*”The Carmichael Show” starring Loretta Devine, David Alan Grier and rising stars Jerrod Carmichael and Amber Stevens West debuts August 26 on NBC. The comedy chronicles Jerrod’s relationships with his outspoken father, his therapist-in-training girlfriend and his Jesus-loving mother.
The comedy is inspired by Jerrod’s life, and Grier and Divine’s characters (Cynthia and Joe) are based on his parents. In advance of the premiere, we caught up with David and Loretta on set to discuss the new series, where David described their characters as, “Old-school Black people – stuck in this world. It’s minefield out there and we’re trying change.”
Loretta: This is a lower-middle class family. The husband’s a truck driver. The wife is a stay at home mom most of her life, she raised the family. She’s a church-goer and volunteer in the community, but everything has been centered-around her two boys and taking care of her husband. He’s pampered. He’s over-loved. He’s the king of the house – a strong Black man. He makes the final decisions on everything and she runs around all day to make sure he’s happy.
Loretta, where do the similarities and differences end and begin with Cynthia and your real life persona?
Loretta: She’s not me but she’s very exciting and creative to play. It’s all in the writing for me. They’ve created a wonderful woman and I got a chance to meet Jerrod’s mom, and she’s very religious, truthfully. These are images from his life so this is just a challenge and a character that I’m enjoying. I think about her a lot as Edith Bunker – in that strong love for her husband and just running around doing everything and putting everyone else first. Luckily my character has a much bigger mouth than she had. She has a lot more to say and I think that’s because she’s a Black woman and we do talk a lot.
From what we’ve seen so far, the series delves into some emotionally charging topics such as politics, racism and homosexuality. Is the goal to incite social commentary among viewers?
David: One of the concepts in talking to Jerrod is, he’s a big fan of Norman Lear. In (his show) “All In The Family” they talked about real stuff that’s going on now. I remember a review of “Blackish” and it was almost with relief, ‘Oh, thank God it’s not about race.’ As people of color, we don’t talk about it all day and all night, but it’s talk about. It’s talked about in funny, poignant, serious, religious and social terms. So I think (Jerrod) wanted to embrace that. We only have six shows so we’re hitting it like we don’t have a tomorrow. But I think in terms of a longer run, no it won’t be ‘this week there’s a new social issue.’ But I think he wants to let you know the tone of show and where we’re coming from and we’re not afraid to talk about these things in a funny, creative and hopefully inventive way.
Loretta: You have the older generations opinion, and the younger generations opinion, which is so contemporary. Everything is done with a lot of love. It’s like a family that’s surviving in the middle of all the cultural differences and how they’re handling it. Jerrod uses confrontation as a way to make everything topical. He makes his family talk about these issues because that’s the way he moves through life.
How would you like to see Black television evolve?
David: A healthy Black television world is one in which, there’s not one. So we won’t have to have a conversation of ‘Why are you doing this show that you’re doing about Black people, cause I’m not represented. I don’t like it. You’re doing to much of this and not concentrating enough on this.’ If there’s a choice and a variety we don’t have to have those conversations. I just want, as an actor and viewer, to see the world represented that I live in.
Check out “The Carmichael Show” preview clip below:
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