.

[Amber Watson]

Put you over my knee.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I ain't afraid of you.

[Erica Alexander]

I ain't afraid of you.

[Kim Coles]

I love it.

[Erica Alexander]

I love it. I ain't afraid of you. You Dana.

[Kim Coles]

And she acted tripping. Only a mother could do that, by the way. Just sort of. Okay, listen, let me tell everybody what's going on. The Mother's Day trip to the spa takes a turn for the worse when Regine's mom brings up the dreaded question, when is Regean gonna settle down and have kids? Meanwhile, tensions flare between Rita and Khadijah after Laverne storms off, leading to a second blowup that ends with Rita walking out to. Ooh, Khadijah, you are in trouble. And you look like you were in trouble.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I feel in trouble right now.

[Erica Alexander]

Why you talk to your mother? Why you give your mother back?

[Kim Coles]

Talk like that way?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And there's no way on the planet. Stop tripping. I'm scared even watching that right now.

[Erica Alexander]

And she kind of hit you with the towel.

[Kim Coles]

She does when she leaves you SM.

[Erica Alexander]

You that towel just a little bit.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

So, you know, I had a little flashback. I was like, you can't talk to your mother.

[Kim Coles]

Like, did you feel it? Because the dynamic is very true when you start to do that. You can see her. You can see knowing she shouldn't say, I know what I'm saying. Yeah, I know what I'm saying.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

But no eye contact.

[Kim Coles]

No eye contact.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You better not look her in the eye. Cause she'll get you be stuck right there.

[Kim Coles]

Would your mother be the type of person who checked you right there if you did something like that in front of people? Or you say she's a talker.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yes, she would if she needed. There's no way. It would never even get that far. No, no, we never get that far because you get snatched through a wall. You know what I mean? You tripping. Tripping. There's no way you're saying that in my fantasy. It's fantasy.

[Erica Alexander]

It's a TV show.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

If it's not her, then somebody gonna come.

[Erica Alexander]

What she said?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

What she said?

[Erica Alexander]

She said, reedy, you gonna take that from her?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Let me get out of here. Give me that baby.

[Erica Alexander]

Who do you think was right, though, in this situation? We've got, you know, Regine. And we've got Laverne. Who do you think was right in this situation?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Well, none of the back talk was right from any of the kids because at the end of the day, the mothers are concerned for their daughters, and they just want what's best for us. But I think. I think you can't talk back to your mother like that. You just gotta kinda take the L and tell your friends later, Commiserate later. But you say she should not have talked to. She definitely should not have talked to Kyle.

[Erica Alexander]

She was frustrated and she was hot. She shouldn't. She shouldn't have said anything about.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

No, I don't think she should have talked to Kyle. Like, you can't talk to Kyle about your daughter.

[Erica Alexander]

She's a meddling partner.

[Kim Coles]

What is she doing wrong? That's crazy.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

That part about what you're doing wrong. So now you just criticized her. You're telling her she's doing something wrong, so she feels some type of way about that, I'm sure. And then you talk to Kyle. I needed to talk to a man about what you're doing wrong. Hold up, wait. Where's the girl power in that? We not us anymore. And then, yeah, Khadijah should have just went ahead and stayed about it at, you know, this is when you get low.

[Erica Alexander]

What we're looking at as difficult or, you know, this is why you're so funny in this scene. It's like, ooh, it's hot in here. It's hot in here to y'.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

All.

[Erica Alexander]

Isn't that what we do?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You tried to break it up several times, right?

[Erica Alexander]

I was trying.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Y' all weren't trying to break that fight up.

[Erica Alexander]

But this is. This speak scene speaks to mother daughter relationships and how they can be a.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Little contagious, a little turbulent.

[Kim Coles]

Have you ever had a situation with your mom?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yeah.

[Kim Coles]

And I didn't even know I had a thing about my mom because my mother was our protector. So when I think about my mother, I think of her as, like, almost a saint. And yet I didn't know when I was going to therapy. And therapist says to me, I always know when you're gonna be late or skip a session. She says, when we start talking about your mother. And up until that point, I had never even realized that I had a thing because my father was so visibly an obstacle. So visibly, you know, just difficult and complex. And, you know, I love my dad, but he was. He was a very hard person to like not to love. We tried to love him, but she also, in my Mind I must have contained and didn't know that I. And so I'm still working it out. She's 83. I love my mother, but didn't know that I had that until I started living life a bit.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You gotta live life a little bit. I mean, as a parent now, the first thought that crossed my mind was, oh my God, mom, thank you. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It was like, wah. I'm sorry.

[Erica Alexander]

I'm so sorry.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Because the weight of it all, you realize, like how much your parents can care about you and worry for you and you know, you like literally can just wake up out of a sleep. Just the whole. It all runs through your mind. All the possibilities of what could happen and what should happen, but what could get in the way and what could go wrong. So your parents are carrying around all this, their minds all the time. So there's this proper stress that they're under that you just don't and shouldn't even understand as a child. Like as a kid, you're supposed to kind of be free and enjoy life. But there's a time when you have to work your way into adulthood. And sometimes some people have rites of passage that help them work their way towards adulthood and really responsibility and things like that. And some are thrown right into it from being, you know, at an early age when they're still too young for all of that. And since some people never grow up, it won't even matter. So, you know, we have to kind of heal our inner child. Just like Eric is saying right now, like this. We have to as adults, we have to fix whatever or work on whatever we. Whatever happened to us as kids that we weren't even necessarily aware of and.

[Erica Alexander]

Have the awareness that something happened. Everybody, I don't think anybody gets out of childhood. Even if you had a great childhood, you don't get out of. Of childhood without some stuff, some trauma, some, you know, perceptions that were given, some belief systems that were put on.

