A Cosby for Our Time?

In a past life, Damon Wayans has been a bum carrying a large jar with an unappealing-looking pickle preserved in a murky fluid.

He has been a flamboyant gay critic giving “two snaps up to movies, TV shows and ‘mens.’ ”

He has been a militant clown beating unsuspecting kids over the head with a weighted sock.

And he has been an uptight TV executive whose creation of a prime-time minstrel show leads to tragedy.

Wayans has now taken on probably the most unlikely role of his career: He has become Bill Cosby.

Well, not quite.

In appearance and attitude, Wayans remains the mischievously sharp comic whose off-the-wall characters on “In Living Color” were among the highlights of the outrageous sketch comedy series. He still has the gleam in his eye that distinguishes his adult-flavored stand-up routines. And he still has the shaved head and muscular build seen in films such as “Bamboozled” (2000), his superhero romp “Blankman” (1994) and “The Last Boy Scout” (1991).

As the fun-loving but discipline-minded father in ABC’s family sitcom “My Wife and Kids,” Wayans won’t be found wearing collegiate sweaters and dispensing advice in the laid-back way Cosby did in the groundbreaking “The Cosby Show,” a series that single-handedly resurrected the family sitcom in the 1980s as it became a ratings and cultural phenomenon.

But in other ways, Wayans is being compared to Cosby, while “My Wife and Kids” is being compared to “The Cosby Show.” Like his predecessor, Wayans is the primary creative force and voice behind the family series, now in its second season after premiering last March. And like “The Cosby Show,” “My Wife and Kids” is a mostly housebound series in which the father is so successful in his job that he gets to hang around the house--a lot.

“Of course, no one has done this kind of show as well as Cosby, but we did look at the Cosby blueprint,” Wayans said early this month as he relaxed during lunch at an Italian restaurant in Burbank, only a few miles from the Walt Disney Studios where “My Wife and Kids” tapes.

“We neutralize race,” he adds. “When we were putting it together, we thought of what Cosby did right. He was smart on his show; the kids couldn’t pull things over on him. The stories have a definite universality, and the main theme is ‘I’m not your friend. I’m your dad, and I’ll be your dad until I die.’ It’s about a father being a disciplinarian.”

“My Wife and Kids” stars Wayans as Michael Kyle, the owner of a successful delivery truck company. His wife, Janet (Tisha Campbell-Martin), is a part-time stockbroker. He has three children: 16-year-old Jr. Kyle (George O. Gore II), 15-year-old Claire (Jennifer Nicole Freeman) and 5-year-old Kady (Parker McKenna Posey).

The series has become a solid hit for ABC and is one of the comedic bright spots for the network this season after the failure of “Bob Patterson,” which starred Jason Alexander, and the struggling fortunes of “Dharma & Greg” and “The Drew Carey Show.” “My Wife and Kids” is winning its 8 p.m. Wednesday time slot and averaging a weekly audience of nearly 12 million viewers.

Network executives are crediting the show with revitalizing ABC’s tradition of family comedies, which has fallen on hard times in the past few years, leading the network to abandon its once-powerful youth-oriented TGIF comedies.

Even more significantly, “My Wife and Kids” has become the first major-network family sitcom revolving around an African American comedian since “The Cosby Show” to achieve wide popularity with white audiences. It is also the first black family sitcom to succeed on one of the major networks since NBC’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” went off the air in 1996.

Several other series about black families have been popular with ethnic audiences, but the lack of crossover appeal hurt them, with executives reasoning that advertisers want to reach the widest possible audience. “The Hughleys,” starring comedian D.L. Hughley as a successful business owner moving to a white suburb with his family, came the closest but lasted only two seasons on ABC before getting the boot because of lackluster ratings. (The series moved in 2000 to UPN, where it is one of the network’s anchor comedies.)

Other past series in the African American family genre include “The Parent ‘Hood” with Robert Townsend and “Me and the Boys,” starring Steve Harvey as a single father raising three sons. The jury is still out on Fox’s “The Bernie Mac Show,” although the comedy drew critical acclaim and high ratings in initial airings.

