Note: The following story contains spoilers from the “Poppa’s House” series premiere.
There’s no getting around the fact that the Wayans family is one of the most hardworking in Hollywood. But what may be more surprising is the level of industry honesty that’s baked into Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr.’s upcoming CBS sitcom, “Poppa’s House.”
It’s the pilot of “Poppa’s House” that includes a lesson that has become vital to the elder Wayans’ life. The first episode revolves around Damon (Wayans Jr.) quitting his stable but soul-crushing job to pursue his dream as a director. During the episode’s emotional crux, Poppa (Wayans) sits his son down and has a frank heart-to-heart, telling him that he has to take care of his family first. Then he can pursue his dreams. That was inspired by a life lesson Wayans learned the hard way.
“I used to work at Paramount Pictures in 1984 or 1985, and I was in the movie ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ and the movie was huge. People would want me to act like the character I was in the movie, but I’m delivering them their mail. It was giving me anxiety,” Wayans, the series’ star and executive producer, told TheWrap at the Television Critics Association’s summer tour.
Fed up, Wayans quit his job delivering mail at Paramount, leaving him without income. That’s when his life quickly spiraled. “[Wayans Jr.’s] mother was pregnant with my second son. He was wearing my T-shirts as diapers. One night, we all had a breakdown — she’s crying, he’s crying, I started crying. I took a walk. And I promised God on that walk I’ll never put my family back in that kind of situation,” Wayans said. “The next day, I went back and begged for my job.”
It’s this push-and-pull between wanting to pursue dreams and the hard reality of needing a paycheck that often stands at the center of “Poppa’s House,” a family sitcom that comfortably feels seasons old after its first 10 minutes. That familiarity comes down to the relationship between this father-son duo.
“The chemistry is very helpful. That’s something that you can’t write,” Wayans said. “We have this comedic relationship from all these years as well as the father-son dynamic.”
“When we’re around each other, that’s all we do. It’s to the point where it irritates my wife. She’s like, ‘Guys, go in the other room,’” Wayans Jr., who also serves as a producer, told TheWrap. “We just laugh, and we just try and make each other laugh, and I feel like we bring that into these characters. Even though they’re different from who we are, also pieces of them are us.”
According to Dean Lorey, the showrunner and executive producer, the relationship between Poppa and Damon came “fully formed” thanks to Wayans and Wayans Jr.
“To me, it was just a question of honoring their real life and their way with each other. You almost have to clear things out of their path and let them be themselves because that’s the fun of the show,” Lorey told TheWrap.
The dynamic between this parent and child was so crucial to “Poppa’s House,” it actually changed the entire framework of the series. Originally, Poppa was supposed to record his radio show in a studio as he battled it out with his new co-host, Ivy (Essence Atkins). In that version, Poppa would periodically return home to deal with the daily turmoil of family life. But in an effort to bring Wayans and Wayans Jr. together more often, the pilot ends with Poppa leaving his radio show and opting to record a new podcast at home.
“We like the idea of getting the two of them together as much as we can, so it was just working backwards from that,” Lorey said. “You can immediately feel where to go with a scene or where to go with an episode just by the two of them playing together. That really formed it.”
Working together has allowed these two to better appreciate and learn from the other’s acting chops. “As an actor, [Wayans Jr.] is super playful. I’m not as playful. I’m an instigator of comedy. Like I’ll hit somebody in the head with a sock,” Wayans said. “He has better behavioral funny things than I have. I sit and watch and go, ‘OK, I can react to that,’ or ‘I wish I could do that.’”
“Everything that has made me who I am comedically has come from me observing this man. So I can’t really pinpoint exactly what it is, but I know that he’s always firing on all cylinders when it comes to comedy,” Wayans Jr. said. “Even if he’s not in the mood to do it, he still speaks comedy, whereas I have to get in the mood.”
It’s also this close relationship that made it possible for the series to even extend past its first episode. Before the cast and crew shot the pilot for CBS, Wayans’ father Howell Stouten Wayans died.
“We buried him that weekend, and then we shot the show the next week. If we didn’t have that chemistry — because we both were in a fog. But when I looked him in his eye, I was able to focus. I think I did the same thing for him,” Wayans said. “It was a very, very tough time, so I can only imagine what our show will be like without that cloud over our head.”
New episodes of “Poppa’s House” premiere Mondays at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and stream the next day on Paramount+.
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