[Kim Coles]

You talk about your mother.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah. The great thing about my mom is like we had moments when I was a teenager when I wanted to be on the twirling squad. You said you gotta get your grades up. And so I would sneak out the house with my baton and go twirl anyway. Until they changed the outfits on me so I couldn't like twirl in the old outfit. Cause they had new outfits. Like, she gonna have to know. But my mother established trust with me early on and I'm so grateful. Cause she said, don't Anything that happens out there, come and tell me first. If you come and tell me first, you will not get punished.

[Amber Watson]

Right?

[Erica Alexander]

And so you gotta test that out and see if that's really true. I will not punish you if you tell me first. And so you give it a try. And the first time I do something and she doesn't know, then I get in trouble. And then there was the day that I told her first, thank you for telling me. And I didn't get in trouble. I was like, this is fabulous. So we have this cone of trust. And the bad news about that is she's 95 years old to this day. So you tell me too much. Oh, she. And she sends you her love.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

That part. Please give her my love.

[Erica Alexander]

Send you her love.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I feel like every moment I spent with you, I was spent with your mother, too.

[Erica Alexander]

I bring her everywhere because I feel like I was given that gift of trust. And not saying that we didn't ever have our moments, but that sort of. You tell me everything. And now I tell her too much. Like Kim.

[Kim Coles]

The same, though. Talking about these boundaries, unsolicited advice, Love, life, emotional. Some people. People don't have boundaries. And so you can slip into there, you've had them, and suddenly the mother or the daughter's told too much, and suddenly that trust you talking about. Cause you told them so much, they don't trust you. Then they start worrying maybe that thing.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

That you're talking about, right? Cause my mother, we established that cone of trust at 17. Because I was just running the streets too much. And she was. I didn't realize. I didn't realize how worried about me she was. Of course, my brother made me aware, you know, oh, wow. You know, he's like, yo, mommy crying. You. I'm like, what? I could make Mommy cry. It wasn't even a reality in my mind. And then we had a talk, and she was just. We basically agreed that wherever I went, she's like, I don't expect you to stop hanging out. You need to. You're trying to experience the world, and you're adventurous. But I need you to call me and let me know you're all right wherever you go. And so that was the deal. So that was the deal with all of my friends. If I was in Brooklyn, if I was in the Bronx, wherever I was that night, I called my mother, let her know I was okay.

[Erica Alexander]

Nice. Nice.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

She knew I wasn't gonna stop doing whatever I was doing. Cause I needed to do this to be. She knew her kids, she knew us Very well. So that was kind of. Once that was established, we were good, you know, but she's the one who kept the boundaries. Cause her and her girlfriend, they would have these talks, and they swear they were talking in code, spelling words and spelling people's names.

[Erica Alexander]

Smart for that.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I can't spelled. I know what that spelled. Pig Latin.

[Erica Alexander]

Like, I figured that out away.

[Amber Watson]

A.

[Erica Alexander]

Or how.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Az Cray.

[Amber Watson]

Right.

[Erica Alexander]

I write. Right, Right.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

So, like, they would do that. And then, you know, as you get older and you becoming a woman, and we're starting to have conversations about things, and I'm like, mom, you know, my friends in California, they smoked in their house with their moms at the first. And she was like, dana, as we're having our first little drink together. She didn't really drink. She's having a little light Kahlua or something like that. With a little. She's having a little. She likes sweet drinks. And I'm maybe having a beer or something. I don't even like beer like that. But we're having, like, a little together. And I tell her this about my friends who. From California, who tried these things at home where it was safe. She was like, dana, there's never going to be a day.

[Erica Alexander]

I know that's right. But that's gonna be a.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

When me and you will smoke together. It's never gonna happen.

[Erica Alexander]

Sounds like boundaries.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I judge. She told you, but she told me. She told you. Yes. And certain things. When her girlfriends came around, she would shut me down. She would turn back into my mother, who had her own life, who was a woman, a grown woman with kids.

[Kim Coles]

Kids, exactly.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You know, I. I just happen to be one of them, you know, so there was. There was. She established some boundaries that I think were very healthy for us to have.

[Erica Alexander]

Are you getting your boundaries set up for your little one now? I'm trying. Yeah. You ready? I'm.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

No, no.

[Erica Alexander]

I'm sure you have some now with more to come.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I'm sure I'm ready. I'm sure I'm ready.

[Erica Alexander]

More to come.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

God will fill in the blanks as. As was done with me and the Village. The Village. You know, you wonderful mother.

[Kim Coles]

Wonderful.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I've been likewise, natural. Likewise. Your mother's amazing. Thank you. I appreciate it. I got a star, but I ain't got no street.

[Erica Alexander]

Get me one of them streets now.

[Kim Coles]

Dana is going to get a ton of streets. Wow.

[Erica Alexander]

She said, I got a star, but I ain't got no street.

[Kim Coles]

That's what's up.

[Erica Alexander]

I got two.

[Kim Coles]

One in Arizona and one in Philadelphia.

[Erica Alexander]

We got to get our streets up. I have a. A maple leaf on the Walk of Fame in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Your maple. It's a little maple leaf.

[Kim Coles]

You're not even Canadian.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

That's what I'm talking about.

[Erica Alexander]

We could take the cheer in to see that.

[Kim Coles]

That you absolutely.

[Erica Alexander]

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens there with Harry Houdini and you know, all the people. Brooklyn, we made.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

We done. We made it. We've made it.

