The Wayans family’s comedic legacy continues with a new sitcom. Poppa’s House on CBS, featuring Damon Wayans, Sr. and Damon Wayans Jr., that sees art imitating life in several ways.
Previously, the father-son duo shared the screen when Damon Jr. made his television acting debut with a major recurring role in the beloved ABC sitcom, My Wife and Kids. The show, co-created and starring his father, ran for five seasons on the network from 2001 to 2005. Damon Jr. went on to star in comedies such as Happy Endings and New Girl.
Now, just a little over a decade after sharing the screen via Damon Sr.’s cameo on Happy Endings, the two share their love for laughter, family, and everything in between that brings them joy through Poppa’s House.
What is ‘Poppa’s House’ about?
According to a series’ official description, Poppa’s House, features Wayans Sr. “as legendary talk radio host and happily divorced ‘Poppa’ who has his point of view challenged at work when a new female co-hostis hired, and at home where he finds himself still parenting his adult son, a brilliant dreamer who is trying to pursue his passion while being a responsible father and husband.”
“Most of the shows we’ve done so far are based in something that really happened to myself, or to Junior, or to somebody in the writer’s room, like my family,” Damon Sr. told Blavity’s Shadow and Act ahead of the show’s premiere. “The script is just a blueprint so that we have a structure. But for the most part, it’s a trust exercise between he and I, where I know that if I say something, I’m going to set him up for a joke, and he knows how to say something to set me up for a joke, and we just build on whatever comes out of our faces.”
Why does the world need a ‘Poppa’s House’ in this day and age?
Many might consider the Wayans family as the blueprint for many of the comedy legends that exist in the world today.
They first made a household name for themselves as a unit through In Living Color, but each of the family members are funny in their own right and have built empires of their own.
Poppa’s House is just another version of their love for comedy and one another, with both Damons starring in the show and a writer’s room full of talented individuals, many of whom they call family.
“I think it came down to just what we needed, [and] what my dad and I felt was fun to do together, so we decided to do this show that is loosely based off of our lives, off people that we know, and our own relationship,” said Damon Jr. “I really hope that people relate to it, because we have a lot of storylines that are unique to us, but I feel they’re also relatable to the world [and] to families, specifically Black families. I’m excited for people to go on this journey.”
“It’s a lot of hard work, but there’s nobody I would rather work hard with than my son and my family,” said Damon Sr., echoing his son’s sentiment. “When I pull up to the gate, I check my ego and lead by example. Every problem is solvable, but it’s about having the right attitude and being willing to be wrong and willing to learn something from my son and the other people around me.”
Damon Jr. also described Poppa’s House as the story of one person starting over and the other growing up. When asked if the two have any favorite dad jokes, being that they both have children of their own, he recalls that this has never been the case for his father because he’s actually funny.”
“We don’t really do dad jokes,” Damon Jr. said. “He’s a comedian. His dad jokes are not even that, they’re just actually funny jokes.”
What is the their expectation for the show?
As both Damons return to the sitcom stage, the elder Damon wants people to give the show a shot and hope that something will land that they can learn– or simply just laugh from.
“It’s really about family…kind of like an old school family show where you sit back and laugh and shake your head like, ‘I can’t believe he said or did that,’” said Damon Sr. “We are having fun. The secret sauce with my family, what we figured out on In Living Color, [and] what Keenan figured out, is that when we’re laughing, everybody’s going to laugh. So we’re laughing.”
Poppa’s House, also starring Essence Atkins and Tetona Jackson, premieres Oct. 21 on CBS. Episodes air weekly and they also stream next day on Paramount+.
