Enjoying life in ‘The Big House’
Through the doors of “The Big House” (ABC, premiering at 8:30 tonight) walks Kevin Hart, a rich kid from Malibu who moves in with poorer relations in Philadelphia after his father is jailed for embezzlement. He must learn to get along with less, in the company of more. From this inauspicious premise -- no more original for being, as Hart has described it, “kinda autobiographical” -- something not bad emerges, in large part because the talented players seem to be enjoying themselves immensely.
It’s not every day an actor gets a chance at steady work, after all, and these are asked to embarrass themselves only occasionally; most of the time they have enough to work with, and where the writing is thin, they patch it with performance. On the whole, this is a good-natured, fairly well-behaved, determinedly old-fashioned sitcom -- almost too much so at times -- one that you would not hesitate to take home to meet your parents, if they can tolerate the odd sex joke.
Though it is papa who has gone up the river -- having “disgraced his family and black people in general,” in the words of Aunt Tina Cleveland (Arnetia Walker) -- the joke implicit in the title is that Hart must serve time of his own (“ ‘Cept the warden here is a lot tougher than my father’s”).
The household, Kevin is told, is run on the “three Bs -- be honest, be humble and be-have ... or be-ware of the b-e-l-t.” And they have no cable TV (because “it’s a rip-off” -- thus does the broadcast network subtly editorialize). “If you want to watch ‘The Real World,’ you’re going to have to look out the window, boy,’ ” says Uncle Clarence (Keith David, of “Barbershop” and Broadway’s “Jelly’s Last Jam”).
Hart, who played Vic in “Along Came Polly” and is a stand-up comic, is an engaging presence who uses his 5-foot-4 stature to his advantage: He is cute no matter what he does. It is possibly not accidental that he has been surrounded by actors who dwarf and dominate him. The sharpest edges belong to cousins Eartha (Yvette Nicole Brown), who reflexively resents Kevin’s presence, and CJ (Aaron Grady), who is just happy to have someone shorter than himself to pick on.
Enormous cousin Warren (played by Faizon Love of “Elf” and TV’s “The Parent Hood”) is, by contrast, an instant conspirator, with whom Kevin shares a basement room -- albeit one with 20-foot ceilings -- furnished with a lava lamp and that picture of the poker-playing dogs. “If that window gets shut, the carbon monoxide from the water heater will kill us,” says Warren, “so I like to leave it open.”
Apart from the fact that he uses a luffa and wears a diamond-studded watch, would rather go to a basketball game than church and wishes for a little of his old privacy back, Kevin is not as spoiled or self-centered as all that. One wishes he were a little worse, in fact, given the Ward-to-Beaver life-lesson lectures that will hopefully not become a staple of the series. This is not a comedy of extremes, but one of grumpy love, set in a world in which a woman not yet 50 refers to her children’s dates as “lady and gentleman callers.”
And though Philadelphia is no Malibu, once Kevin realizes that the rules of the sitcom form guarantee him a steady string of good-looking young actresses to pant after, the sting will perhaps ease a little. (And there are of course the cheese steaks.)
Women seem to be his weak spot. In the first episode, he allows one girl to believe he lives in a fancy hotel (the classic farcical possibilities are never explored), and in the next, he fakes religious inspiration to impress another. This allows for some jokes about eternal damnation and ethics versus grace, an extended Linda Blair imitation and cousin Warren’s observation that in getting baptized, “you’re making a lifelong commitment to God -- it’s harder to get out of than a Suge Knight contract.”
*
‘The Big House’
Where: ABC
When: Premieres 8:30-9 tonight.
Rating: The network has rated the series TV-PGD (may not be suitable for young children, with an advisory for suggestive dialogue).
Kevin Hart...Kevin
Arnetia Walker...Aunt Tina
Keith David...Uncle Clarence
Faizon Love...Warren
Yvette Nicole Brown...Eartha
Aaron Grady...CJ
Creators, Stephen Engel and David Zuckerman. Executive producers, Engel, Brian Grazer, David Nevins. Director (tonight’s premiere) Barnet Kellman. Writer (tonight’s premiere), Engel.
