Apr 8, 2021
You know who she is! We are joined by the phenomenally talented Tichina Arnold. You Might Know Her From The Neighborhood, Martin, Everybody Hates Chris, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, The Lena Baker Story, Big Momma’s House, and Little Shop of Horrors. Tichina talked to us about the ways the Black Lives Matter movement has influenced conversations at The Neighborhood and CBS, getting to show off her range in prestige projects like Last Black Man in San Francisco, and biting the “mom” bullet to play Rochelle on Everybody Hates Chris. We also get into being part of the iconic Martin Lawrence series Martin, her best friendship with Tisha Campbell, her singing chops, and, of course, her performance as Crystal in The Little Shop of Horrors film adaptation. We are just over the moon (said in our old-timey voices).
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Anne’s been listening to a lot of Randy Travis
Lyle Lovett, Mick Jagger, Harvey Keitel all ugly sexy (per the conversation in
Kissing Jessica
Stein)
Plays Tina on CBS’ The Neighborhood (with Cedric the Entertainer, Beth Behrs, Max
Greenfield)
Started in soaps like Ryan’s Hope and All My Children on ABC
Beth and Tichina post a lot of online content
First black mom on CBS was Isabel Sanford (2nd is Tichina on The Neighborhood)
Played Gina’s best friend Pam on Martin
Martin had multiple guest stars: Chris Rock, Marla Gibbs, Outkast, Tracy Morgan,
Tichina did Mary J. Blige when she approached Biggie in this famous episode where Pam and Gina compete to be his backup singers
Tisha Campbell filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Martin Lawrence and didn’t appear in any scenes with him in that last (5th) season
Appeared as Aunt Wanda in The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Tichina started a company called Famously Blacker
Starred as Rochelle the matriarch on Everybody Hates Chris (the story of Chris Rock growing up in Bed Stuy Brooklyn in the 1980s). Tichina grew up in Jamaica, Queens
The Lena Baker Story (Baker was posthumously pardoned in 2005)
Ralph Wilcox directed the movie and wanted Tichina for the role(was on Good Times and every sitcom in the 80s)
Tichina stars as Crystal, one of the street urchins in the film adaptation of Little Shop of Horrors
Frank Oz directed this perfect movie musical (they made him direct them as Miss Piggy)
Tichina played Ronette in the play (Damian’s dog is named after Ronette aka Ronnie Spector)
Michelle Weeks and Tichina grew up together in school. Tichina knew Tisha Campbell from auditions
The stage version of Little Shop of Horrors has a sad/dark ending, the movie has happy ending
Original ending of Little Shop of Horrors is a TRIP
Tisha Campbell wasn’t available for the reshoot so they used a stand-in (Tichina flew the Concorde)
Eveline in The Wiz @ City Centers (here she is killing “No Bad News”), toured with The Buddy Holly Story, did Little Shop Off-Broadway
Tichina attended LaGuardia school of the arts (Fame school)
Fuck Marry Kill: Fuck: Pam, Marry: Tina, Kill: Rochelle
Tichina spotted Ellen Greene’s neck vein a mile away
Played Fran Drescher’s bff on Happily Divorced
Celebrity Wife Swap (Tichina swapped with Kelly Packard)
Fakin da Funk with Margaret Cho, Duane Martin, and Nell Carter
Nell Carter was on her own show, Gimme a Break! (Tichina grew up loving Nell, Carol Burnett, Marsha Warfield)
Watch Ellen Greene’s neck vein in her clips from Hey Mr Producer!
Next week’s guest: Tichina was in Fakin da Funk with Pam Grier, who was in The L Word with next week’s guest (she had a small arc)