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Eddie Murphy's unique brand of
comedy comes together with the stop-motion
animation expertise of Will Vinton
Studios
in Imagine Television and Touchstone Television's new comedy
"The
PJs." Shot in "foamation," this
cutting-edge satire takes a look at the pitfalls
and hidden pleasures of life in a big city housing
project.
As
superintendent of the Hilton-Jacobs Projects,
Thurgood Stubbs (Eddie
Murphy)
watches over his beloved building with pride. He
handles complaints from a colorful cast of
characters in a decidedly gruff manner, but the
Super's tough exterior just masks how much he
cares. He may not be able to put his feelings into
words, but he sure can plunge a toilet.
Muriel
(Loretta Devine) is Thurgood's wife
of 26 years. The salt of the earth, Muriel is the
calming force in their household as well as the
voice of reason. While she and Thurgood don't have
kids of their own -- he has weak sperm, she too
willingly tells people -- they act as surrogate
parents to 10-year-old Calvin (Crystal Scales) who looks up to the
Super.
Calvin and
his portly pal Juicy (Michele
Morgan),
whose parents are so obese they aren't able to
leave the apartment, are good kids although they do
get into their share of scrapes. Always looking out
for them, Thurgood is alarmed to see the pair skip
school one day and sneak into the movies. When
Thurgood catches Calvin he decides to teach him a
lesson about the importance of going to school and
has the boy tag along with him for a day to see
what his job is really like. His plan backfires
when Calvin decides to be a superintendent just
like Thurgood, leaving the Super to find a way to
"deglamourize" his job -- demoralizing himself in
the process.
While
Thurgood and Muriel are happily married, they have
their ups and downs just like any couple. When
Muriel is sick in bed with a horrible flu during
the fierce "El Negro" storm, she relies on Thurgood
to nurse her back to health. He may know what to do
to fix a running faucet but a runny nose is a whole
different story. Tired of her constant demands, he
heads down to the boiler room to watch his beloved
"Wheel of Fortune" in peace and promptly dozes off.
After waking up from his slumber hours later
Thurgood returns to their apartment but instead of
finding his wife he discovers his brother-in-law
Jimmy (Michael Paul Chan). He tells Thurgood
that Bebe (Jenifer
Lewis),
Muriel's older sister, took her to the hospital for
proper care. Thurgood gets a frosty reception from
his wife when he finally shows up at the hospital.
But he gets the chance to redeem himself by forging
out into the storm to try and retrieve his wife's
diary when she realizes that it has been lost along
the way.
Always a
source of frustration for the Super is the
combative Mrs. Avery (Ja'net
DuBois),
a 73-year-old tenant who harbors an abundance of
hate toward Thurgood. Nothing he does is ever good
enough for her and the old woman's anger typically
induces a stroke which she naturally blames on
Thurgood. In spite of their history of mutual-hate,
the Super spearheads a building-wide fundraising
effort to subsidize her rent when he suspects the
septuagenarian has hit hard times. When Mrs. Avery
discovers what he's done she hits the roof and his
good deed turns into disaster. But when all is said
and done, Thurgood winds up learning something
about the seemingly independent tenant and is able
to help her in the end.
Haiti Lady
(Cheryl Francis
Harrington) is the resident voodoo expert
and shares Mrs. Avery's displeasure with the Super.
Equipped with her juju stick and a curse for every
occasion, Haiti Lady has a solution to whatever
problem facing the building. When Thurgood installs
a brand-new door for the building, she recommends a
curse to protect it from theft that would turn the
lungs of anyone who came near it black as coal. The
Super quickly points out one little problem with
her idea -- none of them would be able to get in or out
of the building! Provoked by his smug attitude,
Haiti Lady sticks another pin in the Thurgood
voodoo doll that is always close at hand.
Thurgood
enjoys playing chess with Sanchez (Pepe
Serna),
although his friend's endless droning on about his
late wife Esperanza easily wears on Thurgood's
nerves. His Korean brother-in-law Jimmy's constant
assertions of his own "blackness" never fail to get
under Thurgood's skin, but nothing sticks in the
Super's craw more than the bureaucratic red tape he
fights each time he has to deal with the seemingly
omnipotent Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD).
But for all
the trials and tribulations the Hilton-Jacobs
"family" faces, they never lose their strong sense
of community. They may not have a lot living in the
projects, but they always have each other.
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