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Cleghorne!

television series

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ5131101
Source-derived summary

Cleghorne! is an American sitcom television series starring comedian Ellen Cleghorne that aired on The WB from September 10 to December 17, 1995. Garrett Morris and Alaina Reed Hall costarred as Ellen's character's parents, Sidney and Lena, with Steve Bean, Cerita Monet Bickelmann, Michael Ralph and Sherri Shepherd.

Among the first batch of original programming ordered by the newly launched WB network, the series was put on hiatus after 12 episodes in December 1995. The show was later canceled with three episodes left unaired.

Synopsis

The series focuses on the life of Ellen Carlson (Cleghorne), a single mom who is raising her nine-year-old daughter Akeyla on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Comedic situations arise as Ellen tries to balance raising her daughter, running a local production company in SoHo, and the interference of her overbearing parents, Sidney and Lena, who live next door.

Cast

Main

Ellen Cleghorne as Ellen Carlson

Garrett Morris as Sidney Carlson, Ellen's father

Alaina Reed Hall as Lena Carlson, Ellen's mother

Steve Bean as Brad, Ellen's partner

Cerita Monet Bickelmann as Akeyla Carlson, Ellen's daughter

Michael Ralph as Tyrell Livingston, Ellen's ex-husband

Sherri Shepherd as Victoria Carlson

Recurring

Cathy Silvers as Coral, a waitress at Piccolo's, the local bar

Dorien Wilson as Jeff, a man Ellen dates who is the father of George, a student at Akeyla's private school

Development

Cleghorne was the third black woman to be credited on Saturday Night Live (1991–1995), after Yvonne Hudson and Danitra Vance, and the first woman of color to appear on the series as a full-fledged cast member for longer than a single season. She left to focus on her starring role in her own sitcom, Cleghorne!. In 1995, Cleghorne!

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Cleghorne!” as television series. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1995, 1991—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Cleghorne, television and series can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as television series. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5131101. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1995 and 1991.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Cleghorne!”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Cleghorne! primary sources, Cleghorne! archive and Cleghorne research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cleghorne!”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Cleghorne!” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.