*”Living Single” is without a doubt one of the all-time best sitcoms to inhabit the small screen. With its talented cast and endless laughs, the show could do no wrong giving us the weekly hijinks of Queen Latifah’s Khadijah James, her cousin Synclaire James (Kim Coles), and their friends, Regina “Régine” Hunter (Kim Fields), Maxine “Max” Shaw (Erika Alexander), Kyle Barker (T.C. Carson) and Overton Wakefield Jones (John Henton).
The show, which premiered 31 years ago as part of Fox’s Thursday night lineup (“Martin” and “New York Undercover” rounding out the trio), was a viewing requirement for a lot of households at the end of a long workweek.
Its five-season run from Aug. 22, 1993 – Jan. 1, 1998, was a period for folk to realize that we all have the same or similar situations and issues with characters that remind us of people we actually know, knew, and have encountered in our lifetime.
And with any classic show, there are always two things that make it easy to go to that world, the title and its accompanying theme song.
Although “Living Single” rolls off the tongue easily and its Latifah-aided theme song makes it a sing-along, what if the show was known by a different name and a different song led you into the world of Khadijah and Co?
Believe it or not, if the folk behind “Living Single” stuck with what they had, we may have been watching a show called “My Girls.”
Celebrating its 31-year milestone, Madame Noire brought up a 2018 “The Breakfast Club” interview Alexander did that exposed her show’s original name, along with a potential name that landed on another legendary sitcom that became a phenom on a rival network.
Alexander revealed that in its early stages of development, working titles floated around included “Living Single” and “Friends” Although both shows were produced by Warner Bros. The studio reportedly invested more financially in the latter series.
“The original name for ‘Living Single’ was ‘My Girls,’ but it didn’t test well so they came up with some other names. ‘Living Single’ and ‘Friends’ were some of the names presented,’ Alexander explained. “Obviously, they chose one and the other went to another show, also produced by Warner Bros.”
Although the story behind “Living Single’s” name may not be breaking news, it has become a conversation starter nowadays with its 31st anniversary.
As Madame Noire noted, fans seem to be divided on the topic, with some praising the decision to scrap the title and others pointing out that the original theme song was “a bop to them and expressed how they could see the song working out.”
“Then there are people who acknowledged the correlation between the almost title of the show and the women singing “My Girls” at the end of the pilot episode.
So, what say you? Do you think the “Living Single” title and theme song we know and love would’ve brought the reverence it has if it went under the name “My Girls?”
Check out the original theme song (“My Girls”) above and the iconic final version of the theme below and weigh in on whether the choice made was the best one.
