''Up and Coming'' is an American television drama series which aired on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) during the 1980-1981 season.

Synopsis

The series depicts the Wilsons, a successful

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

family from

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

who moves into an integrated, middle-class neighborhood in nearby

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. Although it was short-lived, it was one of the first weekly American TV drama series centered on an African American family (preceded only by '' Harris and Company'', a 1979

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

drama starring

Bernie Casey Bernard Terry Casey (June 8, 1939 – September 19, 2017) was an American actor, poet and professional American football player. Early life Casey was born in Wyco, West Virginia, the son of Flossie (Coleman) and Frank Leslie Casey. He graduated ...

). Among the cast members were former Stanford University basketball star L. Wolfe Perry, Jr. and a teenage

Cindy Herron Cynthia Ann Herron (born September 26, 1961), professionally known as Cindy Herron and sometimes credited as Cindy Herron–Braggs is an American singer and actress. Herron is best known as a founding member of the R&B/pop group En Vogue, one of ...

(who years later would become a founding member of the R&B female quartet

En Vogue En Vogue is an American vocal girl group whose original lineup consisted of singers Terry Ellis, Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron, and Maxine Jones. Formed in Oakland, California, in 1989, En Vogue reached No. 2 on the US Hot 100 with the single ...

). The theme song is a cover version of the

Bill Withers William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He had several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including " Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), " Grandma's Hands" (1971), " Use Me" (197 ...

tune "The Best You Can". The original version can be found on Withers' 1975 album '' Making Music''.

Cast

* Robert DoQui as Frank Wilson *

as Valerie Wilson * L. Wolfe Perry, Jr. as Kevin Wilson * Yule Caise as Marcus Wilson * Gammy Singer as Joyce Wilson

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0211716, Up and Coming 1980 American television series debuts 1981 American television series endings 1980s American drama television series PBS original programming Television shows set in San Francisco English-language television shows