A Beloved Tyler Perry Movie Is on TV Tonight

Tyler Perry‘s Meet the Browns airs on BET Monday night at 8 p.m. ET. The movie was originally released in 2008 and was inspired by Perry’s play of the same name. Perry also created and produced a 2009-2011 TBS series titled Meet the Browns, although that has a different plot from the play and movie.

BET is also airing the film on Thursday, March 25 at 5 p.m. ET and Friday, March 26 at 1 p.m. ET. Although the movie is only 101 minutes, it airs in a three-hour block on the cable network due to commercials. The movie is available on the free streaming platform Tubi. You can also watch it on Amazon Prime Video with an Amazon Prime subscription. Many of Perry’s other movies are available on Prime Video with a Prime subscription, including Nobody’s Fool, Just Wright, A Madea Family Funeral, For Colored Girls, and I Can Do Bad All By Myself.

Meet the Browns tells the story of a single mother, Brenda Brown-Davis (Angela Bassett), who takes her family to Georgia for her father’s funeral. There, she meets the Brown family and falls in love with Harry Belton (Rick Fox). The rest of the ensemble cast includes Lance Gross, David Mann, Sofia Vergara, Margaret Avery, Frankie Faison, Tamela Mann. Perry also makes a cameo appearance as his Mabel “Madea” Simmons character.

Although Perry’s work is not often recognized during awards season, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced in January that he was chosen to receive the 2021 Jean Hershold Humanitarian Award. In an unprecedented move, a second humanitarian award will be presented to the Motion Picture & Television Fund. Both awards will be presented during the Oscars broadcast on ABC on April 25, since the Governors Awards ceremony was canceled in November.

“There has been such widespread generosity in our industry that limiting the Hersholt Humanitarian Award to one recipient, this year in particular, was impossible. So, we are breaking with tradition and giving two awards to honor that spirit,” Academy President David Rubin said in a statement in January. “Tyler’s cultural influence extends far beyond his work as a filmmaker. He has quietly and steadily focused on humanitarian and social justice causes from the beginning of his career, caring for people who are most often ignored. The work of the MPTF is more vital than ever, and the organization has gone above and beyond to help our community. The sheer number of individuals and families—from every corner of our industry’s workforce—aided during the pandemic and over the last 100 years is nothing short of extraordinary.”

Perry is one of the most prolific writers and directors in Hollywood history. His most recent film was A Fall From Grace, which featured Cecily Tyson’s last performance. The movie is his first to be released by Netflix.