I grew up watching entirely too much TV, and I got to thinking about how many of these shows take place in Michigan and Detroit. So here is a list of 4 random shows I like that take place in the City.

 

 

Tamera Mowry, Tim Reid, Jackee Harry and Tia Mowry star in Sister, Sister.2

Sister Sister is basically a sitcom version of the parent trap, but featured a black family and took place in Detroit. All of which make it better than the parent trap (Yeah I said it). The show aired from 1994 to 1999 and featured Tia and Tamera Mowry who play twins who were separated at birth and by chance meet each other in a shopping mall. Ray Campbell, Tamera’s adopted father, is very different from Tia’s adopted mother, Lisa Landry, but the twins don’t want to be separated so Ray and Lisa end up living together. The twins live in Detroit with their adopted parents, and in later seasons in they attend the University of Michigan (GO BLUE!!!!). Also, if you remember “Go Home Roger”, the slogan shouted at the annoying next door neighbor who is in love in with the twins, Rodger. He ended up becoming famous R&B singer Marques Houston and a part of the R&B group IMX. (For people who are a little younger, he also is the one who discovered Omarion and B2K, and is in the movie You Got Served.)

See this episode, where the twins move from Detroit in Ann Arbor for College.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZzjE4rIebU

 

3

Set in Detroit, the series stars Martin Lawrence in the role of Martin Payne, a disc jockey with a girlfriend named Gina Waters played by Tisha Campbell-Martin. Martin works for the fictional radio station WZUP and later for local Public-access television station Channel 51. Martin if you haven’t watched it is one of the funniest sitcoms ever made. This showed aired from aired for five seasons on the Fox network, from August 27, 1992, to May 1, 1997. During its run on the Fox network throughout the 1990s, Martin was one of the network’s highest-rated shows during the sitcom’s five-season run. If you aren’t familiar with Martin Lawrence, he some of his biggest films are the Bad Boys and Blue Streak.

 

4

Home Improvement stars Michigan native, Tim Allen, who if you are under 20 years old, you might recognize from the Pure Michigan Radio Ads, or Santa Claus 1 & 2. The series aired from 1991 to 1999 and centers on the Taylor family, which consists of Tim (Tim Allen), his wife Jill (Patricia Richardson) and their three children: the oldest, Brad (Zachery Ty Bryan), the middle child Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) and youngest, Mark (Taran Noah Smith). The Taylors live in suburban Detroit, and have a neighbor named Wilson who is often the go-to guy for solving Tim’s problems, aka, his Mr. Feeny. Tim is nicknamed the tool man taylor and hosts a construction show and often references local Detroit teams. One more random fact, is that this series was the start of Pamela Anderson’s career, and she was featured heavily in the first two seasons.

 

5

Undateable is the only one of these shows that is currently still on the air. Danny Burton is a 30-ish carefree single guy who has watched most of his friends move on to serious relationships. When his last remaining friend Shannon moves out to get married, Danny searches for a new roommate. A promising candidate is Justin, the owner of Black Eyes Bar (frequently mispronounced “Black Guys Bar”) in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale. Justin and his friends – the creepy Burski, oddball Shelly, and recently out-of-the-closet gay guy Brett – all have certain qualities that make them appear “undateable”. While Danny himself has good luck getting women into bed, he is unable or unwilling to form a lasting commitment with any of them. Danny’s sister, Leslie, has similar fears about being undateable, having the “baggage” of being a mid-30’s divorcee. I actually haven’t seen that many episodes from the show, but one thing that caught my eye is that in several of the sets you see flags from the Red Wings, Michigan Wolverines, and Detroit Pistons, and often references actual Michigan sites and places. Catch this show on NBC!

 

There’s plenty more, but feel free to watch these shows and catch all of the Detroit references!