Wayans Offers the Hope of Humor in ABC’s ‘Wife’

Any TV comedy starring talented farceur Damon Wayans has promise. So there’s hope, at least, for “My Wife and Kids,” the humdrum new ABC series with Wayans as role-reversing Michael Williams, a stay-at-home dad who tends to the kids while his stockbroker wife, Janet (Tisha Campbell-Martin), tends her career.

Michael has a successful business that he ignores in the first two episodes. Go figure. Running gags here--rarely funny--are that he is out of step not only with his wife, wanting her to return to the home front full time, but also with two of their three kids, 12-year-old Claire (Jazz Raycole) and teenager Jr. Kyle (George O. Gore II). He tells Janet he needs “a wife, not a roommate” and is baffled by Jr. Kyle’s zest for gangsta rap.

The premiere offers an occasional hearty laugh, as when Michael encourages Jr. Kyle to develop his artistic skill, suggesting, “You might even want to reconsider your dream.” Jr. Kyle: “You mean from workin’ at Foot Locker?”

Even this, though, has a formulaic familiarity, with Wayans playing a sort of a Cosby type (next week he takes Claire shopping for bras) instead of exploiting his own gift for physical comedy.