Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr. combine their comedic superpowers for “Poppa's House”: 'Together we're undeniable'

The father-son dynamic duo breaks down their new CBS sitcom.

For the past 10 years, Damon Wayans has been trying to find the next project to work on with his son, Damon Wayans Jr ... until he came up with it, almost by accident. 

“I was going to actually go live next door to my son. I was thinking about it,” Wayans tells Entertainment Weekly. “I was lonely, and he's got all these wonderful kids. And there was a house across the street from him that was for sale. I go look at the house, and his family comes with him, and his wife, Samara, keeps going, ‘Oh, this is perfect. When you mess up, I'm sending you to Poppa's house!’ She's telling that to all the kids and I started getting anxiety. I'm like, ‘Oh, hell no.’ So I just kind of bailed on it.”

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He shared the anecdote with his agent, who told him that was his next show, then matched Wayans with writer Kevin Hench to start hashing out the idea. After they got three offers on the pilot, Wayans brought the project to his son.

“I felt like I had to do more than just show him a good script,” Wayans Sr. says. “I had to let him know that people really want this and were excited about it. And together we're undeniable.”

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Wayans plays the titular Poppa, a curmudgeonly radio deejay who’s grown set in his ways and Wayans Jr. plays his idealistic son Damon, a talented filmmaker who’s stuck in a job he hates, under the thumb of his father-in-law. When Poppa’s station brings in brash, young podcaster Ivy Reed (Essence Atkins) to shake things up, Poppa’s gotta get a brand new bag if he wants to get with the times. 

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Meanwhile, Damon and his wife Nina (Tetona Jackson) navigate the struggles of being a young couple in love with two kids, while Damon strives to realize his artistic ambitions. For Wayans Jr. it was especially important that the central couple were loving and supportive of each other.

“They're just both crazy about each other,” he says. “I wanted to make sure that in this show we portrayed a relationship where the married couple actually likes being married, actually still has the hots for each other. Because there are so many shows where the couples are always fighting. We just have two great givers and great forgivers in this relationship.”

Poppa’s House allows both the father and son to showcase their formidable comedic talents, but for the elder Wayans, there’s a real joy in seeing his son blossom into the performer he is today.

“I feel really good about where he is. He's just, to me, stretching the service of who he could be as a star and as a comedic talent. Nothing brings me more joy than to be in a scene with him and watch him just eat up the screen,” Wayans says. “In my mind, I go, Back in the day I would've done something like that, because he's got the physical, the stuff that my body can't do anymore or I refuse to do. Now I see in him and it's beautiful to watch.”

Poppa’s House premieres Oct. 21 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT, on CBS and streams next day on Paramount+.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.