Stop for a second and think about the late '90s. We had The Simpsons hitting its stride and South Park just starting to make parents everywhere panic. Then, out of nowhere, comes this gritty, brown-tinted, hyper-detailed stop-motion show set in a housing project. Honestly, Eddie Murphy and The PJs TV show felt like a fever dream compared to the bright, neon-colored sitcoms of the era. It wasn't just a cartoon. It was "Foamation." It was a massive swing for the fences that most people either loved or absolutely detested.
People forget how big of a deal this was. Imagine the biggest movie star on the planet—which Eddie Murphy arguably still was in 1999—deciding to spend his capital on a show about the inner city that didn't pull its punches. It wasn't The Cosby Show. It was dirty. The elevators didn't work. The super, Thurgood Stubbs, was a grumpy, short-tempered guy who just wanted to watch TV and eat hush puppies.
The Foamation Factor: Why The PJs Looked So Different
Will Vinton is a name you need to know if you're talking about this show. He's the guy who basically invented the term "Claymation." But for this project, they used something called Foamation. Instead of traditional clay, which gets heavy and melts under hot studio lights, they used foam latex over metal skeletons. This gave the characters a weirdly tactile, fleshy look.
It was expensive. Like, really expensive.
Each episode took months to produce. You can see it in the background of every shot. The chipped paint on the walls of the Hilton-Stephens towers, the trash in the gutters, the way the light hit the grimy windows—it looked more real than most live-action shows. This wasn't the sanitized version of the projects. It was a lived-in world. You've probably seen Coraline or Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio and marveled at the craft; well, The PJs was doing that on a weekly television schedule back when dial-up internet was still the standard.
Eddie Murphy’s Thurgood Stubbs was a masterclass in voice acting
Eddie didn't just show up and read lines. He was Thurgood.
📖 Related: Break It Off PinkPantheress: How a 90-Second Garage Flip Changed Everything
It’s actually kinda funny when you look back at the credits. For the first two seasons on FOX, Murphy was the heart and soul. He voiced the "Super," a man who was perpetually exhausted by his tenants and his building. But then things got complicated. By the third season, when the show moved over to The WB, Eddie was basically gone. Mark Moseley took over the voice duties. Moseley is a legend in the voice-over world—he’s the guy who usually fills in for Eddie in Shrek video games or spin-offs—but the energy shifted.
The character of Thurgood wasn't exactly a hero. He was flawed. He was often selfish. Yet, Murphy gave him this underlying warmth that made you root for him anyway. That's the Murphy magic. He can play a jerk and still make you want to grab a beer with the guy.
The Controversy: Was it "Urban" or Just Stereotypical?
You can't talk about Eddie Murphy and The PJs TV show without talking about Spike Lee. This is where things got heated. Lee famously hated the show. He called it "hateful" and argued that it played into the worst stereotypes of Black people. He wasn't alone. A lot of critics at the time felt like seeing characters deal with crack addiction (remember "Smokey"?) or permanent unemployment in a cartoon format was punching down.
But there’s another side to that coin.
Larry Wilmore, who co-created the show with Murphy and Steve Tompkins, has been very vocal about the intent. They wanted to show a world that was being ignored by mainstream TV. They argued that by making these characters funny and three-dimensional, they were actually humanizing them. If you actually watch the show, the humor usually comes from the absurdity of the situations, not from mocking the characters' poverty.
👉 See also: Bob Hearts Abishola Season 4 Explained: The Move That Changed Everything
Take the character of Muriel, Thurgood’s wife. She was the moral compass. She was smart, patient, and held the whole ecosystem together. The show portrayed a real community. People looked out for each other, even if they were bickering the whole time. It was a specific kind of "Black American" humor that felt authentic to people who actually grew up in those environments.
The Strange Transition from FOX to The WB
The show’s life cycle was chaotic. It premiered on FOX in January 1999 following an NFC Championship game. It had 22 million viewers. That’s an insane number for a puppet show. But FOX didn't know what to do with it. They moved the time slot constantly.
Then came the move to The WB.
If you remember The WB in the early 2000s, it was the home of Dawson’s Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Adding a gritty stop-motion show about a housing project to a lineup of shiny teen dramas was... a choice. It didn't stick. The production costs were too high, the ratings were dipping, and without Murphy in the recording booth every week, the soul of the show started to leak out.
Why we still talk about it today
The influence of The PJs is everywhere now. Look at The Boondocks. Look at Atlanta. These shows exist because Murphy and Wilmore proved that you could tell stories about the Black experience that were surreal, cynical, and deeply funny all at once.
✨ Don't miss: Black Bear by Andrew Belle: Why This Song Still Hits So Hard
The animation style itself remains a benchmark. There is a "grubbiness" to the show that feels intentional and artistic. In a world where everything is now smoothed out by 2D digital puppets or slick 3D rendering, the "Foamation" of The PJs has a soul. You can almost feel the fingerprints of the animators on the characters.
Technical Facts and Show Trivia
- The Creators: It wasn't just Eddie. Steve Tompkins (who wrote for The Simpsons) and Larry Wilmore (who went on to The Daily Show and Black-ish) were the architects.
- The Voice Cast: Beyond Murphy, you had Loretta Devine as Muriel. She’s an absolute powerhouse. You also had Ja'Net DuBois (from Good Times!) and Shawn Michael Howard.
- The Theme Song: It was produced by Quincy Jones III. It had that perfect late-90s bounce that stuck in your head for days.
- The Cancellation: The show officially ended in 2001 after 44 episodes. There are still a few "lost" episodes that didn't air during the original run but popped up later in syndication.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Show
People often lump The PJs in with "Black cartoons" of the era like Bebe's Kids. But they are totally different beasts. Bebe's Kids was a movie (and later a terrible video game) based on Robin Harris’s stand-up. The PJs was a high-concept satire.
The show wasn't trying to be "educational" or "wholesome." It was trying to be The Honeymooners set in the projects. Thurgood was Ralph Kramden. Muriel was Alice. Once you see it through that lens—the classic "frustrated working-class man" trope—the show makes way more sense. It was leaning into a long history of sitcom dynamics, just with a much different coat of paint.
How to Watch It Now and Why You Should
Finding The PJs today is hit or miss. It’s not always on the big streaming platforms like Netflix or Max. It often pops up on services like Pluto TV or Tubi, or you can find the DVD sets if you’re a collector.
If you decide to revisit it, look past the initial shock of the character designs. Look at the writing. The social commentary on things like redlining, municipal neglect, and the "bootstrap" myth is surprisingly sharp. It was talking about systemic issues before that was a common talking point in pop culture.
Honestly? It's just funny. The banter between Thurgood and the guys on the stoop—the "Juice," the Haitian guy, and the old man who was always "at the Korean War"—is top-tier comedy writing. It captures that specific rhythm of neighborhood gossip and trash-talking.
Next Steps for the Nostalgic Viewer:
- Check Tubi or Pluto TV: These "FAST" services are currently the most likely places to find the show streaming for free with ads.
- Watch the "Smokey" episodes: If you want to see where the show really pushed the envelope in terms of dark comedy, those are the ones.
- Compare the seasons: Watch an episode from Season 1 (with Eddie) and Season 3 (without him). It’s a fascinating lesson in how much a lead actor's voice and timing can change the entire "feel" of an animated production.
- Look up the "Behind the Scenes" of Will Vinton Studios: Seeing how they built the Hilton-Stephens towers in miniature gives you a whole new appreciation for the sheer amount of manual labor that went into every frame.