Up and Coming (TV series)
{{Short description|American television drama series}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox television
| image =
| caption =
| genre = Drama
| creator =
| developer =
| presenter =
| starring = Robert DoQui
Cindy Herron
L. Wolfe Perry, Jr.
Yule Caise
Gamy L. Taylor
| voices =
| narrated =
| theme_music_composer = Benorce Blackman
Bill Withers
| opentheme = "The Best You Can"
| endtheme =
| country = United States
| language = English
| num_seasons = 1
| num_episodes =
| list_episodes =
| director = Ivan Cury
| producer =
| executive_producer = Avon Kirkland
Art Washington
| runtime = 24 mins.
| network = PBS
| first_aired = {{start date|1980|10|05}}
| last_aired = {{end date|1981|01|01}}
}}
Up and Coming is an American television drama series which aired on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) during the 1980-1981 season.
Synopsis
The series depicts the Wilsons, a successful African American family from Oakland, California who moves into an integrated, middle-class neighborhood in nearby San Francisco.{{cite book |last1=Woolery |first1=George W. |title=Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part II: Live, Film, and Tape Series |date=1985 |publisher=The Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-1651-2 |pages=531–532}} Although it was short-lived, it was one of the first weekly American TV drama series centered on an African American family (preceded only by Harris and Company, a 1979 NBC drama starring Bernie Casey).
Among the cast members were former Stanford University basketball star L. Wolfe Perry, Jr. and a teenage Cindy Herron (who years later would become a founding member of the R&B female quartet En Vogue).
The theme song is a cover version of the Bill Withers tune "The Best You Can". The original version can be found on Withers' 1975 album Making Music.
Cast
- Robert DoQui as Frank Wilson
- Cindy Herron as Valerie Wilson
- L. Wolfe Perry, Jr. as Kevin Wilson
- Yule Caise as Marcus Wilson
- Gammy Singer as Joyce Wilson