[Kim Coles]

Cooler days are here. And baby, that means late layers. Good layers. And for me, that means quince. They're $50 Mongolian cashmere sweaters, soft as a whisper and fine as fall wine. The premium denim fits like it was tailored by somebody who knows you personally. And don't get me started on the wool coats. I'm eyeing their oversized pea coat and navy designer vibes, but for a fraction of the price. Here's the thing. Quince works directly with ethical factories and skips the middleman. So you get luxury quality for way less. It's smart, it's sustainable, and it looks damn good. I've got their cashmere crew neck on rotation. And that mulberry silk robe. Well, let's just say my mornings are upgraded. Find your fall staples at quints. Go to quince.com single for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada, too. That's Q-U-I-N c e.com.

[Sponsor/Announcer]

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[Erica Alexander]

We all love a legendary comeback and degree. Original Cool Rush is back and better than ever. Cool Cool Rush isn't just a scent. It's a movement, a fan favorite that delivers bold, fresh vibes and all day sweat protection. Whether you have a man that spends hours in the Gym heads into the office early or is just trying to stay fresh on a long day. Cool Rush has their back. Head to your local Walmart or Target and grab degree. Cool Rush, the fan favorite scent from the world's number one antiperspirant brand.

[Kim Coles]

Kim. I do everything out of my car. I do everything. It's my office, it's my studio, it's my natural.

[Erica Alexander]

And shockingly not where we're recording this podcast.

[Kim Coles]

Don't spoil season two. Oh, but seriously, I take my calls, I write scripts, I do table reads. All from the car.

[Erica Alexander]

I know I do the same thing. My car is like my home, just with better acoustics and less judgment. You know I don't sing.

[Kim Coles]

I do. I do. And that's why your car can't just be functional. It has to fit your whole vibe.

[Erica Alexander]

That's right and left. Understood the assignment. I mean, I'm talking about the lx. Woo. Luxury to the max. There's poor wood trim, massaging seats, and wait a minute. Retractable ottoman.

[Kim Coles]

Come on, a whole ottoman, y'.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

All.

[Kim Coles]

Plus, it's hybrid, so it's smart, sustainable, and the storage.

[Erica Alexander]

Mm.

[Kim Coles]

Chef's kiss. I even have a table for writing.

[Erica Alexander]

And it's a rolling sanctuary that helps you move through life with excellence.

[Kim Coles]

And you know, Lexus has always been excellent, even back in the 90s. Just like us.

[Erica Alexander]

Because that's the standard of amazing.

[Amber Watson]

I can't fight with my mom. It's a no win situation.

[Kim Coles]

Unless you use my foolproof method of winning a fight with mom.

[Amber Watson]

Go on.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Here come the evil.

[Kim Coles]

All you have to do is apologize.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

So good.

[Amber Watson]

That's the method, correct?

[Kim Coles]

Just say you're sorry before she even opens her mouth. She has no way of making you feel worse. It's the perfect sucker punch.

[Amber Watson]

Oh, man, I love it. I wear it all the time. Then how come it smells like the inside of your cedar chest? You gave me that cedar chest. Therefore, it is where I keep all of my cherished belongings.

[Erica Alexander]

Regine, I don't understand what I did.

[Amber Watson]

To make you so angry, but I'm sorry. Lord knows I try to be a good mother.

[Erica Alexander]

Rita. Oh, let's just tell you what we've just seen. Max gives Regine and Khadijah a strategy for their moms. Apologize first and disarm them. Right. It works. Khadijah and Rita quickly mend their relationship. But Laverne proves to be a worthy opponent, beating Regine to the punch by apologizing first and catching her off guard. She's a pro.

[Kim Coles]

And Byrne is admitting to the pressure of being a perfect mother. Does anybody ever feel like their mother said that to them? Or do you feel that now you're the only one who can answer that question?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

No comment. Next.

[Kim Coles]

Quickly, have your mothers ever admitted to that? No, my mother never seen the.

[Erica Alexander]

No, my mother didn't claim. Well, my mother would say I'm right. Even when I'm wrong, I'm right. I'm like, well, no. What? Just, you know, as a way of hushing me up. Like, I'm right, but even when I'm wrong.

[Kim Coles]

People's assignment assessment of her, though, that she should be not perfect. Cause I think that that's. To me, you know what? I think that's some sort of. No, but that's some sort of TV thing where you see Brady Bunch and all that, and they seem like perfect. I think that black people have always had to manage so many obstacles. They're like, look, I'm doing the best I can here.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Right, exactly that part. I'm doing the best I can. That exact line, by the way.

[Erica Alexander]

Let's have a little moment of the aromavision alert, okay?

[Kim Coles]

The aroma vision alert, y'.

[Erica Alexander]

All. Here, take my. That cedar was happening in that particular. By the way, these are the actual aroma.

[Kim Coles]

Aroma. Bank account empty.

[Erica Alexander]

This smell like my underarm.

[Kim Coles]

Supposed to lick it.

[Erica Alexander]

I don't scratch a stick.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

It was in the scroll. Okay, all right, all right.

[Erica Alexander]

Okay.

[Kim Coles]

Well, listen.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

That's what they were doing. That's very brave of you. Did you lick that?

[Kim Coles]

No. I did.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Nope.

[Erica Alexander]

Listen, little girl number seven.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

It's the aroma.

[Kim Coles]

That's right.

[Erica Alexander]

That's why she got the flavor, not the flavor. All right, that's what I want to ask you. Were you influential in naming the magazine flavor? Was flavor because of flavor unit.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Of course.

[Erica Alexander]

Thank you.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, come on over to me. Don't tell me, Jean Fashion. Right there. Fubuish Visa said no. Shouldn't have left me here all alone, man. Hey, but doesn't this whimsical garden gnome just say, mom? Mm. Clearly, this is not the crystal vase I ordered, man. How can I send that to the woman that carried me for seven and a half months?

[Erica Alexander]

You were preemie. I was a breach. What's up, man?