“The Hughleys” focused on the culture clash involved with Hughley’s character adjusting to his white neighbors and suburban lifestyle. But key to the success of “My Wife and Kids” and its connection to its viewers, say Wayans and others associated with the comedy, is that the stories and humor have virtually nothing to do with race. Like “The Cosby Show,” the plots revolve around universal family dilemmas that pit children and teens against their parents.

Neema Barnett, a visiting professor of film at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, said: “There is a clear similarity. Both [shows] are about slices of life that everyone can relate to. They give the American public the chance to see black people just as people.”

Barnett, who directed episodes of “The Cosby Show,” added, “There’s also decoding and recoding going on with both of these shows. They are decoding racial stereotypes by presenting a different image. The recoding then occurs into a new image that is more real for blacks and others.”

Wayans on one hand embraces the Cosby comparison: “I guess it means we are successful. If we weren’t, they’d be calling us ‘The Hughleys.”’

He erupts into a laugh. In another moment, he notes that he is a fan of Hughley and his show.

Earlier this year, some within the industry were saying that “My Wife and Kids” was basically “The Hughleys” without Hughley. And Hughley in July blasted ABC for yanking his show and putting on a comedy he felt was very similar to his. But the two shows this season have grown more separate and distinctive in tone.

Although flattered, Wayans has some discomfort with the comparison to the veteran Cosby. He seems a bit uncomfortable that even as he attempts to neutralize race in his series, the subject still pops up.

“It’s an indication to how conditioned to racism we really are,” he says. “‘Cosby’ is just a point of reference.”

Campbell-Martin, best known for playing Martin Lawrence’s significant other on the sitcom “Martin,” says she is not surprised that the comedy has struck a chord with a range of audiences.

“We don’t focus on black or white,” she says. “Damon works so hard at delivering lessons without hitting people over the head.”

In developing the pilot for the series, Wayans says, he paid close attention to the pilots for “The Cosby Show” and “Roseanne” for inspiration.

Even more important to his vision was bringing back the concept of positive fathers to television.

“In the last several years, I’ve seen these TV fathers like Homer Simpson or Al Bundy--dumb guys who the kids were always trying to fool,” he said. “But I grew up with a great father. I think I’m a great father. I wanted to bring great dads back to television. Fathers are very critical to how children view the world.”

The emphasis on “My Wife and Kids” has been mostly on intimate family stories, such as Michael allowing the kids to go without rules for a week to show them they do need rules. A future episode will deal with the family trying to get out of the house in 30 minutes to be on time for an event--a goal that, naturally, proves impossible. Another episode will examine Michael’s inclination to veg out in front of the TV with a remote control and do nothing, much to Janet’s exasperation.

The Kyles obviously live in an upper-middle-class neighborhood, but no neighbors have shown up. The series rarely gets out of the house. Wayans said the focus on family dynamics will expand out of the residence next season.

One clear departure from other family sitcoms is the series’ take on sexuality. “My Wife and Kids” is a family comedy with a libido. Some of the more racy humor could be called “In Living Color” lite. Wayans, after all, is from a family that came up with the raunchy horror spoof “Scary Movie.”

The pointed humor has made some network and studio executives more than a little nervous and has resulted in clashes that are delicately referred to as “spirited.”

One episode last season involved Jr.’s obsession with self-gratification, spending hours in the bathroom with lingerie catalogs. At one point he painfully pronounces to his family, “I think I broke it.”

This season found the elder Michael taking Viagra to get aroused for a bedroom romp with Janet, who had gained several pounds during a two-month visit with her mother. (The story line was written to accommodate Campbell-Martin’s weight gain during her pregnancy.)

In another episode this season, Michael and Janet are so loud during their lovemaking that Kady calls the police, thinking her mother is being hurt. Her father explains that he and her mother were playing the “roller-coaster game.” Kady asks if she threw up afterward. “No, but she did ride it backwards,” Michael replies.

Definitely not Cosby territory. And not exactly the kind of content normally associated with Walt Disney. (The series is produced by Touchstone Television, the TV studio unit of Disney Studios.)

