The Parent 'Hood

Throughout its 5-season run, each season brought cast changes, some unexplained. Carol Woods, who played Mrs. Wilcox, the housekeeper and Wendell's mother, left the series after the first season, along with Bobby McGee, who played one of Robert's childhood friends. Faizon Love, a recurring character in season one, became a regular in season two. At the end of the third season, Kenny Blank, who played Michael Peterson, left the series; at the beginning of the next season his character was explained to be off at college, and his departure also saw the exits Nigel Thatch, who had played Zaria's militant but loveable boyfriend Shakeim, and Tasha Scott, who was Zaria's friend and the lead singer in Michael's band. Season three ended with an unexplained cliffhanger of Shakeim starting Morehouse College early-admission and Skye (Shyheim), another member of Michael's band, confessing his feelings for Zaria. Shakeim decides to stay and attend NYU in the fall instead; as Zaria and Skye discuss it, Shakeim walks into the room and Zaria runs upstairs. Tyrone Dorzell Burton was introduced as streetwise kid T.K. in the season-four premiere, which focused on him and his situation. Hollywood Insider reported that WB was cancelling the series in May 1998, leaving another cliffhanger, but the network gave the series a last-minute 13-episode renewal for midseason. Faizon Love left at that time and Kelly Perine was brought on as Robert's brother Kelly.

The show took a different turn at the beginning of the 1997-1998 season: Michael (Blank) was written out of the series with his absence explained as him going off to college, and a troubled teenager from juvenile hall, T.K., joined the household. T.K.'s father (Richard Lawson) was an ex-convict, and his mother (Bern Nadette Stanis) was a drug addict who literally left him on the street. Jerri was the only person who didn't give up on T.K. and welcomed him into her home, even though Robert did not think it was a good idea. During this season, more teenage storylines were employed including domestic abuse, peer pressure and Robert reaching out to many of T.K.'s street friends trying to help them change their lives; one character, "Boo" (played by the rapper Da Brat), gets her high-school diploma thanks to Robert and T.K.

In the 1997-98 fourth-season finale, T.K. gets into a fight with several thugs (including Tyrese Gibson), and Robert tries to talk him out the situation. Robert and T.K. leave and the thugs fire a gun, ending the episode on a cliffhanger. The show's final season was placed on hiatus after this episode and didn't return until May 30, 1999, a year after the season finale aired. In the fifth season's last episodes, Jerri has finally had enough to T.K., but before he moves out of the house, he and family check on Robert, who has fallen into a coma; in the coma, Robert meets guardian angel Max (Barry Sobel), who convinces Robert to change his mind about the shooting and T.K; when Robert awakens, all is forgiven. In later episodes, T.K. tries to get his act together and sees his mom again; he decides he wants to move back in with her, but she relapses back into substance abuse and the Petersons tell T.K. their home is always open to him. In the last episode, which was not produced or written as the last episode, Jerri and Robert renew their wedding vows and the cast dances a Soul Train line into the final commercial break.