[Kim Coles]

So Overton goes overboard on the spending channel, buying a slew of tacky gifts for his mom. Meanwhile, Sinclair drops in to escape the ongoing feud between the hunters. When Kyle's carefully selected vase for his mom fails to arrive, he's left scrambling and ends up bartering with Overton for One of his prized garden gnomes. That's what's going on. It's Mother's Day. These gifts are really. What's the best Mother's Day you've ever been given or gifted?

[Erica Alexander]

My mother moved back to North Carolina, you know, retired from being a teacher and hadn't driven in years. And so I gave her a car. I gave her, actually, my Honda. Cause it served me well. She needed to learn to drive again. I moved on to a Mercedes Benz.

[Kim Coles]

You gave her an old car?

[Erica Alexander]

No, it was only three years. It was only three years old. It was only three years old. But she was like, don't give me. She said, don't give me anything fancy. I need to learn to drive again. And the Honda. And it lasted for, like, 100 years. It was beautiful. And then when it was time to upgrade, we upgraded her, right? So that was Mother's Day.

[Kim Coles]

I gave my mother so many gifts, of course. And, you know, I think it's me. I gave my mother me.

[Amber Watson]

Okay.

[Kim Coles]

Does that qualify?

[Erica Alexander]

Yes. Yes, it does. It does.

[Kim Coles]

Happy Mom's Day.

[Erica Alexander]

Happy Mom's Day.

[Kim Coles]

It's a gift that keeps giving. And I appreciate you.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

She got the streets to prove it.

[Kim Coles]

No doubt.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You got the streets to prove it.

[Kim Coles]

I did give my mom a car in the house. I did end up losing the house, but I gave her a car. And every day, my mother gives me so much. And I see what she put into me. The truth is, I hope she sees my life as an extension of her own. And if I could give anything to my mother, it's just peace of mind that. That she did well. And integrity. Not just with me, but I have five brothers and sisters. That the sacrifices she's made were well worth it. Well worth it.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yeah.

[Kim Coles]

I went deep and lead.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, I love you.

[Erica Alexander]

I love you, too. I love you more. You're my queen.

[Kim Coles]

She threw that in. She threw that in. That's why she laughing.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

That's why she laughing so hard.

[Kim Coles]

You know what I mean? I. She laughing too hard.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You like?

[Erica Alexander]

Yes.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Having a little bit too much fun at our expense. Oh, girl, face it. You two are freaks.

[Amber Watson]

I mean, look at you. You act like mothers and daughters supposed to be best friends. Imagine you and me trying to be best friends.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Please.

[Amber Watson]

We have a hard enough time trying to be mother and daughter.

[Erica Alexander]

When she says the queen, she laughed too hard.

[Amber Watson]

Yeah.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Way too hard.

[Kim Coles]

That was important.

[Erica Alexander]

Wait a minute. Yeah.

[Kim Coles]

Yeah. You can always tell when we are ourselves verses the characters.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yes. And I can see Chip turn into Mommy right there. When she was about to hug her. I was like, aw. You can see just a peek of the. It's true.

[Kim Coles]

Sweet. So they say a good compromise is when all parties leave a little bit frustrated. You know what I'm saying? Like, you frustrated, I'm frustrated. Okay, this deal is done. But, you know, they make up, but they still salty. But as you said, that's their thing.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, that's their thing. That's their dynamic.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

That's their dynamic. That's their language. And then they actually thought about. About their behavior for a moment. I guess we are who. And it was nice to just see them get a little mushy, you know?

[Erica Alexander]

And Kim looking just like her mama.

[Kim Coles]

Now she really looks like her mom is Alexis. Kim has a sister named Alexis who's like, I saw her recently, and I just even couldn't take it.

[Amber Watson]

Still.

[Kim Coles]

Still. Even more so. It's actually freaky. I told her, I said, you're really freaking me out here, man. She looked like her, but she had the essence of Kim in her. So it was a weird, dynamic, gorgeous girl.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I think it's cause of that age, you know?

[Sponsor/Announcer]

Yeah.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

She's kind of like the baby sister.

[Erica Alexander]

Right?

[Amber Watson]

Right.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You know, so she probably all the best.

[Kim Coles]

The bloom is still on the rose, but it falls a little off, and you start to go in your maturity, and you can see it, and you go, oh, God.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Did y' all hear that shit?

[Erica Alexander]

The balloon falls off the rose. This is what she does.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Been doing it. The balloon falls off the rose.

[Kim Coles]

She can still.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And then the movement. You saw the movement in it, right? The balloon fell off the wall. Okay, for those who are listening to this, she moved her hands and her eyes got a little smaller as she looked off into the distance where we saw the rose and the bloom falling off.

[Erica Alexander]

Oh, there it is.

[Kim Coles]

You're welcome.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I love it.

[Erica Alexander]

I love it. Welcome to the Reverb brought to you by Lexis. This is where we reflect, connect, and talk about how the episode's themes still echo in the culture. Because just like our story, Lexis keeps raising the bar. That's the standard of amazing. I'm gonna ask you what was your favorite episode of Living Singles? Since we have you here, since we have you, what is your favorite Living Single episode?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I have a few favorites.

[Erica Alexander]

Oh, do tell.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

But one of them is when we played the. When we played those singers.

[Erica Alexander]

Oh, God. Flowing the Flavorettes.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Flowing the Flavorettes. It is so ridiculous.

[Erica Alexander]

I love it.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

It is ridiculous.

[Kim Coles]

It is ridiculous.

[Erica Alexander]

I'm with it.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Perfect.

[Erica Alexander]

We'll do the Gig.

[Kim Coles]

Exactly. What I love is when you take over and then when Max come on the stage, you're just looking like this. Like, did that just happen? Like butter wouldn't melt in your fricking mouth. And I like, look at Dana just going like this. Huh?