“I’d like to do a show in two years where my son gets a girl pregnant,” Wayans says. “This show is about real life and real situations. The show is called ‘My Wife and Kids.’ My wife comes first, and these are two people who are [making love]. I need to do a series from the adult point of view. I don’t want to do a TGIF show where I’m teaching lessons to kids each week. That would be boring.”

Says co-executive producer Eric L. Gold: “ABC loves us. But they’re scared of us. But they love us.”

Stu Bloomberg, co-chairman of the ABC Entertainment Television Group, acknowledges that some of the mature and more sexual content of the series has been an issue.

“I have to be honest, it is a fine line to walk,” Bloomberg says. “On one hand, I really like the fact that this couple are not only great parents, but they’re hot for each other. You rarely see that in a family show, and it speaks to a truth that parents can relate to.

“The challenge is to find a balance where parents feel comfortable watching the show with their kids. I want to be respectful of Damon’s vision, but I also want to be a responsible broadcaster. It’s tough when shows like this and [NBC’s] ‘Friends’ are available to kids at 8 p.m.”

Don Reo, another executive producer on the series and co-creator of “My Wife and Kids,” says the series’ sexual content has resulted in “lively discussions about what’s funny and what’s tasteful, where the line is.”

Resolution of the creative conflicts has grown less contentious, Reo says.

“The bottom line, we have one of the funniest men in the world on this show, and we have to let him be funny,” he says. “We used to get a lot of notes on every draft. But the landscape of television has changed. We tell the network to let us do our thing and then cut the show together, and if there is a disagreement, then we can have a discussion about it.”

Wayans, the father of four children ranging from 11 to 19, feels there is too much sensitivity about children watching sexual material on television.

“Children are living in a different kind of reality now,” Wayans says. “When I was growing up, the most adult you could get was the Cross Your Heart bra. Now they can get porno on the Internet. Kids already know this stuff, and parents need to talk to them according to their age. And sexuality is important. I’m 41, and sexuality is important to who I am.”

On the set of “My Wife and Kids,” Wayans is clearly the guiding force and bottom line. He will sit down with writers during rehearsal days and help refine scripts. Cast members and others contribute story ideas, but the series is still basically his vision.

It’s also a family affair. Nineteen-year-old Damon Jr. is his father’s assistant. Nephew Craig Wayans is executive story editor. Sister Kim Wayans, a featured performer on “In Living Color,” has just joined the series as story editor. Fourteen-year-old daughter Cara has a recurring role as a friend of Claire.

“I’m quite content now,” he says, reflecting on his last two TV ventures, which were less than satisfying.

In 1998, Wayans starred in Fox’s “Damon,” in which he and “In Living Color” co-star David Alan Grier played policemen. It was an instant flop. He was also executive producer of a 1997 Fox drama “413 Hope St.,” about a youth crisis center in New York. The drama was yanked after a few weeks of low ratings.

Wayans calls “Damon” “a bad idea poorly executed.” And “413 Hope St.” was not given enough of a chance by Fox to find its audience: “It’s the one project I really feel cheated on. I really believed in that show.”

His emergence as one of television’s most prominent family figures has come at a time when his own personal life is at a crossroads.

Just as “My Wife and Kids,” with its portrait of a loving, happy family, was being developed, his 16-year marriage to wife Lisa fell apart. He is now single and not in a hurry to get involved in a new relationship: “I need to rediscover me, my likes and dislikes. And I want to be totally available for my children.”

Still, he is aware of the irony of his private and personal life.

“I was talking to Keenen [brother Keenen Ivory Wayans, creator of ‘In Living Color’] the other day, and he was saying I needed to explore my marriage more,” Wayans said. “It still hurts; it’s still painful. But the key to dealing with it and the show is to relive the beauty of marriage. I’m selling hope to love and marriage. I refuse to be bitter about it. Doing the show is therapeutic.”

Asked how close his TV marriage is to his real marriage, Wayans quips, “Well, I haven’t gotten any calls from her lawyer, so I guess we’re doing OK.” *

“My Wife and Kids” airs Wednesday nights at 8 on ABC. The network has rated it TV-PG (parental guidance suggested).