Family Business

Poppa's House, the new CBS sitcom that stars Damon Wayans Sr. as a crotchety, old-school radio DJ still parenting his adult son (played by his spitting-image firstborn, Damon Wayans Jr.), was, according to the elder Wayans, 10 years in the making. It wasn't that Poppa's House — premiering October 21 — had languished in development hell, or that there was trouble with the script.

"After My Wife and Kids," Wayans Sr. says, speaking of the family sitcom that ran for five seasons on ABC, "I didn't know what I wanted to do. So, I took a break." His son, meanwhile, had become a comedy star in his own right, charming viewers on hit series Happy Endings and New Girl. "When I was ready to come back," Wayans Sr. says, "I had an idea to do a show with him, and his people didn't think it was smart. I had to respect that. I didn't like it, but I respected it. He basically figured out how to do it on his own. Finally, things are coming back around."

The other reason Poppa's House took so long to make it to the air was the elder Wayans's break from showbiz — the root causes of which are quietly woven into the series' conceit. Poppa, a disc jockey on a New York FM station, resists changing with the times — he favors "real" music like Bill Withers over modern-day rap — but his worldview is challenged when the bosses pair him with a scholarly female cohost, Dr. Ivy Reed (Essence Atkins, First Wives Club). Poppa reluctantly relents, setting up a will-they-won't-they dynamic.

Watch the exclusive interview with Damon Wayans Sr. and Damon Wayans Jr. during the emmy cover shoot.

As professions go, few jobs symbolize the tension between past and present like the radio DJ, a role slowly vanishing amid corporate syndication and changing listening habits. As a comic defined as much by edgy standup as by TV and film, Wayans can relate. Every week, it seems, a comedy pioneer of his generation is bemoaning what "you can't say anymore" or complaining that audiences are "too woke." Wayans Sr. hasn't said that exactly, but when he quit standup in 2015 after more than 30 years, cultural shifts were definitely part of the reason. "Honestly, I don't do standup anymore, because I just think the world is too dumb," he says, sounding very much like
Poppa. "I put a lot of passion into what I say and do, and it's not fodder for someone to take a clip out of context and try to get their social media [engagement up]."

The genesis for the show was far less heady. Years ago, Wayans Jr. (one of four, Wayans Jr. himself has six) was living in a gated community when a house across the street came up for sale. Wayans Sr. thought it would be cool to live near his son so he could see his grandkids more often. “Then, the more I thought about it,” Wayans Sr. says, “I was like, ‘Hell no!’ Because their mother would be like, ‘Go to your Poppa’s house!’ Everybody would be sending them to me. I told my agent, and he said, ‘That’s a show!’”

Onscreen, Wayans Jr. (“Damon” in Poppa’s House) is, in fact, always at Poppa’s house, seeking his dad’s counsel on issues with his wife, Nina (Tetona Jackson, Good Trouble), and kids, as well as guidance when his dream of becoming a director conflicts with his responsibilities as a father. As the 13-episode season progresses, Dr. Reed and Poppa work more closely, which brings her into the house too, creating a modern family full of clashing values. Yet underneath the comedy, much of which comes from father and son’s infectious goofiness together, there’s a slightly uncomfortable existential message that hints at what the elder Wayans is feeling at this stage of professional and personal life: Dealing with change can be tricky — perhaps even more so when the face of said change looks exactly like you, only younger.

“I think every father’s dream is to work with their son,” Wayans Sr. says. “I probably got one show left in me. By the time we finish this show — that’s seven years, God willing — that monster A.I. will be here. The whole process of making TV has changed. Everything’s changing.”

To read the rest of the story, pick up a copy of emmy magazine here.

This article originally appeared in its entirety in emmy magazine, issue #10, 2024, under the title "Family Business."