[Erica Alexander]

Oh, yeah, yeah. But you were those glass.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You were bugging that everybody was going into.

[Kim Coles]

Everybody.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And I love the choreographer. She was fantastic.

[Erica Alexander]

It was Demeta Jo Freeman. Demita Jo Freeman came in there and.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Whipped us in the shape and it was just.

[Kim Coles]

Come on, guys.

[Erica Alexander]

What are you saying? What are you saying?

[Kim Coles]

Bolo the clown to me, just. We all looked crazy. To me. I thought the only person that looked halfway decent when we got into the robes, you had a nice hairdo. I actually thought we all looked ridiculous.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I thought we looked perfectly ridiculous.

[Kim Coles]

I was just. Ugh.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You wanted us to look better.

[Kim Coles]

I thought we would somehow when I looked in the mirror, I said, I look like I'm in a sane asylum.

[Erica Alexander]

I went perfectly ridiculous.

[Kim Coles]

You did.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

One of my other favorites was with Jennifer Lewis. Cause she wore me out. Dilly. Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

Khadijah.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I mean, you just. You could. I like the shows where we could, like kick assket. Like when we talked about the cat casket. There were things that turned into a whole thing behind the scenes that we could not let go while we were rehearsing. So we had to.

[Erica Alexander]

Your little lady. I just wish you and you couldn't stop laughing. I just wish that Mittens would have an opportunity. I just wish Mittens and you were like, I can't stop laughing. I can't stop laughing. Some of it was just. Yeah.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, my gosh. Because it was funny, you know, a gasket. Some of these words would evolve into, like, whole things. I mean, we sang the Love Boat and it just turned into like a thing we could not sing. You remember the Love Boat? The Love Boat. We just started singing the Love Boat and the.

[Erica Alexander]

And then.

[Kim Coles]

You mean we have to do to love, folks.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

What? And then.

[Kim Coles]

Love, love, love, love, love, love, love.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Love Exciting and new Come aboard.

[Kim Coles]

We'Re.

[Erica Alexander]

Expecting you and you and you and you and your Love won't hurt anymore.

[Kim Coles]

No pain no gain Come aboard what's up?

[Erica Alexander]

We're going to go the Love Boat.

[Kim Coles]

Soon we'll be making another.

[Erica Alexander]

Promise to something for everyone. You set up cards for adventure your mind on a new romance 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Love won't hurt it anymore no pain.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

No gain.

[Kim Coles]

What'S up?

[Erica Alexander]

The Love Boat. And that's it.

[Kim Coles]

Y' all just got A piece of history. Come on. What we even. And you have to understand, we drove the freaking crew insane.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

There came a point where they created a sound effect. That sound they were shooting us.

[Kim Coles]

It was horrible. But we. It didn't matter.

[Amber Watson]

We were family.

[Kim Coles]

You are family. And you know what? That's the thing about. People need to understand about sitcom. You spend a time waiting so long and also being. You have to find a way to play. And we found a way to play. That was our warm up.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

What did we.

[Erica Alexander]

That was our warmup.

[Kim Coles]

That was our warmup to do what we needed to do.

[Erica Alexander]

And I think that's how we learned to trust each other. I always say that we would throw. I would throw something at you and you would throw back at me. And you would know that you could catch it and play with it and make it something new and then create accents to go with it. And that gets infused even. You know that scene where you go, aha.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Uh huh.

[Erica Alexander]

It's not like, yo, what are you doing? It's like, you know, you get to be yourself and bring yourself to.

[Kim Coles]

Let's close out this thing. Just really quick to say, what's the best advice that your mother ever gave? And you know, you have your values instilled in you by your parents.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You talked about that.

[Kim Coles]

What's the best advice?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I think you know all the things. Like, you know, you are loved, you're beautiful, you know, you can accomplish anything. You put your mind to all those good things. She told me, but she would hit me with the joy of the Lord is your strength. Sometimes before I walked out the door, Dana, remember, the joy of the Lord is your strength. And I was like, what? I'll be mad. Like, I gotta walk out. Why would you say that? And then I would think about that and I was like, wait, Joy is my strength. Joy is my strength. Oh, joy. When I feel joyful, I feel stronger. Okay, let me find some joy.

[Kim Coles]

I think we need somebody, a mother to give us some more mother energy. It's a mother. Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

Where can we get mother energy? Do we have any mothers in the house? Ladies and gentlemen, Chip Heard has entered the building. AKA Mama Laverne. And now sitting here right now, another queen has entered the building. Ladies and gentlemen, Chip Heard, also known as Chip Fields Heard, who's the real mom of Kim Fields. And played in this episode. Hello, Chip.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Hi, baby.

[Erica Alexander]

Are we clapping? Thank you for her. What a delight.

[Kim Coles]

What a delight. I'd like to have you tip a meta moment where here on the show, you're playing the mother of your real life daughter, and you have your fake name, real name. You're playing Laverne, which is your name in real life. Then we have Rita James, played by Rita Owens, the real life mother of the great queen Latifah, known to us as Dana Owens. But you will be the only one to be able to speak to what it's like to be a mother on set and also have a daughter, but also the debut for you. You're a vet, but you can speak to.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

That's so good.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, you're good.

[Amber Watson]

You know, your Kimmy told me I was also an influencer.

[Erica Alexander]

You are.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I know.

[Kim Coles]

That's right.

[Amber Watson]

What's that?

[Kim Coles]

Yeah, that and you. But you can tell us now and sort of give testimony about Rita.

[Amber Watson]

Oh, yeah. Well, I'll tell you this, Dana, she came the first day so nervous. She was sweating bullets, and she was like, chip, da da, da, da, da da. And I was like, I know that I'm scared and I'm nervous, but I couldn't be because I had to be strong for her.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, thank God.

