''Sister, Sister'' is an American television

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

starring Tia and Tamera Mowry as identical twin sisters separated at birth who are reunited as adolescents. It premiered on April 1, 1994, on ABC as part of its TGIF comedy lineup, and finished its run on

The WB The WB Television Network (shortened to The WB, stylized as "THE WB", and nicknamed the "Frog Network" and/or "The Frog" for its former mascot Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network that ran from 1995 to 2006. It launched on ter ...

on May 23, 1999, airing 119 episodes over six seasons. The cast consisted of the Mowry sisters with Jackée Harry and Tim Reid costarring as their respective adoptive parents, alongside

Marques Houston Marques Barrett Houston (born August 4, 1981) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. Houston began his singing career in 1990, performing with IMx, and found popularity as an actor for his portrayal of Roger Evans in the tee ...

as their annoying neighbor Roger.

RonReaco Lee RonReaco Lee (born August 27, 1977) is an American television and film actor best known for his roles as Tyreke Scott on the ABC/The WB sitcom '' Sister, Sister'', and as Jamal Woodson on the BET romantic comedy '' Let's Stay Together''. From 2 ...

and Deon Richmond later joined the cast in the fifth season as the sisters' love interests. The series was created by Kim Bass, Gary Gilbert, and Fred Shafferman, and a production of de Passe Entertainment in association with

Paramount Television The first incarnation of Paramount Television was operated as the television production division of the American film studio Paramount Pictures, until it changed its name to CBS Paramount Television on January 17, 2006. History Desilu Pro ...

. The series was then picked up by The WB in 1995 after ABC canceled it that same year, as a replacement for ''

Muscle Muscle is a soft tissue, one of the four basic types of animal tissue. There are three types of muscle tissue in vertebrates: skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle. Muscle tissue gives skeletal muscles the ability to muscle contra ...

'' on its Wednesday night lineup, where it aired for an additional four seasons until May 1999. In 2018, a potential revival of ''Sister, Sister'' was confirmed, but was not pursued due to a lack of interest and copyright issues.

Overview

In the

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...

, Tia Landry ( Tia Mowry) and Tamera Campbell ( Tamera Mowry) break the fourth wall and explain that the two girls are twin sisters who were separated at birth after being adopted by different families and that they found each other by chance while they were shopping at the same clothing store at a mall in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

. To give the girls the opportunity to grow up together, Tamera's father Ray Campbell ( Tim Reid), an affluent local businessman, invites Tia and her mother Lisa Landry ( Jackée Harry), a struggling but hardworking seamstress, to leave their small

inner city The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...

apartment and live with him and Tamera in their large home in the

suburbs A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

. The girls make an effort to spend as much time as they can with one another, even choosing to share a bedroom and TV set, and quickly develop a deep bond. However, as time progresses, their differences begin to show. Tia is sensible, academic, and introverted while Tamera is frivolous, materialistic, and outgoing; Tia often urges Tamera to behave and take life more seriously while Tamera often urges Tia to break the rules and have more fun. Their personalities clash at times but they are always able to work through their disagreements, either on their own or with the help of their parents or friends. As the girls mature, they realize that being twins doesn't mean they have to be the same person or have the same life so they begin to embrace their individuality. In addition to Reid and Harry in supporting roles as girls' adoptive parents,

appeared on the show from 1994 to 1998 as Roger Evans, the Campbell-Landry family's well-meaning but annoying neighbor who is in love with Tia and Tamera, and

and Deon Richmond appeared as Tyreke Scott and Jordan Bennett, the girls' college boyfriends from 1997 to 1999.

Episodes

Characters

Main

* Tia Mowry as Tia Landry * Tamera Mowry as Tamera Campbell * Jackée Harry as Lisa Landry * Tim Reid as Ray Campbell *

as Roger Evans (seasons 1—5; guest season 6) *

as Tyreke Scott (season 6; recurring season 5) * Deon Richmond as Jordan Bennett (season 6; recurring season 5)

Supporting

Brittany Murphy Brittany Anne Murphy-Monjack (; November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009) was an American actress and singer, known for her work in both comedy and drama. Born in Atlanta, Murphy moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to pursue a career in a ...

as Sarah (first season only, left before she starred in ''Clueless'') * Dorien Wilson as Terrence *Victor Togunde as Steve * Bianca Lawson as Rhonda * Anna Slotky as Denise Mondello * Steve Monroe as Steve * Arvie Lowe Jr. as Ernie * Sherman Hemsley as Jimmy "Soupy" Campbell *

