Damon Wayans, Jr. as Junior and Damon Wayans as Poppa in POPPA’S HOUSE – Season 1 | ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The new CBS Monday night (streaming subsequently on Paramount+) half-hour series POPPA’S HOUSE is a family comedy in multiple ways.

Onscreen, POPPA’S HOUSE concerns amicably divorced podcaster Poppa, who goes from working as a radio host to doing a podcast from his home studio. His routine is disrupted when his adult son Damon, Damon’s wife Nina (Tetona Jackson), and their little daughter Maya (River Blossom) move in next door to him.

Behind the scenes, the series was co-created, with Kevin Hench, by executive producer Damon Wayans, who plays Poppa. Wayans’s real-life son, Damon Wayans Jr., plays Damon. Wayans Jr. is also an executive producer, and part of the show’s writing team. Kim Wayans (Wayans Sr.’s sister), Shawn Wayans (Wayans Sr.’s brother), and Michael Wayans (Wayans Sr.’s son, Wayans Jr.’s brother) are also in the writers’ room.

When CBS invites the Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour to visit the POPPA’S HOUSE sets on a soundstage at Paramount Studios, we get a look at Poppa’s living room. It is spacious, befitting the character’s success, as well as easily accommodating the production equipment.

Wayans Sr. and Wayans Jr. are here, along with some fellow cast members and executive producer/showrunner Dean Lorey. Wayans Sr. makes time for a brief private discussion about POPPA’S HOUSE.

Does the living room set resemble Wayans’s real living room? “Just in terms of, everything’s in sections in my house. So, I have a music room, I have a screening room, and I have a TV in my bedroom. My bedroom is where I sleep. Then I have a little gaming room. So, this is kind of like that.

This isn’t the first time Wayans has wanted to act with his son, he explains. “I’ve been looking to do something with my son for about ten years, but the timing was not right. He wanted to go off and do things on his own, and build his own career outside of ‘Wayans,’ and he had his success with NEW GIRL and HAPPY ENDINGS and all the other shows he did. Then the timing was just right.”

But Wayans Jr. still took a bit of persuading, Wayans Sr. notes. “His hesitation wasn’t really in the fear of working with me, because he knows I’m professional, I pride myself on out-working everybody, and I view him as an equal partner.

“The hesitation was perception. He didn’t want to feel like he’s in Daddy’s shadow, the same name. He wanted independence, and he got it. The persuading was also, ‘Now’s the time.’ And what I did was, I set this up without him. And then, when I pitched it, and CBS bought it, then I went to Damon and said, ‘Okay, we have the show, they’re going to give us thirteen [episodes]. Why don’t we do this?’”

How does Wayans see his Wayans Jr.’s comedy style in relation to his own?

“Different, but it’s the same. We have the same sense of humor, different sensibilities. The minutiae – because I’m a student of comedy, I call ‘brilliant’ stuff I never would have thought of, when someone says stuff, and in a million years, my comedy math wouldn’t have gotten to that. So, those are unique voices. Damon Jr. has a unique voice, and so getting him the writers’ room is actually a gift, because we wouldn’t get that voice unless he was there.”

Wayans has worked frequently with POPPA’S HOUSE showrunner/EP Lorey. “I’ve known Dean since MAJOR PAYNE [the 1995 feature starring Wayans]. We wrote MAJOR PAYNE together. We’ve maintained our friendship, and we write scripts together. A lot of them we never sold, but we just have this kind of shorthand with each other. He’s done animation, he’s written books, and he’s written drama, he worked with David E. Kelley, so he’s undeniable, in terms of, when I pitched to CBS, it was like, ‘Okay.’”

Essence Atkins costars as Poppa’s podcast cohost, Dr. Ivy Reed. “Essence was someone my brother [Marlon Wayans] worked with [on the films A HAUNTED HOUSE and A HAUNTED HOUSE 2, and the 2017-2018 series MARLON; she had also done a 1995 episode of THE WAYANS BROS., which starred Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans]. Junior worked with her before [in the 1995 film DANCE FLICK]. My whole family worked with her. I was the last man standing.

“We looked for someone [to play Dr. Reed], because I didn’t want to go back to Tisha [Campbell], who I had great success with [on the 2000-2005 series MY WIFE AND KIDS].” This was out of concern that it might make POPPA’S HOUSE seem too similar to the older comedy.

Damon Wayans as Poppa, from the CBS original pilot POPPA’S HOUSE – Season 1 | ©2023 CBS Broadcasting, Inc./ Sonja Flemming/ All Rights Reserved

“I said no [to Atkins] at first, because Marlon had worked with her, I said, ‘Yeah, but your show got canceled, so why would I want to bring her in?’” Wayans laughs. “Marlon said, ‘You’re stupid. You should see her.’ So, as soon as she walked in, she had it. I’m talking about, before she even did the dialogue, her attitude was, ‘Why are you making me do this? I know your brother, I know you,’ you know what I mean?

“Very few times have I auditioned somebody, and they made me sit up in my seat. Usually, you do an audition, you’re kicked back, but her energy was so powerful, it just brought me into the present. She made it difficult for anybody to follow her.”

What was the original pitch for POPPA’S HOUSE, and how did it change to the show that’s on the air?

“The original pitch was, I move in next door to my son, and then his family start to invade my house. But after we pitched it and they bought it, then it was like, ‘I can always move.’ So, we flipped it. His family moves in next door to me, I’m already settled, as opposed to [Poppa] moving in there, and I could [easily] move out. We had to kind of marry me to my location.”

Between the pilot episode and the rest of the season, Poppa’s show was moved from a radio station to Poppa’s home studio. This is because the writers realized, Wayans relates, “The way the show was constructed, Dr. Reed would never meet my family. We’re doing a family show, and for her, it felt like we were doing two shows, workplace and a home place. Well, this is called POPPA’S HOUSE, why don’t we just bring the podcast under the roof?”

This decision was made after the pilot was shot and the writers/producers had the chance to watch it a few times. “I regret that we lost the character of Allen [played in the pilot by Bryan Safi]. He’s a great character, but it takes too much work, the same way it was taking too much work to include Essence’s character in the show [without setting the podcast in the house].”

And there’s no reason for Poppa and Dr. Reed to do the show outside the house, Wayans points out. “Today, you can do it over the phone. We don’t have to have all the equipment. We can do it with phones. So, it’s going to be very unintrusive.”

What does Wayans most want people to know about POPPA’S HOUSE?

“That it’s fun, that you can just let your guard down and laugh. There’s a little bite, but it’s nothing you have to feel bad about or explain away with your children. It’s a return to the old school of comedy.”

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