[Amber Watson]

So I put on this happy face, and it was like, oh, girl, this is nothing. Just, you know, just look at Dana and look at her like you'd be looking at her in real life and let that, you know, make you not feel nervous. And I said, I'll be right there for you. And I was thinking, who's gonna be there for you?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Me. I'm scared.

[Erica Alexander]

Why were you scared and nervous?

[Amber Watson]

I never really liked acting. I did it. I really. I never. I didn't think I was very good as an actress. And so Rita made have to take another step up. You know, I have to look out for somebody. And you were nervous for her, which was funny. Kimmy is sitting in the background going, you okay? You okay? And I'm like, shut up. You're making me more nervous, you know? Yeah, it was. It was probably the sweetest part of working with Rita, though, was when she would come to me and she'd go, did I do okay? Did I do okay? And I go, girl, you slayed that. I probably didn't say slay back then. I probably said, you know, something like, you were awesome. Don't even wor. Yeah, but it did make a difference when you would look at her or you'd hold her hand sometime, and you made her feel safe. And then once it became fussing me and Kimmy against you and her, she.

[Erica Alexander]

Turned into a beast.

[Amber Watson]

Talking about my daughter. I don't care if it is in tv. She was just fun, but a real gentle spirit. Very gracious, very get. She'd give everybody else the kudos and never take any for herself.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yes, she had a problem with that.

[Amber Watson]

She did very much more. Very humble. But I do thank her because she made me really step up just because I had. I felt like I was protecting her as a mom, you know, to another mom.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yeah, I love that.

[Amber Watson]

Can I just tell you something I've never told anybody but my husband? When we would rap on any of the episodes or anybody's episode, we would rap and he would be there because Irvin and I had just either I don't think we were dating. I think we'd just gotten married. So he'd be at the set. So he'd be in his own car coming from work and I'd be in my car. So he'd get behind me and he'd get home and he'd go, babe, you were going like 75 miles an hour, 80 miles hour an. What was happening to you? I playing this is going to get a little emotional. I used to watch Lucille Ball and Lucille Ball after I heard her story, the real story behind the camera. It was painful. And I kept feeling like I just got married. I'm getting married in my 40s, I'm trying to be cute and then I have to act like this clown on this show. And it was very hard for me especially.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

So when we get.

[Amber Watson]

When I go to wardrobe at the end of the night and I take off that stuff. All I could think of was he was watching me. He was watching people laughing at me. And I felt for Lucille Ball because I said, oh my gosh, how does she feel? And then, you know, knowing her, what was happening behind the scenes, it was painful. So that was like, this is the first time I've ever said this ever. But it was painful. I didn't want to look like the clown clown when I just got this man in my 40s. And God was so generous to give me such a wonderful guy. And then I. So I. From that time on, I was backing out of acting because I did not want to be. Because I know I can be funny, but I can also be dramatic. And when y' all were talking about talking back to your mamas and stuff, I said to Richard in the grand green room. See, that's why I burnt Penny. Cuz she knew not to talk back to her mama. Okay, so anyway, there you go.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Trauma.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you. You know, we're gonna have you come back.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Please just feature an Entire episode.

[Kim Coles]

No, no. She.

[Erica Alexander]

She is very much so.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Of my new show, what Living Single had did to me.

[Kim Coles]

I'm still in recovery. Live and recovery.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Me and my four therapists will all.

[Amber Watson]

Come and sit here.

[Erica Alexander]

Thank you for being so generous enough to come and to come and share a piece of that story. We want to hear even more.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you.

[Amber Watson]

Thank you.

[Erica Alexander]

Thank you, Chip.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Thank you for Sharon, for being that mom when you had that going on, because you rock that mom.

[Amber Watson]

Thank you, Dana. But being with y' all is. Is a different. Because y' all are different kinds of ladies. You're what I like. You are.

[Kim Coles]

You.

[Amber Watson]

You knew how to reinvent yourselves. You knew how to keep going. You didn't stop, and you also didn't die out soon.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

We got a lot of.

[Amber Watson]

A lot of our friends who are not with us.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Right? That's right.

[Amber Watson]

And.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yeah.

[Amber Watson]

And you guys have stayed strong and stayed in the game.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I'm so proud of you. Thank you.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you. That's Mama Chip, y'.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

All.

[Erica Alexander]

Mama Chip.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, Lord.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you. We actually have not talked about. In the very serious way. We haven't talked about your mother's passing because it snuck up on her. And I want to make sure that we talk about the disease and the signs so people don't know that this exists. I had been coughing, just so you know, and had a talk with you. And I know. And you said you need to go to her pulmonologist. Yes. Because this is something that actually. And I applaud you. Cause you did a documentary that I looked at. Scared the hell out of me. Scared the hell out of me.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Scary stuff.

[Kim Coles]

But please, can we talk so people understand what that is? Interstitial lung disease. And the great Auntie Rita, unfortunately had a bacteria.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yeah, she had some things going on, so she had something called scleroderma, which kind of went undiagnosed, which can cause you to get scar tissue in different places, and it can show up in different places in your body. For her, it showed up in her lungs. And what happens is it creates fibrosis, which is like a hardening of the tissue. Our lungs have to be soft and supple, so so they can receive oxygen. And so it was kind of like trying to breathe in something hard, you know, and you can't really get the oxygen that you need. So she just passed out in class one day. And that was the beginning of this journey of trying to figure out what was going on, because we didn't know. And then finally, you know, we came. She finally got A diagnosis of a for sure diagnosis of dysclair D. Her heart was being treated, and it instantly started to come back, which made the blood pressure go down. Everything is connected, so you got to really check into it. If you. If you're not getting your oxygen, your full oxygen, it's going to affect your heart, which is going to pump harder. I'm no doctor, so don't take this from me. Do. Do some research. It took a minute, but you could. You could see it, you know, and eventually my mom had to be on oxygen. And there are drugs that are now created to help a lot of these things that she was fighting. So I think that people should definitely, you know, see their doctors and not play around with it. Because, I mean, Eric, I know you. When we were doing Living Singer, you were running five miles a day. I was like, she is wilding. I was power drinking five miles a day.

