Living Single was a television sitcom created by Yvette Lee Bowser that aired for five seasons on the Fox network, from August 22, 1993, to January 1, 1998. The show centered on six Black friends living the single life in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. The series focused on two different households in one brownstone, one shared by a trio of independent women and another shared by two male friends who had known each other since childhood while living in Cleveland, Ohio.

Bowser’s initial goal was to develop a show about herself and her friends that would change the portrayal of young Black people on television. Her overall goal was to portray Black characters positively and less stereotypically. She also noted that the women represented on Living Single are four different sides of herself, saying in an interview, “I’ve been as ditsy as Synclaire, as superficial as Regine, as bitter as Max, and as focused and driven as Khadijah.”

Throughout its run, Living Single became one of the most popular African-American sitcoms of its era, ranking amongst the top five in African-American ratings in all five seasons.

The cover of a screenplay for an episode of Living Single