Atlanta’s George Wallace on ‘Clean Slate’ and the changing TV landscape

Aware of all the reboots of classic television shows that had taken place lately, Wallace had the idea to bring back the sitcom “Sanford and Son,” which ran from 1972 to ‘78. He and collaborator Dan Ewen approached “Sanford” creator Lear, who suggested the two give it some sort of twist.

At the time, “Orange is the New Black” was a hugely popular series, Wallace remembers. “People were certainly talking about Laverne Cox,” he says. “I didn’t know who she was but was hearing a lot about her. I wanted to meet and know her. I began thinking — what if I had a son that left the South and who went up North to do his thing and be who he wanted to be, then comes home.”

Credit: Getty Images

Credit: Getty Images

When the team approached Cox, she quickly came aboard as a co-star and co-executive producer. The series also stars Telma Hopkins as Ella, a neighbor and the mother of Desiree’s childhood best friend.

Wallace calls the main character of Harry stubborn and old-fashioned. “He’s the worst person to live with,” Wallace says. “He’s set in his ways but willing to learn forgiveness and realize he needs to make a change, too, and listen and learn.”

The series has been seven years in the making, and none of the cast and crew knew it would land at such a perilous time for transgender individuals in the country. “I think it’s great timing because we can talk about it,” Wallace says. “The anti-trans legislature that is going on in America with the government — this is a vehicle that people can relate to worldwide. That is why we are streaming in 240 countries and territories, and the show has been translated to every language. We are getting a very strong message out there. Love and happiness are what we need.”

Growing up in Atlanta, he remembers having to ride in the back of a bus. “I had the experience of segregation and discriminatory practices. I don’t like it. I don’t care who it’s against. If you deprive someone of their privileges, that is not right.”

Credit: CONTRIBUTED/GEORGE

Credit: CONTRIBUTED/GEORGE

Wallace is full of admiration for the late Lear, who made landmark series in the ‘90s. “He worked on controversial moments, things you are not comfortable with. It started with “All in the Family’s” Archie Bunker, this bigot, but we wind up laughing. That is the winning formula, and it’s the same thing with “The Jeffersons” and “Good Times.” That was always his eye. When I came up with this idea, I knew he was the right person to make this happen.”

Yet times have changed since the ‘70s. While he was doing comedy on the West Coast, Wallace wrote for “The Redd Foxx Show.” During that period, everyone in writing rooms was white. “White people were writing scripts on how Black people should live,” he says. “I never liked that. In “Good Times,” the walls were dirty and sometimes the pots were burned. I don’t live like that, but that is White people’s way of thinking. “Clean Slate’s” writing room “has everybody — trans and gay and bi and Black, young and old and hip-hoppers in that room, and these are people of today in the know.”

Wallace left Atlanta for the University of Akron in 1965 to pursue a degree in transportation. All the comedians he knew were broke so he realized he needed an education to make money. He lived in Chicago working in radio and in New York in advertising, getting his feet wet in the comedy arena, before moving to California. Yet he has always been back and forth here and officially moved back after COVID.

As an actor, he has been seen in “Batman Forever,” “The Ladykillers” and “The Wash,” and Wallace was voted Best Male Standup Comedian during the 1995 American Comedy Awards.

The most significant change in the industry he’s seen has been with social media and how comedians market themselves. Yet Wallace, 72, is still active. When he started comedy there were three networks — ABC, CBS and NBC. Getting on “The Tonight Show” was the pinnacle of a comedian’s career, and the night after Wallace made it on, he found himself in front of 17,000 people opening for Natalie Cole.

“That is how powerful ‘The Tonight Show’ was. Now these kids don’t give a damn about going on there; they make their own television and have 100 million followers. Some of the older (comics) don’t like that they did not do their time like we did, going in the clubs, doing the hard work. I wish I could have done that back in my day, but I like working with them. I am still competing with them. This old man is still getting on stage.”

ON TV

“Clean Slate”

All episodes are available for streaming on Prime Video.

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Jim Farmer is the recipient of the 2022 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award for Best Theatre Feature and a nominee for Online Journalist of the Year. A member of five national critics’ organizations, he covers theater and film for ArtsATL. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he has written about the arts for 30-plus years. Jim is the festival director of Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival, and lives in Avondale Estates with his husband, Craig.

Credit: ArtsATL

Credit: ArtsATL

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