Fred Willard Frederick Charles Willard Jr. (September 18, 1933 May 15, 2020) was an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his work with Christopher Guest in his mockumentary films ''This Is Spinal Tap'' (1984), ''Waiting for Guffman'' (1996), ''Be ...

as Mr. Mitushka * David Strickland as Dave *

Vernee Watson-Johnson Vernee Christell Johnson (née Watson; born September 28, 1949) is an American actress, author, and acting coach. Watson-Johnson is known for her recurring roles as Vernajean Williams on '' Welcome Back, Kotter'' (1975–1979), as Viola "Vy" Smi ...

as Patrice * Jamil Walker Smith as Mike * Aaron Lohr as Marlon * Christopher "Kid" Reid as Clark *Alexis Fields as Diavian Johnson * Senta Moses as Dot * Richard Lawson as Victor Sims * Rolonda Watts as Vivica Shaw *Chad Haywood as Steven *

Gabrielle Union Gabrielle Monique Union-Wade ( Union; born October 29, 1972) is an American actress. Her career began in the 1990s, when she made dozens of appearances on television sitcoms, prior to landing supporting roles in 1999 teen films '' She's All That ...

as Shawn * Rachael Harris as Simone Flosser *Greg Pitts as Chud McGraf * Tony Carreiro as Matt Sullivan *Eric Payne and Fitz Houston as Principal Gordon

Production

For the first five seasons, the series often had Tia and Tamera, either together or separately, break the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance dramatic convention, convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. ...

by talking directly to the viewer.

Theme song

The series' original theme song was written and composed by Tim Heintz, Randy Petersen and Kevin Quinn and performed by Carmen Carter. Seasons five and season six feature a remix of the original featuring vocals by Tia and Tamera themselves.

Syndication

U.S. broadcast and cable syndication

The series formerly aired reruns on BET,

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

ABC Family American cable television, cable and satellite television network Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through four different owners and six different name changes dur ...

WGN America WGN America was an American subscription television network that operated from November 9, 1978 to February 28, 2021. The service was originally uplinked to satellite by United Video Inc. as a national feed of Chicago independent station WGN-T ...

, Up (formerly GMC TV), Centric,

Hub Network Discovery Family (known on-air as Discovery Family Channel and abbreviated as DFC) is an American Specialty channel, cable television channel co-owned by The Cartoon Network, Inc. and Hasbro Entertainment, which are divisions of Warner Bros. Di ...

Logo TV Logo TV (often shortened to Logo, and stylized as Logo.) is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. Launched in 2005, Logo was originally dedicated to lifestyle and entertainment progra ...

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

(In early 2021), and Fuse. The series currently airs on

MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global, through PMN’s MTV Entertainment Group Subdivision. The channel launched initially as an all-music ...

and

Dabl Dabl () is an American digital multicast television network owned by the CBS Media Ventures subsidiary of Paramount Global and operated by Weigel Broadcasting. Dabl launched in September 2019 with a female-targeted lifestyle format. It aired r ...

. As of 2021, the series is available to stream on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

Pluto TV Pluto TV is an American free ad-supported streaming television service owned and operated by the Paramount Streaming division of Paramount Global. Founded by Tom Ryan (business executive), Tom Ryan, Ilya Pozin and Nick Grouf in 2013 and based in ...

and

Paramount+ Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access in the United States and 10 All Access in Australia) is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, stream ...

in the United States.

International syndication

In Australia and New Zealand, the series was aired on

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's Paramount Networks UK & Australia, UK & Australia division and is o ...

and

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

; in the United Kingdom, ''Sister, Sister'' was aired on

, and on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

between 1996 and 2002 as the channel had the terrestrial rights to the show. On October 5, 2020, the series began streaming on

in a number of other countries.

Home media

CBS DVD (distributed by

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. **Paramount Picture ...

) released the first and second seasons of ''Sister, Sister'' on DVD in Region 1 in 2008 and 2009. As of September 2014, these releases have been discontinued and are out of print. On May 4, 2015, it was announced that Visual Entertainment Inc. (VEI) had acquired the distribution rights to the series for Region 1 (encompassing the United States and Canada). It was subsequently announced on December 28, 2015, that VEI (through its deal with CBS Television Distribution) would release a complete DVD set of the series, ''Sister, Sister: The Complete Collection'' (which includes all six seasons), in Region 1 on January 19, 2016, the release date was then pushed back to March 18, 2016. The Mowry twins 2000 television film '' Seventeen Again'' is also included as a bonus disc on the ''Complete Collection'' set. On May 26, 2017, VEI released separate ''Seasons 1–3'' and ''Seasons 4–6'' sets of the series. Due to music copyright issues, these releases are heavily edited.

