For three seasons, primarily black female viewers flocked to their television sets on Monday nights to catch sexy actor and model Harold “House” Moore. The chiseled Detroit-born heartthrob is best known for portraying the devious but charming “Terrence Franks” on the VH-1 romantic comedy, Single Ladies.
The hour-long series chronicles three Atlanta female friends (LisaRaye McCoy, Denise Vasi and Charity Shea) and how their lives, relationships and careers all intersect. This season initially, House’s character set out to destroy his brother, jeweler Malcolm Franks (DB Woodside). Striving to become independent by selling faux jewelry as the season progressed, the womanizing but dynamic Terrence became business partners and romantically involved with well-to-do boutique owner Raquel Lancaster (Vasi).
“A lot of Terrence’s key characteristics are derived from me,” says House. “He has a woman that motivated him to do better, want better and be better. He saw something in her that challenged him, and he was up for the challenge.”
Created by Stacy A. Littlejohn and produced by Queen Latifah’s imprint, Flavor Unit Entertainment, Single Ladies aired its series finale on Mar. 24. Despite mixed reception since the show’s debut in 2011 and speculation that low ratings this season forced VH-1’s very first hour-long scripted series into cancellation, a self-proclaimed “motivated and charming” House clarifies the misconceptions.
“It didn’t get canceled because of ratings,” says a deep-voiced House with his hands in his pocket. “Publicly, we have to support. At the end of the day, it’s only so many of our shows out. It doesn’t help when you bash. When you’re very few and you bash, it leads to minimum, and minimum leads to none.”
Prior to House’s recurring role-turned-regular cast member on Single Ladies, the Alabama State University alumnus’ small screen credits included The Shield, CSI, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, Necessary Roughness and NYC22. Even as Single Ladies ends, House is always optimistic about his future. The former behavioral therapist and life coach was recently in Atlanta as a panelist for the Ultimate Girls’ Festival’s (#UGF2014) all-male discussion on relationships.
Ten minutes before House takes his seat, the thought provoking sex symbol correlated his life post-Single Ladies to being a good partner in a relationship. “Your attitude determines your altitude. Any type of successful person has strong people behind them. If you have a positive mentality, energy or behavior, it correlates to happiness and success. Happy people are at peace. They age well and are comfortable with themselves. You want to make sure your behavior, outlook and expectations parallels to the person you’re with. You will outgrow each other and become stagnant,” says House.
Mentoring young men is another of House’s passions. When he’s not on set, he is able to give a lot of his time to various charities and outreach programs including the Boys and Girls Club, AAU Sports and YMCA. Moore is currently developing a nonprofit organization for low income, at-risk youth. When House was growing up, the humanitarian says he too was considered “a problem.” His evolution, he believes, is an example of turning once negative situations into positive change.
“A lot of people that have behavioral disorders or negative dispositions are unhappy. A lot of that stems from environment, and environment stems from social status, financial and other externals. I made a passion, a goal, an effort and energy to be one of those who help to create solutions. Problems are acknowledged, but solutions are pursued,” utters House.
Furthermore, it’s important to House that his visibility creates more opportunities for him to remain hands on in the community. “That’s the primary focus of me getting into this field,” says House. “It would give me a bigger audience and platform to make a difference. At the end of the day, judge me off the lives I impact. That means a lot to me.”
House’s star is still rising. Never one to dwell on his past successes, House is proud of the leverage Single Ladies gave him as an actor. He’s fully aware of the criticism around the quality of the show. “If it’s not your cup of tea, you don’t have to like it. Be positive, and take something positive away from it like making your relationship work, fighting for something or being professional,” says House.
Still optimistic, House further offers another perspective on how Single Ladies is in fact a quality program. “It was a show at minimum that put African American women in a positive light,” says House. “It showed young professionals, and that’s good for young America to see. They see people with careers that are pursuing something and establishing themselves. The show had a great stint and made an impact.”
This post was written by Christopher A. Daniel, pop cultural critic and music editor for The Burton Wire. He is also a contributing writer for Urban Lux Magazine and Blues & Soul Magazine. Follow Christopher @Journalistorian on Twitter.
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This Alabama lady loved this show. Great read! This was an extremely great show to say the least. Glad that this brother is positive & making a difference in the lives of youth.
I will truly miss this show and wish all of the actors and actresses well in everything they do.
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