My Brother and Me is an American sitcom, which ran on Nickelodeon from October 15, 1994 through January 15, 1995. Reruns of the program aired during The '90s Are All That block on TeenNick from December 24–28, 2013. In June 2014, Nickelodeon released My Brother & Me: The Complete Series as a two-disc manufacture on demand release through Amazon.com in region 1.
Plot
The show centers on the Parkers, a family living in the west side of Charlotte, North Carolina, who experience the highs and lows of everyday life. The series starred Arthur Reggie III as pre-teen son Alfie, Ralph Woolfolk IV as his younger brother Dee-Dee, Aisling Sistrunk as older sister Melanie, Karen E. Fraction as mother Jennifer Parker, Jim R. Coleman as father Roger Parker, and Jimmy Lee Newman, Jr. as Alfie's troublesome best friend, Milton "Goo" Berry.
Cast
Main
Arthur Reggie III as Alfred "Alfie" Parker: Dee-Dee's older brother and younger brother to Melanie. Best friends with Goo. He is 11 years old. He turns 12 in "The Surprise".
Ralph Woolfolk IV as Derek "Dee-Dee" Parker: Alfie and Melanie's youngest brother. He looks up to Alfie. Best friends with Donnell and Harry. He is 8 years old and hasn't built common sense, explored in one episode when he went against his parents and Alfie's wishes not to get a hair cut similar to Cool Dr. Money as the cut wasn't age appropriate. He gave Alfie good advice in "The Robin Hood Play" in not getting worked up in wearing tights and let it distract form his performance on TV. Dee-Dee has a stuff dog named Bernie.
Jimmy Lee Newman, Jr. as Milton "Goo" Berry: Alfie's best friend who is in love with Melanie. He is 11 years old. His sweet talk often fools Jennifer, but Roger and the others see past it. Although he picks on Dee-Dee, Harry, Donnell and Dionne constantly, he has shown to consider them as friends. Goo is insulted in "Hit the Open Man" when the coach kept calling him "Glue" instead of Goo.
Aisling Sistrunk as Melanie Parker: Alfie and Dee-Dee's older sister and the object of Goo's affections, however she is repulsed by him. She is also best friends with Dionne. She is 15 years old.
Karen E. Fraction as Jennifer Parker: The kids' mother who often falls for Goo's sweet talk. She has an older sister, Helen. She is 36 years old.
Jim Coleman as Roger Parker: The kids' father. He is 33 years old. Unlike Jennifer, Roger is more wary of Goo's sweet talk. He also has a habit of telling boring stories about his childhood and his older brother Lawrence to his family, which they often run away from.
Recurring
Stefan J. Wernli as Donnell Wilburn: Dee-Dee's best friend besides Harry and Dionne's little brother. He is 8 years old. He turns 9 in "Dance".
Amanda Seales as Dionne Wilburn: Melanie's fast talking best friend and Donnell's older sister. She is 13 years old. Dionne has a habit of being pessimistic and comes up with negative scenarios which sometimes involves her crush named Tim that even annoy Melanie. She is also antagonistic towards Goo whenever he insults her.
Christopher Guerriero as Milton Garcia
Keith "Bubba" Naylor as Harry White: Dee-Dee's best friend besides Donnell. He is 8 years old.
Renaldo Ferguson as Himself
Kym Whitley as Mrs. Pinckney: The owner of the comic book store. She's sometimes bossy towards Dee Dee, Donnell, and Harry by kicking them out of her store if they did something wrong or don't have any money to pay. Pinckney was also supportive of Dee-Dee when he suggested that Kendall Gill attend the charity carnival. She's 33 years old.
Willie Brunson as Moo Berry: Goo's cousin, a classmate of Dee-Dee's.
Florence Anthony as Aunt Helen: Jennifer's sister, Roger's sister-in-law and the children's aunt.
Avis Marie Barnes as Mrs. Wilburn: Dionne and Donnell's mother
Dennis Scott as Coach Hancock
Cool Dr. Money & The Money Girls
Tony Delana as Cool Dr. Money
Lee Hastings
Ana Palmas
Sunny Raskin
Katrina Webster
Celebrity cameos
In the first episode of the series, former Charlotte Hornetsbasketball player Kendall Gill made a guest appearance. The show also featured former Orlando Magic small forward Dennis Scott as a coach, in the episode "Hit the Open Man". It would also feature Kenny Layne, the kid who had his hair cut similar to Cool Doctor Money. Layne is a professional wrestler formally signed to TNA Wrestling, where he is a two-time X Division Champion, and currently signed to Ring of Honor. He uses the ring name of "Kenny King".
Series structure
Interior monologues
The show extensively uses interior monologues. Almost every episode features the characters' "thoughts", usually overreacted responses to something another character says. This is especially prevalent in scenes revolving around the boys' father, who frequently tells painfully boring stories about his brother, the kids' uncle Lawrence, and forces the kids to endure his favorite dish, mumbo-jumbo gumbo.
Catchphrases
A common catchphrase used in the show by multiple characters was "Don't hold your breath!" This was a typical response to an outlandish suggestion by another character. Another common catchphrase would occur when Dee-Dee would interrupt Goo in whatever story he was telling, and promptly after Goo telling Dee-Dee off, he would say, "Now as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted...." and would continue onward with his story. This occurrence happened quite often on the show. Alfie said in most episodes "Aw, man!" when faced with a situation or outcome that troubled him. In a couple of episodes, whenever the family goes upstairs to avoid listening to one of Roger's boring stories, Roger says "You gotta come down sometime." There was also the use of the phrase "you didn't say Fuzzy Wuzzy" when Dee-Dee would convince Alfie to play the Fuzzy Wuzzy Bear Game. One phrase, said by Dee-Dee and memorable for its unorthodox inflection, was "Hit me! Hit me!" He was being bullied at school, so his brother Alfie and Goo taught him how to bluff. After saying that phrase, Dee-Dee came home with a black eye and covered in mud. They came to find out, it was a girl that was bullying him and that she is the younger sister to their classmates, Toya and Trisha.
Episodes (1994–95)
Cancellation
The show made history as the network's first show featuring a predominantly black cast. Despite its popularity during its premiere, the series only lasted 13 episodes. Ralph Woolfolk IV explained in an interview that the show was canceled due to disagreements between the producers and creators of the show; a second season was planned but the two parties had different visions for the show that caused a major fallout.
DVD release
"My Brother and Me: The Complete Series" was released on June 23, 2014 exclusively on Amazon.com. This release contains two discs. It is published on demand onto DVD-Rs. All of the My Brother and Me episodes can be found on iTunes.
Awards and nominations
In 1996 and 1997, My Brother and Me was nominated for the NAACP Image Award.
