Marques Houston Says Iconic “Sister, Sister” Catchphrase Was Ruining His 'Mystique' as an R&B Singer
Marques Houston Says Iconic “Sister, Sister” Catchphrase Was Ruining His 'Mystique' as an R&B Singer
Angela AndaloroThu, April 9, 2026 at 9:09 PM UTC
0
Marques Houston as RogerCredit: Paramount Television/ Courtesy Everett -
Marques Houston got his start as Roger on Sister, Sister
At the same time, Houston was working on his music career as a member of Immature
Houston opened up about shifting from TV to music and dealing with his identity as Roger in an interview on Shawn Stockman's On That Note podcast
The catchphrase that put Marques Houston quickly grew to haunt him as a young man.
The singer, who played the Landry sisters' pesky next-door neighbor Roger on Sister, Sister, looks back at the catchphrase that made his character indispensable early in the series.
After the sisters grew tired of Roger's pop-ups and advances, in unison, they'd say, "Go home, Roger!" At first, Houston saw the catchphrase's popularity with viewers as an opportunity.
"It just took off. So I was like, 'Yes, Urkel time,' " Houston told Shawn Stockman on the On That Note podcast, referring to how Jaleel White's Urkel went from a secondary character to beloved fixture on Family Matters.
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Houston explained that while he was "into it" at first, his feelings about the catchphrase changed when his R&B group, Immature, started coming up.
Advertisement
"My Urkel moment, I didn't really want it as much because I was like, now I'm a teenager. When I was like 14, 15, I was like, 'I don't want to be a nerd no more.' So I talked to the producers, and they were like, 'Okay, maybe we can try to make the character a little cooler,' " he shared.
"Stuff like that didn't really work, so I ended up leaving the show because I felt like what I wanted was to be Boyz II Men. And in my mind, I'm like, that's what I want. I want that global superstardom, that Michael Jackson, Boyz II Men, that's what I want to be."
Houston admits, "I felt like Roger was kind of holding me back from being that, because like we talk about mystique. I was losing the mystique because people could see me on TV being goofy. So all of the things we were working so hard for with Immature, I felt like I was just kind of throwing it out the window with being on television."
The singer ultimately ended up pursuing a solo music career. Several years later, after he finished his sixth solo album, Famous, in 2012, Houston rejoined Immature to tour with the group in 2014.
Houston also continued to act, appearing on UPN's One on One and then starring in the spinoff series Cuts, which aired for two seasons from 2005 to 2006. He also did films, with work in You Got Served, Fat Albert and the horror films Somebody Help Me and Somebody Help Me 2.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