[Erica Alexander]

I drank five tequila. I was power eating. I was partying.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Exactly. We was all doing something. We were going in. But, you know, I was. I felt like it's something that you should check up on. And here, take this guy. He's great. He knows what he's doing. And so it's important because it took.

[Kim Coles]

A while for you to find out. And the reason I'm asking is because that time could have been time where she could have taken maybe some therapies or remedies that helped.

[Erica Alexander]

You just didn't know yet?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

No, she didn't know yet. We didn't know. And it was. By that time, other things had kicked in. So it was a few different things. I don't know how long my mom had been feeling symptoms before she. I could hear certain things in her voice. I could hear her. She had a whole. She had a lot of patience. And I could kind of hear her sometimes when I would call her in her classroom. She had a phone in her classroom, so sometimes I would call her at school to check on her or say whatever. And I could hear, like, her patience being a little short. So I'm like, are you okay, ma? Are you tired? Like, I wanted her to retire. I'm like, you need to just. I'm doing my thing. I made it. You can take it easy now, you know? So my mother actually retired at first. She was. But she had to, you know, it was like she couldn't keep that pace of what she was doing and have. And figure out what was going on with her own body at the same time. It was like, we have to figure out what's going on. So then we got down to a real diagnosis of it, and we were able to get treated, you know, And I think it really extended her time that she had here. This is very weird to talk about, because I don't really talk about this.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you for that.

[Erica Alexander]

Thank you for sharing, because you shared her with us so beautifully on the show and in our lives. And thank you for sharing that.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

My whole life, she belonged to everyone.

[Kim Coles]

Thank you. And she did a great job because she's. If you're here, that means she's here.

[Erica Alexander]

Yes.

[Kim Coles]

So she doesn't go anywhere. That's one thing about it. You know, we are speaking to her now. I have to say. You talked about Dana when she. After her brother passed.

[Erica Alexander]

Right. Well, I wanted to say, well, so we'll go there. I felt we were talking in the beginning about you moving to California and getting into this new rhythm. I felt sort of the joyous responsibility of being your sort of court jester, which is one of the reasons why I made that space, why I made that space nice for us. Because to give you sort of a grounding. And I didn't understand, like, I'm going to create a grounding, funny space for Queen Latifah. It just seemed like the. And it was an honor to have little jokes and little songs that we can never sing for other people and sit there smoking our cigarettes and have a place of caring for you in a way that I felt that you needed. Cause you were going through a grieving time.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Definitely going through it. I was definitely going through it. And you definitely created that. And I just remember doing set it off because I was doing set it off at the same time as I was doing Living Set Single.

[Erica Alexander]

You go there, shoot at night, and come and be with us during the day.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

How are you doing this?

[Kim Coles]

Fantastic.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yeah.

[Kim Coles]

And fantastic performance.

[Erica Alexander]

Yeah, thank you.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You were actually supposed to be my acting coach. And so you passed me off to Richie, your boyfriend at the time. At the time, he was like, rich will do it.

[Kim Coles]

Rich.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

He'd be great.

[Kim Coles]

He'll be great.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I was like, oh, man. I was like, I got this big audition.

[Amber Watson]

I gotta.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

And something had happened. Your family had to go away. And you, like, you gotta. It was yours. It was yours. That was your role. I braided my hair up. I got a prop gun from Stevie, our prop guy on Living Single.

[Kim Coles]

I would've helped her with Stevie. I need to go around saying that. But she already had the role.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Okay. No. And then something happened. You weren't even in town. Like, you weren't even you had something else happen that you weren't even available to do it. So you were like, let Rich do it.

[Kim Coles]

No, no.

[Amber Watson]

And.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, man. And then I just remember I got the role, but I worked like 30 days straigh at one point because that I couldn't get the time off from the show and do the movie. So at some point I had to, like, literally just go back and forth. And I remember being in a quick change booth with Kim and she checking on me. So how's that lesbian movie going for you?

[Erica Alexander]

Just titties out. Just titties, titties. How's that lesbo movie doing?

[Kim Coles]

All right.

[Erica Alexander]

All right. I feel good about that.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

She was just.

[Erica Alexander]

Because I need to check the picture.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Oh, my God.

[Kim Coles]

To make you laugh.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

It made me laugh. So the levity that I needed was right there.

[Erica Alexander]

Because you weren't getting sleep. But I could make you laugh.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

You could definitely make me laugh. This is crazy.

[Kim Coles]

What we had in common that I didn't know until we started talking is that you came in the door grieving, and I did because my father passed away three months before, and I didn't. You know, it's funny because you. You can be like ships passing in the night. And it would have helped my understanding of a lot of things, frankly, if we knew each other better. But you can't. Right?

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Right.

[Erica Alexander]

Get to work on your own.

[Kim Coles]

But suddenly, if you do know, you just shift and go, oh, click. And wherever you get that information, it's so. It's almost a relief to go. Thank you.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Yeah.

[Erica Alexander]

Or I'm the only one.

[Amber Watson]

Cause I'm not.

[Kim Coles]

I'm not the only one. But also, I also. Because I dealt with it differently. Dana is more communicative, but I didn't know how actually think about all that time and see myself as being an outsider. But I was more inside. If I had known. You see what I mean? What we were both dealing with in different ways. And so I'm just telling you that.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Well, let's be clear.

