‘One on One’ Was *the* Early 2000s Coming-of-Age Sitcom for Black Teenage Girls
Brought to life by Kyla Pratt, Breanna Barnes was more than a TV character. She was an inspiration for Black girls in their formative years.
It’s no secret that the 1990s and early 2000s are regarded as a golden age for sitcoms centering Black stories and targeting Black audiences. You have the popular favorites: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Martin, Moesha, and Girlfriends. Audiences were able to laugh and relate to the storylines from characters who looked like them. Today, we consider these Black sitcoms to be classics in Black culture.
With all the talk of culture-shifting shows of years past, one sitcom that has not gotten its proper due is the Flex Alexander and Kyla Pratt–led One on One. An underrated yet pivotal show, One on One is often left out of conversations that reminisce about Black television representation in the past 25 years.
The show ran for five seasons, from 2001 to 2006, and was a part of the prime-time lineup on the now-defunct UPN network. Alexander and Pratt played the comedic father-daughter duo Flex Washington and Breanna Barnes. Billed as a show about a single father and a teenage daughter after Barnes’ mother gets a job in Nova Scotia, One…
