Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - In The House: Cast Photo

In The House aired from April 1995 until August 1999 on NBC and UPN.

Rap star LL Col J ( real name James Todd Smith), made his tv series debut in this comedy about an NFL star who shared a house with a harried single mom and served as nanny to her 2 cute kids. Unlikely you say? Not in sitcomland. Marion( LL Cool J), a cool, self-confidant type, was on medical leave from The Oakland Raiders due to 2 injured knees( he ran into a goalpost), with little to do other than work out to stay in shape. In order to raise some extra cash he moved into an apartment over his garage and rented out his small house to Jackie ( Debbie Allen), a recent divorcee. Jackie had been rich but was now forced to go to work, and her new job as legal secretary to demanding lawyer Heather ( Lisa Arrindell), left little time for the kids. Where to turn? Nannies were hard to find. Self-centered teenager Tiffany( Maia Campbell), and hyperactive little Austin ( Jeffrey Wood), really liked the superstar over the garage-and he was home all day. Egged on by the kids, Jackie reluctantly popped the question: Would you be the nanny?

With a little persuasion superjock agreed and TV's latest unlikely " family" was born. Much of the comedy came from the conflict between reserved Jackie and go-for-it Marion. In The House was scheduled right after NBC's Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, which it strongly resenbled and which was from the same producer ( Quincy Jones).

When the series moved to UPN for it's third season in the fall of 1996, Jackie had moved back East to Nashville with son Austin, leaving daughter Tiffany in Marion's charge to finish her senior year in high school in Los Angeles. After he found out his injury would force him to retire from football, Marion along with physical therapist Tonia ( Kim Wayans), and arrogant bottom-line Dr. Max Stanton ( Alfonso Ribeiro), purchased the sports-injury clinic where his condition had been diagnosed. Marion wanted to employ holistic medicine techniques at the clinic, which was okay with arty Tonia but created conflict with Max, a slice-and-dice moneymaker. After working out their problems, they renamed it The Hill-Stanton Clinic, although Tonia and Max continued to spar. Rodney ( Dee Jay Daniels), a cute little boy hung out at the clinic for a time.

At the beginning of the1997-1998 season, Tiffany enrolled at UCLA along with her friends Carl and Raynelle ( Ken Lawson, Gabrielle Carmouche), and the clinic severely damaged by an Earthquake had to be rebuilt. Natalie ( Paulette Braxton), a childhood aquaintance working on a masters in psychology at UCLA turned up that fall and moved in with Marion and Tiffany. By late January she and Marion were unsuccessfully fighting a strong sexual attraction. In late February, Max and classy Mercedes( Lark Voorhees), whom he had been dating for months, got engaged and in early March they were planning their wedding. They were married on the season finale which also saw the appearance of James Avery and Daphne Maxwell Reid as Max's parents ( they had played Alfonso Ribeiro's parents on his previous series-The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air).

UPN canceled the series in the spring of 1998 but additional episodes were shown during the summer of 1999 at 1:35 AM on NBC ( the network that first produced the series). In the storyline Tonia had left to become a therapist for the WNBA and Marion and Max sold the clinic. Carl and Raynell moved in with Marion and Tiffany which got a little less crowded when Tiffany ran away and eloped with her boyfriend, Graham ( Mel Jackson). In the series finale, Max and Mercedes learned that they were going to have a baby and Marion got a job with an NFL team. He decided to move to NY to be closer to his girlfried Valerie and her daughter Brieanna. Now that Marion didn't need his place anymore, he gave it up to Carl and Raynelle and also to Tiffany and Graham once they returned. Marion was no longer " In The House."

For LL Cool J's Official site go to http://www6.defjam.com/site/artist_home.php?artist_id=202

For more on Debbie Allen go to http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/A/htmlA/allendebbie/allendebbie.htm