Reception

Ratings

Awards and nominations

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

:1998 – ''Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Comedy Series'' – George Spiro Dibie (Nominated) :1997 – ''Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Comedy Series'' – George Spiro Dibie (Nominated) :1996 – ''Outstanding Individual Achievement in Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Comedy Series'' – George Spiro Dibie (Nominated) :1995 – ''Outstanding Individual Achievement in Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Comedy Series'' – George Spiro Dibie (Won) *

Image Awards The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...

:2000 – ''Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series'' – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Won) :2000 – ''Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series'' – Jackée Harry (Won) :2000 – ''Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series'' – Tim Reid (Nominated) :1999 – ''Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series'' – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Won) :1999 – ''Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series'' – Jackée Harry (Won) :1999 – ''Outstanding Comedy Series'' (Nominated) :1998 – ''Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series'' – Tim Reid (Nominated) :1996 – ''Outstanding Comedy Series'' (Nominated) :1996 – ''Outstanding Youth Actor/Actress'' – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Nominated) * Kids' Choice Awards :1998 – ''Favorite Television Actress'' – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Nominated) :1998 – ''Favorite Television Show'' (Nominated) :1997 – ''Favorite Television Actress'' – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Won) :1996 – ''Favorite Television Actress'' – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Won) :1996 – ''Favorite Television Show'' (Nominated) :1995 – ''Favorite Television Actress'' – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Won) *

Young Artist Awards The Young Artist Award (originally known as the Youth in Film Award) is an accolade presented by the Young Artist Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in 1978 to honor excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young ...

:1999 – ''Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series: Supporting Young Actor'' – Deon Richmond (Nominated) :1997 – ''Best Performance in a TV Comedy: Guest Starring Young Performer'' – Verner, Robin Marie (Nominated) :1997 – ''Best Performance in a TV Comedy: Leading Young Actress'' – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Nominated) :1996 – ''Best Performance by a Young Actress: Guest Starring Role TV Series'' – Selico, Krista Sherre (Nominated) :1996 – ''Best Performance by a Young Actress: TV Comedy Series'' – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Nominated) :1995 – ''Best Youth Comedian in a TV Show'' – Marques Houston (Won) :1995 – ''Best New Family Television Series'' (Nominated) :1995 – ''Best Youth Comedian in a TV Show'' – Victor Togunde (Nominated) :1995 – ''Best Youth Comedienne in a TV Show'' – Tia & Tamera Mowry (Nominated) *

Teen Choice Awards The Teen Choice Awards were an annual awards show that aired on the Fox television network between 1999 and 2019. The awards, based on a popularity vote that could be overridden by the producerswho reserved the right to choose the winnerscovered ...

:2017 – ''Choice Throwback Tv Show'' – Sister Sister (Nominated)

Potential revival

In June 2012 interview with ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'', both Tia Mowry and Tamera Mowry have said they would like to reunite the cast for a reunion film. They were thinking of doing a "Twins in the city" plot, like the twins in New York City. In 2017, rumors started developing about a potential continuation of ''Sister, Sister'', both Tia and Tamera have confirmed that talks are ongoing and that a sequel series is very close to happening. In October 2017, Tia Mowry stated in an interview with ''

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Par ...

'' that a revival of the series was "definitely closer than ever" and that she is "getting excited" about the possibility. She also said that she believed Jackée Harry and Tim Reid would be a part of the revival if it were to take place. On January 16, 2018, while appearing on ''

Steve Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form ( hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen. Notable people A–D * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Abel (born 1970), New Zealand politician * Steve Adams (disambiguation) ...

'', Harry confirmed the revival, stating that "it's happening". In 2019, the reboot was put on hold indefinitely. Tia commented, "To be honest with you, I hate to pop the balloon. revival of''Sister, Sister'' kind of looks dead right now," and cited rights issues as part of the reason for the reboot not moving forward.

References

External links

* * {{The WB 1994 American television series debuts 1999 American television series endings 1990s American black sitcoms 1990s American college television series 1990s American high school television series 1990s American teen sitcoms 1990s American multi-camera sitcoms American television series revived after cancellation American English-language television shows Television series by CBS Studios Television shows set in Detroit Television duos Television series about families American television series about teenagers Television series about twins Television series about sisters Works about twin sisters Coming-of-age television shows American Broadcasting Company sitcoms The WB sitcoms