Sparks - Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries

Sparks aired from August 1996 until August 1998 on UPN.

Sparks , Sparks & Sparks was a family owned-black inner city law firm in Compton, California, near Los Angeles. Alonzo ( James Avery), the patriarch who had founded the firm, was preparing to retire and leave it in the hands of his two sons, Maxey and Greg ( Miguel A. Nunez Jr., Terrence Howard), who had very little in common. Maxey, the elder, was a flashy womanizer who wanted to market the law firm like a fast food restaurant, while Greg was conservative , serious, and cautious. About the only thing they agreed on was Wilma ( Robin Givens), the sexy Stanford Law School graduate that Greg had just hired as an associate. Maxey wanted to date her, while Greg, who was against dating people from work, wished his convictions were not so strong. Darice ( Kym A. Whitley) was their surly but efficient office manager and La Mar ( Arif S. Kinchen) their hip young assistant who idolized Maxey. Wilma's fiance in the pilot was Dallas Maverick's basketball player Jason Kidd, but in later episodes she was dating other guys.

In the fall of 1997, Wilma and Maxey started dating but thought they were keeping it a secret from the rest of the office. They admitted it publicly in an October episode at Darice's aborted engagement party-after which Darice ended up sleeping with Greg. They were both a little drunk and regretted it in the morning. In the first November 1997 episode , Alonzo came back from a meeting in Las Vegas married to Carmen ( Evelina Fernandez), a former client he hadn't seen in years. Planning to divorce her because of his impulsive mistake, Alonzo was won over by her ardor. In the spring Wilma broke up with Maxey and left for a more prestigious law firm. At episode's end , during a trial on which they were opposing counsel two months later, they had a passionate reconciliation.

A Review from The New York Times

Disputes and a Distraction At Inner-City Law Firm

By CARYN JAMES
Published: August 26, 1996

''This is a walk-in law office,'' says Maxey Sparks, the flashy, womanizing member of a squabbling family law firm. ''We deal with real people, people with real problems.'' Not yet they don't. So far ''Sparks,'' which has its premiere tonight on the UPN network, is dealing with the distinctly unreal problem of having Robin Givens play a high-powered graduate of Stanford Law School who has joined the law firm, but who looks and dresses as if her real ambition is to model for the ''Victoria's Secret'' catalogue.

Without her, ''Sparks'' is based on a plausible sitcom concept. Maxey (Miguel A. Nunez Jr.), who keeps a stock of bright-colored clothes in his filing cabinets, has a distinguished, buttoned-down brother, Greg (Terrence Howard). They share the inner-city law practice with their father, Alonzo (James Avery, the uncle in ''Fresh Prince''). But Ms. Givens's character, Wilma, seems jammed into this concept merely to give the brothers a reason to fight every week. In one relentlessly milked sight gag (a bad omen for the series' future), she coaches a defendant on his testimony. The man sweats like a waterfall.

''Sparks'' has an obvious place in the UPN lineup, as the network tries to duplicate the success of last season's ''Moesha,'' about a teen-ager (played by the singer Brandy Norwood) in a middle-class black family. But ''Moesha'' works on the strength of its down-to-earth situations and humor. ''Sparks'' is as false as they come.

UPN is presenting its three other new sitcoms tonight and tomorrow, but the pilot episodes were revamped at the last minute and the shows were not made available for preview. Tonight at 8:30 there is ''Malcolm and Eddie,'' with Malcolm Jamal-Warner of the ''The Cosby Show'' as a sensible guy with a carefree roommate, played by the comedian Eddie Griffin.

''Goode Behavior,'' at 9, gives a family spin to the mismatched roommates idea. Sherman Hemsley plays a con man paroled to the care of his son (Dorien Wilson of ''Dream On''), a university dean. And tomorrow night brings a series with the season's least realistic odd couple and most self-explanatory title: ''Homeboys in Outer Space.''

SPARKS
UPN, tonight at 9:30
(Channel 9 in New York)

Created by Ed. Weinberger; Ed. Weinberger and Bob Moloney, executive producers. A production of MTM Television.

WITH: James Avery (Alonzo Sparks), Robin Givens (Wilma Cuthbert), Miguel A. Nunez Jr. (Maxey Sparks), Terrence Howard (Greg Sparks), Kym Whitley (Darice Mayberry) and Arif S. Kinchen (La Mar Hicks).

For more on Sparks go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparks_(TV_series)