Living Single is an American television sitcom created by Yvette Denise Lee that aired for five seasons on the Fox network, from August 22, 1993, to January 1, 1998.

In the first apartment, Khadijah James (Queen Latifah), a hard-working editor and publisher of the fictional urban independent magazine Flavor, lived with her sweet but naive cousin Synclaire James (Kim Coles), an aspiring actress who worked as Khadijah's receptionist and had an affinity for Troll dolls, and her childhood friend from East Orange, New Jersey, Regina "Régine" Hunter (Kim Fields), an image-conscious boutique buyer who was on a constant search for a well-to-do man to spend her life (and his money) with.

Maxine "Max" Shaw (Erika Alexander), a sharp-tongued Attorney and Khadijah's best friend from their college days at Howard University, frequently stopped by to share her unique insights and the events of her day, to make sure that the girls' refrigerator wasn't overstocked, and to start trouble with Kyle, looking for any chance to make his life worse.

Overton was the friendly but bucolic maintenance man for the owner of their (and neighboring) building, who held a deep affection for Synclaire and plenty of hilarious homespun wisdom for everyone else.

Maxine subsequently became distraught over her decision and, after defending a man who claimed to be the second coming of Jesus (Harold Perrineau), she began to take her life more seriously.

It was eventually revealed that DeSantos had a fling with Ira Lee "Tripp" Williams III, (Mel Jackson), a songwriter whom Khadijah and Régine allowed to move in when Synclaire's room became available.

[8] In March 1993, Fox announced that Queen Latifah and Coles would star in a comedy sitcom called My Girls, about roommates in New York City.

[11] Creator Yvette Lee Bowser's initial goal was to develop a show about herself and her friends that would change the portrayal of young Black people on television.

She also noted that the women represented on Living Single are four different sides of herself, saying in an interview, "I've been as ditsy as Synclaire, as superficial as Regine, as bitter as Max, and as focused and driven as Khadijah.

[13] Three months later, Fox made a change to its fall schedule, delayed the airing of a new comedy called Rewind, and decided to debut Living Single's fifth season on September 11.

[18][19][20][21] Newspaper critics contrasted Living Single with the NBC sitcom Friends which was inspired by the post-college experiences of Marta Kauffman and David Crane and in development around November 1993 after the cult show premiered.

"[24] In 1995 and 1996, Living Single was nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Comedy Series (Bryan Hays).