[Kim Coles]

I'm glad I grew.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I'm glad you grew. But you were a maverick, and you were a four to be reckoned with. Because whenever it was time to. I mean, you fought for things that made everything better for everyone. And what you brought to that show and just you as a person, just. You were a fighter. You're a fighter. So it was like. But it was perfect, you know? So maybe we punch it the wrong thing sometimes.

[Kim Coles]

We do. Sometimes. But we have six very strong individuals who do me. And yet we got along and loved each other in a way that I think is deeper than even we can understand.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

I think so as well.

[Kim Coles]

We needed to live past it. Dana, the theme song. We can't let you get out of here without talking about one of the most iconic theme songs there is. It's played all over the world. People redo it, other people do it. It's all over the theme song. Tell us how you wrote it and what happened.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Obviously, I come from music, so. And this is my show. In my mind, I'm like, I gotta do this theme song. It is your show. These theme songs are like, what resonate in your minds. Like, you hear these theme songs, you take the good, you take the bad, you know? Right. Good times. All of these songs play. So I'm thinking I gotta do the theme song. And like I said, there was a. I did a whole theme song for the original name of the show, My Girls, which was totally, completely different, but very soulful. Just vibey, you know? And I like to sing and rap and mix it all together. So then they changed the show. The other reason I was arguing in that office.

[Kim Coles]

But, oh, man, I just finished that show.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Bam. Like, okay, gotta get. Take it back to the lab. So I was just thinking about living single. I'm thinking about what we're doing. Like, what is it? Like, these four girls doing their thing. So one, a producer I know named Def Jeff. I needed him to come over and help me flesh this idea out. So I was like, I want this beat to feel like this. So he put this. He did the beat on the machine for me. I wrote the rhyme and then chopped up. Check, check, check it out. So then Stu, we went over his house with the beat, and he added, like, the keys. Some keys to it. Because I like pretty, pretty things like that. The opposites of what I am. Latifah. Delicate, sensitive and all that.

[Kim Coles]

Come on.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

So that we are living. Hey, single. I'm hearing that in my mind. And it was longer. Yes, we're living in the single life. So I'm thinking of that.

[Erica Alexander]

But then I'm also like, keep your head up.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

What? Keep your head up. That's right. So I wrote the rhyme to it as well, because of, you know, we mixing ramen and singing. So I wrote the song, and then he played the song as I wrote it, and Jeff did the beat, and then he was like, can you do this at the end? So. So his part, which was a clutch part, he played that. Can you just put this on there? Like, forget the whole song? That right there. I was like, huh, can you sing this note? So I sang whatever the notes were. He put that. It was like the button on the end of the song that made it perfect.

[Erica Alexander]

Wow.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

It made it perfect. So it was a mixture of this hip hop beat with these beautiful notes and a little bit of jazz at the end. That was perfect. And then Big Les is dancing in the. Come on in the visual to the opening. She's one of hip hop's best dancers at this time shot in New York. It's all of these cuts. We're all dancing in it. So the energy of us matched with Les and New York and that song just all went together perfectly.

[Kim Coles]

All hail the queen.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

All hail.

[Kim Coles]

All hail the queen. Ladies and gentlemen, Queen Latifah. Queen Latifah, thanks for coming.

[Erica Alexander]

This is True Blue.

[Amber Watson]

Huh?

[Erica Alexander]

The segment where we hear from you, our friends. Take it away, Amber, from a bunch.

[Kim Coles]

Of people and they have asked, they've noticed that in the credits we see your name, Kim Coles and Queen Latifah's name alternate.

[Queen Latifah (Dana Owens)]

Can you tell us that story?

[Kim Coles]

Sure.

[Erica Alexander]

That is what is called most favored nations. So since Dana and I were there, or Latifah and I were there from the beginning, our contract stated that we would have not only the same pay but the same star billing. In order to share star billing, we had to flip our every other week. So some weeks it's Kim Coles and then Queen Latifah, and then some weeks it's Queen Latifah and then Kim Coles. That was negotiated into our contract so that we could share the space. Well, that's our show.

[Kim Coles]

That is our show. Thank you. That's our show. Thank you, Queen. Thank you for doing and we love your team. Thank you, Chip Herd, for hearing us for coming in.

[Erica Alexander]

What a nice surprise.

[Kim Coles]

We love you and thank all of.

[Erica Alexander]

You for watching the show, liking subscribing as we know that you do. And you gonna be back next weekend.

[Kim Coles]

Yes. On all the socials, Spotify, Apple, wherever you subscribe and watch all the way through. If you watched here, you did okay. But see you next week.

[Erica Alexander]

Bye.

[Kim Coles]

Reliving Single is hosted by me, Erica Alexander and me, Kim Coles. Reliving Single is a production of Heartbeat in association with Color Farm Media, executive.

[Erica Alexander]

Produced by Kevin Hart, Jeff Clanagan, Eric Eddings, Leslie Guam, Erica Alexander and Ben Arnon.

[Kim Coles]

The show is produced by Kim Coles.

[Erica Alexander]

And Amber Watson is our senior producer.

[Kim Coles]

Our associate producer is Kenny Jackson.

[Erica Alexander]

Our other associate producer is Electra Telesford.

[Kim Coles]

Our sound engineers are Eric Hicks and Cedric Wilson.

[Erica Alexander]

Production supervision by Razak Boykin and Brett Calkins.

[Kim Coles]

Additional production support from Alex Atkins and Z. Taylor.

[Erica Alexander]

Special thanks to BK Augustine and Dr. E.J. johnson.

[Kim Coles]

We dedicate this episode to to our beloved mother, Auntie Rita Owens. And for more information about Scleroderma, please watch the documentary Beyond Breathless.

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