The PJs

Thurgood Stubbs is the cantankerous superintendent of the Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs housing project, where he lives with his patient wife Muriel. The show follows their day-to-day life among a cast of neighbors, coworkers, and city officials, using laugh-out-loud setups and sharp satire to show how small domestic battles and municipal bureaucracy shape life in a big-city project. Episodes trade sitcom rhythms for exaggerated situations and streetwise dialogue, focusing on routine troubles like maintenance, money, and neighborhood rivalries while keeping the perspective rooted in community ties rather than grand plot twists.

The series premiered in 1999 and was created by Larry Wilmore, Eddie Murphy, and Steve Tompkins. Eddie Murphy leads the voice cast as Thurgood, with Loretta Devine as Muriel and a supporting ensemble that includes Cassi Davis and Pepe Serna, giving the show a star-driven energy.

The PJs stood out in primetime animation for putting Black characters and inner-city life front and center, and it sparked conversations about representation on television. Its mix of humor and social critique made it a referenced entry whenever people discussed adult animated sitcoms that tackled race, class, and urban policy with satire and edge.

Critical response was mixed-to-positive, reflected in a user vote average of about 6.8 out of 10 from a modest sample. Viewers who liked the show pointed to its blunt humor, distinctive voice work, and willingness to lampoon bureaucracy and poverty, while critics sometimes found its tone uneven. Recurring themes include community resilience, the grind of low-wage labor, neighborhood politics, and the gap between official institutions and everyday residents, all delivered through dialogue-driven comedy and a focus on character dynamics.