Amen (TV series)

Amen is an American television sitcom produced by Carson Productions that ran from September 27, 1986 to May 11, 1991 on NBC. Amen was part of a wave of successful African American sitcoms on NBC in the 1980s which featured entirely or almost-entirely Black casts. Others included The Cosby Show, A Different World, and 227.

Overview

The series starred Sherman Hemsley (of The Jeffersons and All in the Family fame) as Deacon Ernest Frye, of the First Community Church of Philadelphia. Deacon Frye was often dishonest and frequently got into trouble with his many harebrained schemes. Anna Maria Horsford played Deacon Frye's thirty-seven-year-old spinster daughter, Thelma Frye. Reverend Rueben Gregory, played by Clifton Davis, was the new, young Pastor of The First Community Church, and also the object of Thelma's affection. The two eventually married during the fourth season, despite the fact that the Reverend and Deacon often butted heads. In the last episode in 1991, Thelma gave birth to a child.

The cast also included Jester Hairston as senior citizen Rolly Forbes, who often acted as the voice-of-reason. Davis and Hairston had previously worked together, playing Clifton and Wildcat on the 1970s sitcom That's My Mama. The show also starred comedian Roz Ryan and Barbara Montgomery as Amelia and Cassietta Hetebrink, a pair of chattering sisters at the church. Also appearing on the show was Leola Henderson (played by Rosetta LeNoire), Rolly's love interest and eventual wife. After portraying Leola Forbes for two seasons, LeNoire left the show to star in the hugely successful sitcom, Family Matters as Grandma 'Mother' Estelle Winslow. LeNoire was replaced by Montrose Hagins who played the character from 1989 until the series' end in 1991.

For the third and fourth seasons Elsa Raven and Tony T. Johnson joined the cast, with Raven as Swedish housekeeper Inga, and Johnson portraying Chris, a young boy that lived next door to Deacon Frye. A running gag at this time was Chris coming over to the Deacon's house and saying a smart-alecky comment that would cause one of the adults to pick him up and put him out of the house. Raven and Johnson were dropped from the show in 1990, with no explanation given for the disappearance of their characters. (See Chuck Cunningham syndrome) Barbara Montgomery left the series in 1990 to star on ABC's Married People, but there was no explanation of her character's absence on the show.

In the fifth, and final season, Bumper Robinson joined the cast as Clarence, a young street kid and mentoree of Deacon Frye.

Cast

• Sherman Hemsley — Deacon Ernest Frye
• Anna Maria Horsford — Thelma Frye Gregory
• Clifton Davis — Reverend Rueben Gregory
• Jester Hairston — Rolly Forbes
• Roz Ryan — Amelia Hetebrink
• Barbara Montgomery — Cassietta Hetebrink (1986-1990)
• Elsa Raven — Inga (1988-1990)
• Rosetta LeNoire — Leola Henderson Forbes (1987-1989)
• Montrose Hagins — Leola Henderson Forbes (1989-1991)
• Bumper Robinson — Clarence (1990-1991)
• Tony T. Johnson — Chris (1988-1990)
• Franklyn Seales — Lorenzo Hollingsworth (1986-1987)

Theme song

The show's theme song, "Shine On Me", was performed by Vanessa Bell Armstrong and written by Andraé Crouch.

Trivia

In real life, Clifton Davis is an ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister.

Sherman Hemsley was actually born in Philadelphia, the city in which the sitcom takes place.

Clifton Davis and Roz Ryan both appeared together on an episode of Half and Half. Ironically, he portrayed a pastor (that Phyllis was attracted to), and Roz portrayed his secretary.

UPN aired a short-lived sitcom titled Good News in 1997, starring David Ramsey, Guy Torry, and Roz Ryan, who once again portrayed the pastor's secretary. (The sanctuary and the pastor's study strongly resembled the same setting as the set of Amen.)

Ratings rank

Amen was quite successful in the Nielsen Ratings during the early part of its 1986–1991 run.

• 1986–1987: #13
• 1987–1988: #15
• 1988–1989: #25
• 1989–1990: #54
• 1990–1991: #60

Episode list

Reruns/Syndication

Repeats of Amen was aired on the TV One network, but was dropped in 2007. In 2008, the series was added back to the channel's lineup. The syndication rights to the series are currently owned by NBC Universal Television Distribution, the successor company to MCA Television. (The MCA closing logos still appear following the Carson Productions logo on certain stations' airings of reruns.)

On October 28, 2006, the series debuted on the ION Television network (formerly PAX) with a special marathon and ran on Monday through Thursdays on the network. Two months later, the show was abruptly removed from the schedule before completing its first syndication run. The series also briefly returned to the ION Television network schedule in April, 2007, until ION Television dropped Amen in June 2007. Then, it later returned to ION Television on November 19,2007 airing back-to-back Monday through Friday at 6:00pm ET/PT 5:00pm CT. It again stopped airing episodes on January 11, 2008.

References

External links

• Amen at Jump the Shark