413 Hope St. was an American drama series that ran on Fox from 1997 to 1998. It was created by Damon Wayans and starred Richard Roundtree, Shari Headley, Michael Easton, Kelly Coffield, Steve Berranote and Jesse L. Martin in his first starring television role.
The plot of the series was the self-titled building was a crisis center for at-risk youth that was run by an executive director and a former ruthless businessman named Phil Thomas (Roundtree) and his dedicated staff. In addition to their daily interactions with the children and each other, Thomas and his wife are dealing with their declining marriage due largely in part to the murder of their son years earlier, who was killed by thugs who robbed him of his sneakers. His wish to preserve his son's memory and to help other kids from making the same choices as his killers gives him further resolve to keep the center afloat.
This series has the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Many of the students have these and in varying degrees. Easily the worst was Quentin's abusive deceased father who went as far as to give him AIDS.
- Awful Wedded Life: Mr. Thomas and his wife deal with this due to their grief over their loss. Sadly, they eventually divorce.
- Forgiveness:
- Although outraged and angered upon learning that Hakim was the one who killed his son over his pair of sneakers, Mr. Thomas eventually forgave him. His wife couldn't, which had a hand in their divorce.
- After being estranged from her, Quentin forgave his mother for allowing his father's abuse.
- Grief-Induced Split: Mr. Thomas's son was murdered for his sneakers years prior to the series taking place, a tragedy that leads to difficulties in and the eventual end of Mr. Thomas and his wife's marriage.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: One episode had a man date-rape one of the regular students at the center. Because he wore a condom and some other Slut-Shaming, he got away with it. However shortly afterwards, as he's about to set up another girl to rape, he chokes to death on some food he was eating at the time.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Mr. Thomas and his wife lost their son to murder in a robbery of his sneakers. He then inadvertently befriends one of his killers and being guilt-ridden over his actions, confesses this to him after he invited him over to dinner.
- Save Our Students: The premise of the series, but namely the motives of the idealistic Ms. Harris. Even as Mr. Thomas is dedicated to the center, he still has a more practical approach to the students in general.
- Tragic Aids Story: Quentin had contracted AIDS from his late, abusive father.
- Useless Bystander Parent: Quentin's mother, who herself was abused by her husband, stood by and allowed him to be abused by his father.
