By RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com, filed January 12, 2011
BET is well aware that TBS has become home to three successful sitcoms targeting African Americans: "Tyler Perry's House of Payne," "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns" and "Are We There Yet?" All are family comedies.
While BET airs plenty of repeats of past shows such as "One on One" and "The Bernie Mac Show," it has yet to invest the monies into original scripted comedy - until now. And it's focusing on "relationships" comedy with its one-two combo of the return of "The Game" and its new sitcom "Let's Stay Together."
"It's nice to see the return of the black adult relationships comedy," said Nadine Ellis, who plays Stacy, a pediatrician engaged to a self-employed contractor, played by Bert Belasco. "We don't see that too often on TV nowadays."
Shot at Turner Studios last summer, the show features no major stars, though Queen Latifah is an executive producer and Kim Fields ("Living Single," "The Facts of Life") directed three episodes. BET will air 13 episodes for the first season.
The show is based in Atlanta and focuses on two upwardly mobile couples, one engaged and one married, plus a single woman whose brother is about to get married. The story arc season one will focus on Charles and Stacy's road to matrimony.
"We're concentrating on establishing the relationships," said executive producer Jacque Edmonds Cofer, who produced past hit shows such as "Living Single," "Moesha" and "Martin."
"I'm on a 'man-cation,' " said Erica Hubbard of her character, a 23-year-old fashionista single gal who works at the DMV. But she has no trouble getting into the business of the other two couples.
RonReaco Lee, who grew up in Stone Mountain and had parts on "I'll Fly Away" and "In the Heat of the Night" as a youth, plays a Legal Aid attorney and is married to Tasha (Joyful Drake), a housewife with young twins. She wishes he'd take on a higher-paying legal job.
TV PREVIEW
"Let's Stay Together" debuts Jan. 11 on BET at 11 p.m. It will air regularly starting Tuesday, Jan. 18 at 10:30 p.m.
Join my Facebook fan page and Twitter.
By Rodney Ho, rho@ajc.com, AJCRadioTV blog
About the Author
