Entertainment

UPN hit a serious matter for comedy's co-creator

11:21 AM CST on Friday, January 20, 2006

By MANUEL MENDOZA / The Dallas Morning News

PASADENA, Calif. – If Chris Rock is the name on the marquee, Everybody Hates Chris co-creator and executive producer Ali LeRoi is the man behind the curtain, pulling the strings 80 hours a week.

"I'm Garfunkel," he joked Thursday in an interview session with TV critics. "We don't know what he did, but he did something."

While Mr. Rock was on the set directing his first episode of the comedy based on his childhood, Mr. LeRoi's quick wit was on display as he described the aims of the series, which premiered to great fanfare last fall and has become a respectable hit for UPN.

"We don't pander. We don't assume the audience is stupid. And we're not trying to trick them with anything fancy," he said.

"We're just trying to tell decent stories and deliver the best jokes we can. People who've had a chance to see it go, 'Hey, that's not bad.' We're stellar compared to all of the crap that's out there."

Inspired by Mr. Rock's upbringing in Brooklyn, when he was bused to an all-white school, Chris is The Cosby Show for a new generation. The show's fans take it seriously, evidenced by the reaction to the Christmas episode, which outed Santa Claus as a fake.

Mr. LeRoi's 6-year-old son was as upset when he saw it as other young children and their parents. But he explains that since Chris is told from the point of view of a 13-year-old, it was appropriate.

"It's not the Disney Channel. It's not Raven. If a grown person freaks out when they're watching a TV show, what's their kid supposed to believe? You're supposed to guide your children."

Mr. LeRoi met Mr. Rock on the stand-up circuit in New York in the mid-'80s and they became fast friends. For black comics, they shared some unusual influences. "We have eclectic tastes," Mr. LeRoi said. "I'm a guy who loves George Carlin and the Marx Brothers, and he's a guy who loves Woody Allen and Albert Brooks. He was like, 'What? You're into that, too?' "

Mr. LeRoi eventually gave up stand-up – "I was serviceable and competent, but I didn't need that kind of attention" – and became a writer for Mr. Rock and other comedians. The pair produced the memorable interview segment with black filmgoers when Mr. Rock hosted last year's Oscars.

Tyler James Williams, who plays the young Chris, was asked how the series has changed his life. Besides his new name being "that kid from Everybody Hates Chris," he said, it has given him a better fashion sense. "People are looking at me, so I get dressed really well."

For the critics, he donned a white satin T-shirt. "You'd think cotton would be good enough for the kid," Mr. LeRoi said. "Nah."

The producer has recruited an impressive lineup of guest stars for the rest of the season, including Jimmie Walker as Chris' maternal grandfather. "We promptly kill him off. Death is hilarious on Everybody Hates Chris."

2006 may be the year the premium cable channel breaks out of HBO's shadow.

Mary-Louise Parker, star of Weeds, just beat out four desperate housewives to win the best-actress award at the Golden Globes, and Sleeper Cell has received critical kudos.

The momentum continues with a lineup of new series that includes a TV version of Ira Glass' National Public Radio show, This American Life ; Dexter, starring Six Feet Under's Michael C. Hall as a forensics cop who's also a serial killer; and Damon Wayans' The Underground, a sketch comedy that Showtime Entertainment president Robert Greenblatt promises will be racy.

Mr. Greenblatt said of Dexter: "This is not your mother's CSI."

He also confirmed Thursday that the network was in negotiations to acquire Arrested Development from Fox, which likely will cancel the critically acclaimed but lightly watched series at the end of the season. The deal to produce new episodes for Showtime is dependent on whether creator Mitchell Hurwitz is willing to stay on.

"Nothing would make us happier," Mr. Greenblatt said.

E-mail mmendoza@dallasnews.com

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