Stacy A. Littlejohn the creator of VH1’s “Single Ladies, interviewed with Loop21 to chat about the success of the show and to respond to the shows critics.
On what inspired her to create Single Ladies:
“I was actually trying to sell any project of my own…but I wasn’t having any luck pitching. My representation had distributed a pilot that I had written throughout the industry and people were reading it and responding well to it. It got into the hands of Maggie Malina at VH1 and she really liked my writing style. She brought me into the office and informed me that Flavor Unit and VH1 were interested in working on a project targeting women and dating. They needed a writer to fill in the blanks so I thought about my life and my experiences and filled in the blanks. I created Val, Keisha and April, and they loved it and told me to go back and keep writing.”
On if the show is based off on her personal experiences:
“Some of it, yes. I went home and thought about my own life. I thought about my friends, many who are single and I also thought about how hard it is to find a man in L.A. People can always relate to a show like Single Ladies, because there will be single people forever.”
On why she decided to choose LisaRaye McCoy and Stacey Dash instead of younger actresses:
“LisaRaye was chosen because I created Keisha with her in mind. She’s one of my best friends. I’ve written for her on four seasons of All of Us and I know her tone very well. Also, I wanted Keshia to have a comrade, someone who was on her level with certain life experiences and who had been in the game as long as her.
The experiences that I’m writing about, you have to have some years under your belt to have the kind of knowledge I’m bringing to it. I wanted to let Hollywood know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and young is a state of mind. I wanted to give them a chance. I didn’t want to discard them just because of their age. I like the experience that they bring.”
On how she deals with the show’s criticism:
“I pay attention to it, but I can’t pay too much attention to it. At the end of the day, you walk into it and you look at history, and you realize there’s not one movie, song, show or whatever that every single person liked. People have different experiences and that’s the beauty of the world. It doesn’t make me less important, less smart or a worse writer when someone doesn’t like my work. It just means it wasn’t for that person. What’s important is the people that are in your corner.”
