The Winfrey character, Mattie, opens the drama. Her road to Brewster Place begins when she refuses to reveal the name of her unborn child's father to her parents (Mary Alice and Paul Winfield). Milestones for Mattie include living in the home of Eva Turner (Barbara Montgomery) until she dies and wills the house to Mattie; then forfeiting the house when her son. Basil. jumps bail after Mattie uses their home as collateral for his bond. The other characters' journeys to the tenement on Brewster Place are just as unpredictable and crooked. Kiswana, portrayed by Robin Givens, moves to the neighborhood to live with her boyfriend. They work to organize the neighbors, to plan special activities for the neighborhood, and to protest their excessive rent. One of the most powerful scenes in the drama occurs between Kiswana and her mother, Mrs. Browne (Cicely Tyson). When Tyson comes for a visit, she and Givens begin a conversation that progresses into a heated argument regarding Kiswana's name change. Mrs. Browne reveals why she named her daughter Melanie (after her grandmother) and in a powerful soliloquy tells the story of that grandmother's strength and fearlessness when facing a band of angry white men.

     Other women from the building reveal bruises inflicted either by the men in their lives or by the world in general. Cora Lee (Phyllis Stickney) continues to have children because she wants the dependency of infants; once they become toddlers, her interest in them falters. By the end of the series, however, she begins to see the importance of all her children, and after being prodded by Kiswana, she attends the neighborhood production of an African-American adaptation of a Shakespearean play. Through this experience and her children's reaction to it, the audience sees a change in Cora Lee.

     Miss Sophie (Olivia Cole), an unhappy woman and the neighborhood busybody, spreads vicious gossip about her neighbors in the tenement. Etta Mae (Jac­ kee), Mattie's earthy, flamboyant, and loyal childhood friend, moves to Brewster Place for refuge from her many failed romances. Lucielia Louise Turner (Lynn Whitfield). housewife and mother, lives a somewhat happy life with her husband, Ben (Moses Gunn), and daughter, Serena, in one of the tenement apartments until Ben loses his job and leaves home. Lucielia then aborts their second child, and Serena is electrocuted when she uses a fork to chase a roach into a light socket. Theresa and Lorraine (Paula Kelly and Lonette McKee) decide to reside on Brewster Place because as lesbians they are seeking some place where they can live without ridicule and torment. Their relationship, soon discovered by their neighbors, becomes the backdrop for the drama's finale.

     Criticism of the miniseries began before the drama aired. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People requested review of the scripts before production to determine whether the negative images of the African-American male present in the Naylor book appeared in the television drama. This request was denied, but Winfrey, also concerned with the image of black men in the novel. altered several of the male roles. Ben Turner, the tenement's janitor and a drunk in Naylor's novel, was revamped for the teleplay and, in a scene created especially for the series, explains why he felt pressured into desertion. The producers also attempted to cast actors who could bring a level of sensitivity to the male roles and create characters who were more than one-dimensional villains.

Still, in a  two-part  series for the Washington Post, newspaper  columnist  Dorothy  Gilliam  criticized the drama as one of the most stereotype-ridden polemics against black men ever seen on television, a series that, she claimed, trotted out nearly every stereotype of black men that had festered in the mind of the most feverish racist. In spite of such criticism, the series won its time period Sunday and Monday nights against heavy competition, The Wizard of Oz on CBS and the Star Wars sequel Return of the Jedi on NBC.

     Though criticized for its portrayal of African­ American men and women, The Women of Brewster Place offered its audience a rare glimpse of the United States' black working class and conscientiously at­ tempted to probe the personal relationships, dreams, and desires of a group of women who cared about their children and friends, worked long hours at jobs they may have hated in order to survive, and moved forward despite their disappointments. A spin-off of the miniseries titled Brewster Place, also produced by Harpo, Inc., aired for a few weeks in 1990 on ABC but was canceled because of low ratings. The original miniseries continues to air, as a feature film, on cable television channels such as Encore, Lifetime, and BET.