With the popularity of streaming, TV shows have gone through a transformation. Sitcoms with a team of writers and prepared scripts have taken a backseat to reality stars sharing their unscripted personality. (An argument can be made that some of their antics are scripted too.) Nowadays, if somebody says something funny on a reality series, that was said off the cuff. There are no laugh tracks or performing in front of a live audience. In the ’80s, this was the standard. And some of our most beloved actors came from those scripted series.
So who are some of the top actresses we all knew in the ’80s, and what are they doing now? Find out what these 11 are up to.
Martha Gibbs
Fans of 227, The Jeffersons and that one episode of The Love Boat were pleasantly surprised to see Gibbs dip her feet into reality TV. In the latest season of The Braxtons, she sat at a restaurant table munching on food and gossiping about online dating with single-and-sorta-looking Evelyn Braxton. She also popped up to re-enact an episode of 227 on the sketch comedy show A Black Lady Sketch Show.
Jackée Harry
Speaking of 227, while some viewers may know Harry more for her role on Sister, Sister with Tia and Tamera Mowry, others will immediately mimic her notorious line, “Hi, I’m Sandra.” And Harry has held onto that name almost as much as Tony Danza has with his first name. Harry had a role as Sandra Clark in 227, as well as a 1989 TV movie with the same name. Since then, Harry has popped up on a number of shows, including the animated version of Everybody Still Hates Chris, 276 episodes of the spin-off of the ’60s soap opera Days Of Our Lives and, like Gibbs, reminded fans of her comedic acting chops on A Black Lady Sketch Show.
Phylicia Rashad
Both Rashad and Michael Ealy are on a mission to play the craziest characters they can find in scripts. And neither one of them can escape being beautiful people. In Rashad’s case, she may always be nicknamed Clair Huxtable from The Cosby Show. As one of the most loveable, intelligent and classy ’80s moms, that hasn’t stopped her from playing a nightmare mother in Empire, a sketchy caregiver in A Fall From Grace and a stone-cold criminal who has bagged all of the Temptations members in Diarra From Detroit. Rashad has let fans know she can still be the huggable, loveable mom again in her roles on the Creed trilogy, but she’s sure to be up for another colorful character too.
Tempestt Bledsoe
Fans of A Different World always smile a little harder knowing that Ron Johnson ended up in a decades-long relationship with Vanessa Huxtable. While Bledsoe has been dating real-life actor Darryl M. Bell and he was never on The Cosby Show, it’s interesting to know that he did end up in an episode of spin-off Cosby while she was on one episode of the HBCU legendary sitcom. Since then, Bledsoe has randomly popped up in a number of acting roles since the original ’80s sitcom, including Are We There Yet? and Family Reunion. Bledsoe was also a short-lived talk show host on The Tempestt Bledsoe Show and a host of Clean House.
Anna Maria Horsford
When you see Horsford, it’s next to impossible for ’80s babies to not picture church pews and think of Thelma Frye from Amen. It’s not like she hasn’t had a long resume of work since then, but Thelma was one of her most beloved roles. Since then, she’s showed off her comedic chops as the free-loading relative Aunt Sis on The Bernie Mac Show, Everybody Hates Chris and Key & Peele, her dramatic talent in of Grey’s Anatomy, and popped up in Bel-Air.
Tisha Campbell
While Martin is what some may know Tisha Campbell for, primarily because Martin is in syndication just about everywhere, ’80s babies will forever appreciate her dance-off against Kid n’ Play in House Party, choreography and singing in Little Shop Of Horrors, and sultrier dancing (still hip-hop) as a Gamma Ray (aka Wannabe) in School Daze. Lately, she’s starred in the Bounce TV show Act Your Age, the animated and original Everybody Hates Chris, and Lopez vs. Lopez.
Jasmine Guy
Like Tisha Campbell, if there’s one thing we know both women can do it, it’s show up and shut down a dance floor. From Fame to School Daze to teaching Freddie Brooks how to step on A Different World, Guy will always land the choreography. She went on to make appearances (no dancing) in Malcolm & Eddie, That’s So Raven, K.C. Undercover, The Quad, Grey’s Anatomy and The Vampire Diaries. While she’ll occasionally pop up at an HBCU speaking event with other cast members from A Different World, she has a few projects set to release before year-end.
Tatyana Ali
No knock to the brooding, sarcastic actress Akira Akbar as Ashley Banks on Bel-Air, but there’s still something special about seeing OG Ashley from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Although Ali has been in both versions, she’s no stranger to other ‘sitcoms, including ’80s entertainment such as The Cosby Show and Crocodile Dundee II. Fast-forward to her work on Living Single, Are You Afraid Of the Dark? and Half & Half. Lately, you can find her in Giving Hope: The Ni’cola Mitchell Story and Abbott Elementary.
Keshia Knight Pulliam
From blues to funk to gospel, Rudy Huxtable was going to bring the singing, the choreography and all her pretty, white teeth (or a few missing ones) on The Cosby Show. When she wasn’t showing off being a triple threat as an actor, singer and dancer on the ’80s sitcom, she doubled down and danced alongside Vanessa Bell Calloway and Brandon Q. Adams in Polly: Comin’ Home! (Adams was a regular on A Different World, which she appeared on in three episodes.) And although Aunt Polly (played by Phylicia Rashad) was nothing like the light-on-her-feet Clair Huxtable, the mother-daughter dynamic showed up in a different form in the latter movie.
Branching out of Disney movies and cute kid roles, Pulliam surprised everyone when she showed up as the love interest in Chingy’s “One Call Away” music video and ended up dating one of the most underrated lyricists in hip-hop, Rap City host Big Tigger. Although the relationship didn’t work out, she’s happily married with two kids now. She also has had great success working on Tyler Perry projects, including House of Payne and Madea Goes To Jail.
Regina King
As one of a few teen child stars who grew up to be surprisingly “normal” (for Hollywood standards), King transitioned from Brenda on 227 to completely opposite characters on Poetic Justice, Friday, Higher Learning and Boyz n the Hood. Not only were they all different from Brenda, but none of the characters on the other four movies had anything in common either. This has been a consistent way that King has kept her acting (and directing) career intact. It made absolute sense for her to play the voices of Riley and Huey on The Boondocks, a right-hand woman in The Harder They Fall and one of the most historical icons in election history as the star of Shirley. Even if fans didn’t get their happily ever after from her former relationship with Malcolm Jamal Warner, we still got incredible projects from her like being the director of One Night In Miami, Insecure, This Is Us and Scandal.
Lisa Bonet
From the iconic Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show to her iconic 1988 cover of Rolling Stone Magazine, Bonet’s career could’ve gone a number of ways: singer, actress, model and onward. And if she didn’t actually become famous for doing so as Bonet, she certainly took on multidimensional characters who could. Best known for her childhood star role alongside the Cosby clan, she also starred in the first season of A Different World. She went on to work in Enemy of the State and Biker Boyz. In two of her later works, she teamed up with her now-ex husband Jason Momoa (who is also the father of two of three of her children, Lola Iolani and son Nakoa-Wolf) in Road To Paloma and The Red Road. While her oldest daughter, Zoe Kravitz, and her ex Lenny Kravitz are in the spotlight more than Bonet is, she is now enjoying a quieter life with her two teens in California.
These 11, among many others, have not only managed to keep their legendary status intact and are still admired for roles in their early years. They’ve also upgraded any movie or television show that they’ve been in ever since.
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