Vernon Gaines

So all of Charmaine and Lena.

So all of these... people that we were used to with the original are back in some capacity or you know Vernon Gaines has a library named after him I think the football field is named after Walter Oaks so it's I think it's a great mix of callbacks and there are a ton of Easter eggs but I think it also gives the Newcast is six primary new different world freshmen.

And I enjoyed it.

I like the way that they, similar to the original version, they tackle what's going on in college life on HBCU campuses.

That was the hangout.

Run by Mr. Gaines.

Yes.

And Mr. Gaines was played by Lou Myers, who has since passed.

They pay respect to him in various ways throughout the season.

But the pit is now run by his granddaughter, Nellie.

Here's the thing about Nellie.

Nellie is his granddaughter.

Whitley kind of became the star and it was all about, you know, Whitley and all the other, you know, a lot of the characters, of course, were still there from season one.

Well, some of them were anyway, you know, Whitley, Jaleesa, Dwayne, Walter, um, uh, Letty, but they brought in new faces like Kim and Mr. Gaines and Colonel Taylor and Freddie.

And so, like I said, I know in the beginning when, um, They wrote out both Denise and Maggie.

It was a really hard adjustment, really hard adjustment for me to get used to them, you know, to, you know, try to get used to the not being there.

We were talking about that last night.

How funny, how hilarious Walter was.

Of course, the actor, I cannot, Lou Myers, I believe, was the actor who portrayed Mr. Gaines.

Of course, he has passed.

You know, HBCUs already have to be twice as good to just make sure that they get, you know, halfway decent funding, but also to get recruits and to get people to come.

And it always looks awful when you find out that the president is embezzling And so, yeah, in the middle of the convocation, after the dedication of the new library to Mr. Vernon Gaines, we find out that some of this grant money is disappearing right before our eyes.

And Mari, this is where Prairie View begins.

This is, this is the one, this is the one that gets me.

But I just know a lot of my HBCU friends, we would not take no for an answer.

No, facts.

I did like how they were dedicating this library to Vernon Gaines.

He's one of the original cast members as well.