Politically Incorect

Controversy is not usually the aim of comedy series, but Tim Reid hopes his new Showtime series, “Linc’s,” stirs some up.

The character-driven series, which premieres Saturday on the cable network, is set in an African American bar and grill in Washington, D.C.

“I think we are certainly politically incorrect,” says executive producer Reid of the series he created with executive producer Susan Fales-Hill (“A Different World”).

“I think we have offended every known race” with the new series, says Reid, who currently stars in the WB sitcom “Sister, Sister.” He adds: “‘I can’t wait to see our hate mail--from the NAACP to the Ku Klux Klan.”

Echoes Steven Williams, who plays Russell A. Lincoln a.k.a. Linc, the conservative Republican owner of Linc’s: “If we don’t get this kind of mail we are going to think that we failed. ‘Seinfeld’ managed to offend everybody in nine seasons. We are trying to do it in one.”

“Linc’s,” Williams explains, is about “different political views coming from a diverse group of people. Some of these views may or may not be the popular view, but the view does exist, and we are going to put that view out there. Each week, we address some sort of topical issue. We have addressed, so far, school vouchers and affirmative action.”

Besides Williams (Mr. X on “The X-Files”), “Linc’s” stars Pam Grier as Eleanor, a children’s rights activist with a faltering marriage. Eleanor also serves as the liberal counterpoint to Linc’s conservative views.

Georg Stanford Brown plays a D.C. lobbyist who has more than questionable ethics. Tisha Campbell is Linc’s daughter. Reid’s wife, Daphne Maxwell-Reid, is the neighborhood prostitute, and Joe Inscoe plays the white chief of staff for an elderly incumbent senator.

Reid first came up with the concept of the series some six years ago. But the networks turned a cold shoulder. “The networks were not really open to me,” he says. “They were afraid I was going to bring them a dramedy.”

So he decided to take the show to cable. “I could say some things [in the series] and I wouldn’t be worried about a network or a sponsor,” he says. Reid went to HBO but, he says, the cable network was more interested in a traditional sitcom. Showtime was his next stop.

“For three years I tried to convince them to make it,” Reid explains. “They were, like, ‘We like the concept.’ But I had to find someone who would partner with me. I wanted to work with Susan Fales-Hill and she became available. She got [the concept] immediately and it began to take shape.”

Fresh off her comeback in “Jackie Brown,” Grier chose to do “Linc’s” because she admired Reid and Fales-Hill. She also had worked with Reid in the late ‘80s on the acclaimed CBS dramedy “Frank’s Place.”

“They gave me the script and I was just so overwhelmed that they would even consider me,” Grier says. “How can I turn this down? Here is a new medium for me to challenge myself. I just had to jump on it.”

The actress, who starred in such ‘70s classics as “Coffy” and “Foxy Brown,” feels a a real kinship to Eleanor.

“I was a part of the women’s movement [from the beginning]. I understand where women have gone and where women are today and how much their viewpoint is needed. [Eleanor] understands that, so she is able to play in the boy’s camp.”

Williams, who has know Reid for nearly 30 years, was excited to sign on because it was an “all-NAAD project.”

‘When I say ‘NAAD,’ that’s my new term for me, Steven Williams. I’m a Native American of African descent. [‘Linc’s’] is an opportunity to do a project that shows us in a regular light--United States of American citizens, minus all the stereotypical kind of things that have been done in the past and continue to be done.”

Reid says he wanted to do a series that exploded the “myth of this sort of monolithic black culture. Everyone sees black people as one thing--liberal, democratic. We all think the same thing. As a matter of fact, I have found black people to be more conservative than whites.”

Reid traveled to Washington to get a feel for the neighborhoods and discovered a watering hole that resembled Linc’s. “It’s almost as if it is exactly where this bar would be. I took pictures of it and of the people around it. I said, ‘What kind of people would live here? What kind of people could come here?’ It all began to take shape.”

“Linc’s” is the first TV series to be shot at Reid’s New Millennium Studios in Petersburg, Va. “I co-founded the studios with my wife. This month marks our first-year [anniversary]. I really wanted an opportunity to create entertainment from my point of view, control my costs and to get back into television.”

Reid chose not to star in the series (he does have a cameo in the one-hour premiere) because of his “Sister, Sister” gig. He also didn’t want “Linc’s” to become a vanity project. “I didn’t want to take from it. I wanted to be a full-fledged producer.”

But Reid has a strong presence in the series. Linc, he says, is “probably my voice in the show. I think that Pam is probably Susan’s voice in the show. It gives us a real interesting point of view.”

Though the cast is primarily African American, Reid hopes “Linc’s” will have broad appeal. “It’s probably one of the first series that will be equally appealing, but still maintain its cultural position because it is not really a show that you can define as a ‘kind’ of a show. It is really more the city of Washington we are reflecting. It is not just a black bar.”

“Linc’s” premieres Saturday at 10:05 p.m. on Showtime.