The Steve Harvey Show


The Steve Harvey Show is an American television sitcom created by Winifred Hervey and directed by Stan Lathan that aired on The WB from August 25, 1996, to February 17, 2002, with a total of 122 half-hour episodes spanning six seasons.
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Synopsis

Steve Hightower is a 1970s funk legend and a very successful music star with his musical group who is now a music teacher/vice principal at Booker T. Washington High School on Chicago's West Side. Budget cutbacks meant Steve also had to teach drama and art, much to his surprise. Cedric Robinson is a coach at the high school, and Steve's longtime best friend. The principal of Booker T. Washington High is Steve's former classmate, Regina Grier, whom Steve affectionately calls "Piggy", because she was overweight in childhood.
Steve forms a strong bond with two of his students: Romeo Santana, a stylish, self-absorbed ladies' man, and the equally vacuous Stanley Kuznocki, nicknamed Bullethead – acting as their mentor, and gradually, accepts them as friends.
In season 2, the show introduced a new character, a secretary named Lovita Jenkins, a woman who is fundamentally in the good mood, but nonetheless, considerably unrefined in terms of disposition. Cedric and Lovita begin dating, and eventually marry and gave birth to a child. The show also featured a succession of young actresses who served as female foils to Romeo and Bullethead; the longest-lasting of these was Lori Beth Denberg as the overachieving, socially inept Lydia Gutman. Rapper The Lady of Rage also had a recurring role as Coretta "The Ox" Cox, a physically massive, brutish teenage girl in romantic pursuit of Romeo. Coretta would call Bullethead a "broke Brad Pitt" whenever he annoyed her, but would usually refer to Lydia as "Linda", "Lisa", or "Lucy".
Steve was part of a fictional music group called "Steve Hightower and the High Tops," who would temporarily reunite to perform on occasion. The members consisted of Steve, T-Bone, Pretty Tony, and Clyde. Two of their signature songs were "When the Funk Hits the Fan", and "Break Me Off a Piece of That Funk." Though Cedric was not an original member of the group, he usually sang with them on several events.
Minor recurring characters throughout the series included Cedric's grandmother named "Grandma Puddin'" and Regina's boyfriend, former NFL star Warrington Steele. Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell appeared in several episodes as "Junior" and "Vincent". Wayne Wilderson played Byron, a "bougie" type character who was a television producer and a member of the Onyx Club. Dwayne Adway played Jordan Maddox, a professional basketball player who was briefly married to Regina before dying during their honeymoon. Ernest Lee Thomas made a few appearances as the Reverend who eulogized Maddox, and who married Cedric and Lovita.

Cast

Main

Recurring

Special guest appearances

Series end

In 2001, Harvey decided to pursue other projects. He wished to end the show after the fifth season, but at the insistence of the WB network, filmed a 13-episode sixth season.
The series ended with Regina mulling over a job offer to be a principal at a private school in California. Steve, who refused to go with Regina, acts supportive despite his feelings. Regina ends up taking the job; with encouragement from Lydia, Bullethead, and Romeo, Steve decides to go after her to reveal his true feelings. Lydia, Romeo, and Bullethead have all graduated by the series finale. Meanwhile, Cedric and Lovita win the lottery and Lovita goes into labor.

Syndication

The series was first distributed to syndication to The WB, Fox, UPN, and independent affiliates in the United States by Columbia TriStar Television Distribution in September 2001, and remained airing in broadcast syndication in some U.S. markets on various local stations as late as 2008. From 2001 to 2005, reruns aired on NYC-based UPN station, WWOR-TV. From 2014 to June 2016, after Bill Cosby's sexual harassment allegations, The Cosby Show reruns were replaced on The WB's New York flagship station, WPIX by reruns of The Steve Harvey Show. The show began airing again in syndication as of 2015.
The series aired on BET until March 2009, also on Centric until 2018 and was on TBS in the United States until September 24, 2011, and aired on the UK channel Trouble. It was broadcast on Ion Television until March 16, 2009.
From 2019 to 2021, reruns of the show were seen on getTV and as of 2023, it currently airs on Aspire TV. On December 1, 2025, the show would debut on Cozi TV.
, the series was available for streaming online on Pluto TV and Tubi along Amazon Prime in the United States and the CTV Television Network's streaming service, CTV Throwback in Canada.
In 2022, Sony Pictures' channel Throw Back TV on YouTube posted several clips and episodes from the series for streaming purposes, led to the show's distributor Sony Pictures Television launched the channel dedicated to the series on August 24, 2022.
In November 2023, all six seasons of the series were made available for streaming online on Hulu.

Home media

In 2003, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment released The Best of the Steve Harvey Show, Vol. 1, on Region 1 DVD. The disc features five episodes of the series.