“The Real Story of Darryl Simmons” by David Theodore Richardson III

Once upon a time around the period piece, in 1956 New York City, there lived a
single parent (the mother) and her son, they were Olivia Eleanor Simmons and
Darryl Alvin Theodore Simmons, Jr., who had just moved from Maplewood, New
Jersey, which Darryl spent the exact five years of life there, so, they moved to a
three-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn became their home
away from home, and due to segregation, Darryl was home-schooled
successfully, due that his mother was a college graduate and
mathematics/English teacher. Darryl excelled in both Math and English, including
Social Studies, Science and Music, which he loved very much.

In 1959, Darryl, who was now about eight years old, was enrolled at the NAACP
Performing Arts School, where he majored in Drama and Music, and
Screenwriting, by this time, Darryl was receiving good grades in this school he
loved going to, and nothing could ever stop him, not even, his self-respect,
dignity, and pride. Darryl had an average allowance, $25 a week. He never spent
that money, and saved it to become very wealthy. In the school he went to, Darryl
was involved in several stage productions, and portrayed a music legend, Duke
Ellington, although he sung a classic from Louis Armstrong. However, at one of
the talent shows, Darryl was discovered by Tamara Yvonne Tunis (Johnson), a
local talent scout/executive producer of an upcoming film, The Angel in
Manhattan, which Darryl was cast as the lead role, Kevin Bernard Dubois, Jr., an
angel who never had bad luck and pretty much helped people out.

Darryl’s mother, Olivia, agreed and this started the career of Darryl Simmons,
who wanted to become an influential R&B singer/television actor. In The Angel in
Manhattan, Darryl co-starred with Idaho “Ida C. Bell” Belington, Natalie Gyrate,
and Lloyd J. Palmer, and the film was released worldwide on March 3, 1961, and
as this result, Darryl recorded a couple songs that was featured in the film:
Someday the Sky Will Turn Purple, Don’t Come Knocking at My Door, I Could
Make History, and I Just Can’t Stop Seeing You (My Precious Love), two of the
four songs was released as singles in the spring-summer of 1961 (I Just Can’t
Stop Seeing You (My Precious Love) and I Could Make History), and reached on
the R&B charts, peaking at #1 and #8. The song “I Could Make History” earned
Darryl two Grammy Awards in February 1962 (Grammy Award for Best New Artist
and Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance), when he was only
10 years old.

In September 1962, at just the age of 11, Darryl became a head-songwriter for
Billy Isaacs and the Cool Groove Band, Oliver O’Dea, and Larry Liverpool Jr.,
Darryl however continued songwriting for other upcoming R&B/Gospel/soul
artists until the winter of 1965, when, at the tender age of 14, recorded his first
solo album, Touch the Sky, which was released on February 5, 1965, and sold
1,859,798,942 copies in the U.S. alone, and spawned five top-ten hit singles from
the debut album among them were: Show Me the Way, I Thought I was Cool, It
Ain’t Easy, Coming Home to My Baby, and Love at the First, Second and Third
Sights. Simmons’ debut album earned him six Grammy Awards in a single night
on February 15, 1967 (Best New Artist, Best R&B song, Best Soul Song, Record
of the Year, Album of the Year, Best R&B Male Vocal Performance).

Towards the spring of 1967, Darryl established a new genre in R&B, Soul and
Pop music, named “Soulville” the blend of all three genres, this sparked across
the United States, as segregation was ending, and African-Americans getting
ready to boogie down into the 1970s (three years towards disco), later that year,
Executive Producer Tamara Tunis Johnson (after casting Simmons in “The Angel
in Manhattan”), after seeing Darryl again, this time winning six Grammy Awards,
decided to cast Darryl as Darnell Albert Robinson, Jr. in all—white sitcom,
entitled The Battling Couples, which had focus on two white couples, one young,
and one older, decide who could love the single black bachelor neighbor a lot
more. (Invite him to parties, get-togethers, baseball playoffs, etc.), Darryl, now 16
years old, was uncomfortable, but agreed to it, and the series aired on NBC
Primetime on September 26, 1967, with a total run of 22 episodes, in the exact
first episode, when Darryl appeared and before introducing his character, the
audience, which contained also 76% African-Americans, applauded him for about
6 minutes.

Darryl Simmons finally discovered he has the ability to make people laugh, and
became the breakout star in the series. The series was renewed for the 1968—
1969 season, which had a total of 30 episodes in production (Implying the series
premiered on August 22, 1968 and ended its second season on May 11, 1969),
by 1969, Darryl recorded a theme song to the series entitled “The Couples and
the Neighbor”, this version was quite long (its length was 3:56, but the TV version
was 1:00), but the LP version (3:56), was released as a single in December
1969, and landed at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the R&B charts.
Darryl’s career launched successfully, and he became a self-made millionaire,
but in the fall of 1970, when taping its fourth season (which NBC ordered 27
episodes), NBC moved the series to Saturday Nights, and the ratings dropped at
#17), as this result continued, Darryl decided to leave the series, because of the
series losing 98.7 viewers, and NBC threatened to annulled the series to ratings
started to decline, but a change affected the four lead cast members when they
started making racist comments to Darryl, which he threatened to have NBC
eject the four stars in December 1970, but “they was too busy, and did not even
bother to care.” said Darryl Simmons in a Ebony Magazine Interview Issue for
February 1971, so instead NBC firing the four lead cast members, Darryl decided
to write 18 episodes, and star in every single one of them, and have his scenes
being taped before the four cast members shoot the episodes.

This arrangement continued for almost a year, when at the start of the 1971—
1972 network season, the cast harassed Darryl when he was writing, starring
and filming his second blockbuster film, The Man in Manhattan (released on June
26, 1972). Darryl threatened a lawsuit against the entire series and it lasted 61
days (November 1, 1971 – December 31, 1971) and 127 hours. NBC was
shocked and Darryl decided to drop the charges: A half-billion of African-
Americans saw this as he was a motivational speaker to stand up for him and
other black television stars. NBC, which ordered one more season, aired its final
season on September 3, 1971 until May 29, 1972, with a total of 28 episodes.
Darryl left the series after appeared in exactly 9 episodes, which none of the cast
members appeared in the fifth season premiere, but in the tenth season, he left
the series completely, and his title card was removed, and Darryl had NBC
remove the theme song as well, the series aired for 28 episodes, and African-
American audience members left the series and never returned, this of course
make NBC canceled the series, and African-American activists stormed into the
set were the series was taped, they burn and destroyed the entire set, the show
left 17 episodes not aired on NBC, but in syndication.