PC EXCLUSIVE: Single Ladies Creator Stacy A. Littlejohn Reveals All About Her Addictive, Soapy VH1 Hit

Beyonce famously sang, "If you like it, then you shoulda put a ring on it." Well from where I'm blogging, I'm glad a few bruthas have a hard time doing so, because if they didn't we probably wouldn't have one of my new not-so-guilty pleasures, VH1's sinfully-addictive dramedy Single Ladies. I caught up with the hilarious, talented and heartfelt Stacy A. Littlejohn, who created the groundbreaking series about three sexy women living and loving in Atlanta.

I also find out how much of the stories of Val (Stacey Dash), Keisha (LisaRaye McCoy) and April (Charity Shea) are inspired by the lives of Littlejohn and her real-life pals. Then I get Littlejohn to tease tonight's episode of Single Ladies, as well as fellow executive producer Queen Latifah's much buzzed about, upcoming guest stint. 

Pop Confidential: Single Ladies is a smash hit for VH1. Congratulations! How does it feel to be the creative force behind such a groundbreaking series for basic cable?

Stacy A. Littlejohn: Thank you! I’m very honored and flattered by the good response we’re getting. People are really enjoying the show, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s like, “Wow, people really like it!” and so yeah, it just puts a smile on my face every day. It makes all the long nights and 90-hour weeks for months at a time worth it.

PC: And the show is doing well in the ratings.

SL: The ratings have been good. They’re extremely happy with the ratings at VH1. You know, of course I always want more. I want more people to come and for it to really catch on. I want a wider audience, and that’s “W-I-D-E-R” not “whiter.”

PC: Right [Laughs]!

SL: Well, a "whiter" audience would be good too, because that would make it wider [Laughs], but I would just really love for it to catch on all over, with all cultures. It’s not just meant to be for black girls. It’s meant to be for everybody, so I am happy with the numbers, but as a showrunner, you want more, more, more, more, more!
 

SL: I’m inspired by any show that I’ve ever liked on television. I grew up watching the shows you’re talking about, the Knots Landings, Dallas, Falcon Crest, you know? I grew up watching daytime soap operas too, Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless and so yeah,  I guess that was kind of in my head. I wanted it to have some humor infused in it, but to have serialized stories for viewers to be able to follow the lives of the characters like you would in a soap opera. I’ve written for sitcoms for a number of years and each episode is about something different. It doesn’t necessarily track all the way through a season. I wanted to make sure Single Ladies did that, because it’s just fun. You really get to know the characters as people and they become your friends, so I’m glad soap fans have made those comparisons.

PC: NBC’s Friends and other mainstream, broadcast sitcoms made headlines for telling serialized stories, but urban sitcoms have been doing that since the 80’s with shows like It’s A Different World and later in the 90’s there was Moesha, which you worked on, and countless others. What’s unique about Single Ladies, however, is that it’s an hour-long series.

SL: Right.

PC: How often does a predominantly black series with a black showrunner get an hour-long time slot? Wasn’t Soul Food the last one on Showtime?

SL: Exactly. I’m happy about that too. You hit the nail on the head. To get an hour to tell your story, granted we only got 10 episodes, but it was like, “Okay, let’s do this! Let’s just pack as much in each episode as possible.” You know, you get frustrated at the 30-minute mark with some shows and you’re like, “Aww, I gotta wait another week?!”

PC: I know, right [Laughs]?

SL: With an hour-long you kind of feel like you get your money’s worth, at least until the next week.

PC: Well we’re definitely getting our money’s worth with Single Ladies! You created the series after VH1 exec Maggie Malina read a script you did called Modern Love. Was that a movie script?

SL: No, it was a half-hour dramedy written on spec. It was something I was writing, trying to sell, trying to get people to put on the air. Everyone liked it, but they didn’t like it enough to put it on [Laughs]! They liked the writing though, and they were like, “Hmm, okay, we see you can do a little something. Let’s see what you can do.”

PC: In Single Ladies, you’re writing about women and the things they deal with, from love to relationships to careers. Are you borrowing from your own real life experiences and from those of your friends to create stories for Val (Stacey Dash), Keisha (LisaRaye McCoy) and April (Charity Shea)?

SL: Of course. Every writer writes from experience. We all have the human experience, so we all go for what we know, but a lot of it is embellished because I’m a writer and I use my imagination. That’s where creativity comes in. I can take one kernel of something that happened to me and turn it into something totally different for a character. As a writer you have to create a whole new world, so it’s definitely not autobiographical in that sense, it is definitely inspired by things that have happened to me and my friends.

PC: The show is very contemporary. In fact, it’s almost ripped from the headlines, especially the storyline featuring April and her affair with a powerful politician (played by guest star Common). Not that you ever would have wished it, but could Single Ladies have premiered at a better time with this particular storyline, considering all the headlines about Weiner-gate and Arnold Schwarzengger in the news?

SL: We definitely try to keep it current. Those news stories, though, just happened to come up. I wrote this over a year ago, but these things constantly happen to people in public office. You always hear about those guys doing these sorts of things and getting in trouble. You want to keep your show topical.

PC: Another topical story you tackled early on was former video vixen Keisha dealing with a tell-all. I cannot imagine anyone other than LisaRaye playing Keisha, but she recently said in the press that VH1 initially wanted a younger actress, even though you wrote the part specifically for her?

SL: I cannot imagine anyone else playing Keisha either. I wrote the part specifically for her and I created the show around her. She’s one of my best friends, so I’m going to do her right. I have her voice down, so she’s really fun to write for. The network did want someone younger for Keisha, and for Val, but when LisaRaye and Stacey [Dash] went in and auditioned, they knocked it out of the park and the network said,  “Maybe we don’t have to go so young…”

PC: Queen Lafitah, who serves as an executive producer on Single Ladies, gave you a stamp of approval early on. What’s it like working with her?

SL: Queen is really cool. She really doesn’t give me a lot of notes. She loves what I write, so she sort of just lets me do my thing, which is a dream for a writer.

PC: And she will be appearing on the show later this season. Can you tell us anything about her character TV journalist Sharon Love?

SL: Not to give too much away, let’s just say she’s playing Val’s old college roommate and they had an…experience. What happens in college stays in college!

PC: I cannot wait! What can you share about tonight’s episode?

SL: Keisha and Malcolm's relationship takes yet another turn. K.C. returns and tries to woo back Val.  The April and Darryl saga continues. Fasten your seatbelts!

Single Ladies airs Monday nights at 9/8C on VH1.