Empire M

Life is hard on the Flemings' ranch in the Alberta foothills where abused or neglected horses find refuge with a kind, hard-working family. Debts abound and the bank is about to foreclose. Can they keep the ranch running?

Follow the adventures and misadventures of Penny, a 14-year-old African American girl who's doing her best to navigate through the early years of teen-dom. Penny's every encounter inevitably spirals into bigger than life situations filled with hi-jinks, hilarity and heart. Her quest to balance her home, school and social lives are further complicated by friends like the sassy Dijonay, Penny's nemesis LaCienega Boulevardez, her loving, if not over-protective parents and her hip-to-the-groove-granny, Suga Mama.

The 8-year-old Louie is doing his best to grow up and cope with a large family, a doting mother, a pesky little brother, and a by-the-book, military veteran dad. Add to that a slew of holiday family squabbles, a flood, an old Rambler and a huge goldfish, and you have the background for Life with Louie. Each episode is a portrait of humor and warmth drawn from Louie Anderson's real-life experience as a child in the Midwest.

Bennie Upshaw, the head of a Black working class family in Indianapolis, is a charming, well-intentioned mechanic and lifelong mess just trying his best to step up and care for his family and tolerate his sardonic sister-in-law, all without a blueprint for success.