Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Wayans Bros.: Cast Photo

The Wayans Bros. aired from January 1995 until September 1999 on The WB.

Shawn and Marlon ( Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayons) were two brothers living together in this physical comedy. Shawn, a driver for the APS overnight delivery service, was the more serious brother, hoping to get promoted or find a new career that would give him enough money to marry his girlfriend, Lisa ( Lela Rochon), a college student whose father was a successful physician. Marlon, his free-spirited kid brother , worked part-time in the kitchen of their father's small Manhattan diner, Pops' Place, located adjacent to the lobby of the Neidermeyer Building. Happy-go-lucky Marlon always seemed to be getting himself and his brother in some kind of trouble. Pops ( John Weatherspoon) wanted to be proud of both of his sons, but Marlon's antics didn't make it easy. Benny ( Benny Quan) was the short-order cook at Pops' Place and Lupe ( Joanna Sanchez)the waitress who also worked the register.

In the fall of 1995, Shawn was laid off and bought the newsstand in the lobby of the Neidermeyer Buiding with money he borrowed from his dad. Marlon worked bussing tables at the diner and helped out at the newsstand. Added to the cast was Monique (Paula Jai Parker), a sexy woman from a rich family whose financial reverses had forced her to take a job as a clerk in the hotel's card shop. She and Shawn sparred verbally while Marlon had the hots for her. Lou ( Jill Tasker) was the feisty but petite security guard at the Neidermeyer Building, replaced late in the year by hefty Dee ( Anna Maria Horsford). Two recurring characters were bumbling White Mike ( Mitch Mullany) and T.C. ( Phill Lewis), a con man forever looking to make his big score.

During the 1997-1998 season Marlon tried to get work as an actor. In the season finale an electrical fire destroyed Shawn's newsstand, but that fall he rebuilt it. Marlon got a regular role on the NBC sitcom Everybody Loves Everybody and Shawn became his business manager-for fifty percent of what he earned.

Shawn and Marlon, two of the younger members of the talented Wayans clan-their older brother Keenan, had been the creative force behind In Living Color on which they both had appeared-were the creators of this series.

A Review from USA TODAY

TV PREVIEW/BY MATT ROUSH

NO WAY-ANS

Think Janet, get La Toya.

So goes The Wayans Bros., an inane vehicle for Shawn and Marlon, two wanna-bes from the overrated In Living Color family.

They snivel, they mug, they shriek. They embarrass-themselves, and all around them. This is Martin without that distracting subtlety.

In the shrill pilot, the brothers try to market a punget pomade -Goop, Hair it is!-on local access TV. Needing a celebrity testimonial they kidnap Garrett Morris ("Don't worry, we're not going to shoot you," they say at episode's nadir) but end up with Gary Coleman.

Low rent, you say? Heck, this property is condemned.

An Article from The New York Times

If Whites Can Be Silly ...

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Published: April 19, 1997

The subject of ''Black and White TV,'' a brief documentary on MTV, is the ghettoization of television. Ratings lists of what whites watch bear little resemblance to what blacks watch. And now that the new networks, WB and UPN, are intentionally revving up the competition with black-theme shows, the divide seems even more daunting. This program, to be broadcast tomorrow night at 10:30, pushes all the familiar buttons but with some interesting variations.

It's not all, so to speak, black and white, as some black performers are learning. Shawn and Marlon Wayans of WB's ''Wayans Bros'' have been attacked by black groups for their broad humor and, it's charged, the perpetuation of negative stereotypes. The brothers wonder, quite justifiably, why white characters like Kramer on ''Seinfeld'' can get away with similar slapstick. LL Cool J, starring in UPN's ''In the House,'' talks about the ''subtexts, the subtleties that exist in certain cultures.''

In the end, it comes down to people wanting to see themselves. In interviews, young viewers, black and white, are quick to acknowledge that ''not all of us are the same.'' It's a new era of viewer choice that, if all's right in the world, may eventually end up with interracial crossovers. JOHN J. O'CONNOR

For a Webpage dedicated to Shawn Wayans go to http://www.angelfire.com/wa/atcashmere/

For a Page dedicated to Marlon Wayans go to http://www.geocities.com/lilboogie5293/MARLONWAYANS.html

For more on The Wayans Bros. go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wayans_Bros.