Tyler Takes New Sitcom to the Lab

Roger Bobb (right) explains the unique concept of 'House of Payne' at LAB 601. (photo: Eric Bomba-Ire)

Though most new broadcast and film productions are hyped in overzealous superlatives, this particular one may actually have big enough teeth to take a bite out of the industry in a significant way. Oh sure, it's merely a sitcom, and coming from the creator of recent No. 1 movie Madea's Family Reunion, a much-anticipated one at that. But there's much more to the story.

This show may well be the linchpin to making all the chatter about Atlanta becoming the "Hollywood of the South" real. If successful, it will mark the first comedy series shot and completely produced in Atlanta.

House of Payne is a traditional situation comedy, a half-hour show about a firefighter who moves back into his parents' home with his two kids after his wife accidentally burns down their house. Allen Payne (New Jack City, Jason's Lyric, The Perfect Storm, et al) has the starring role.

Bobb refers to the coincidence in the names. "We had the name of the show already," he says. "But as we were considering actors who would work, Allen's name came up, and he worked out very well."

The first season was completed with half the conventional number of writers, and a skeleton crew compared to most TV shows produced in LA. Payne employed a traditional three-camera setup, using Panasonic DVC-Pro HD for taping. Shot locally at a soundstage at Krog Street Studios, the post-production is being done at LAB 601 because of their experience in the high definition medium.

"When you're using the new technology you've got to have partners who really know what they're doing, which is why we chose LAB 601," says Bobb. LAB 601 has been a pioneer in Atlanta with projects on high definition video and have introduced innovations in the post production process to help independent productions maximize the potential of HD technology.

The cast of 'House of Payne'

They scheduled the shoot while Perry was on a break from his theatrical schedule, and are readying it for an early summer premiere. "We planned to shoot the ten episodes in 20 days," says Bobb. "We did it in 17."

While they were shooting, The LAB 601 creative team hustled to knock out the editing simultaneously, in order to provide rough cuts during principal photography. All ten episodes were edited for Perry and Bobb's review only ten days after production wrapped.

Perry and Bobb have partnered with Debmar-Mercury, one of the most successful independent distributors in the U.S. (South Park, among others), and created a unique plan to take their show straight to syndication without an initial network run. The model is to give away-gratis-all ten episodes produced so far to eight or ten local stations in representative markets for a two-week test run of the series. The stations chosen would need to heavily promote the run in order to generate interest. The hope is that the buzz created, and associated sales of the series in the test cities and other markets, will enable Perry's crew to finance the remainder of the full first season, an additional 32 for a total of 42 episodes.

It's a bold strategy to be sure, but with Tyler Perry's popularity in the African-American marketplace, along with a dearth of quality sitcoms in the syndication market, it feels like a good bet. And though Perry doesn't show up on screen in the first ten episodes, Bobb would not rule out the possibility of his appearing in the show if a full season were picked up.

It's a project that could certainly break ground for material originating from and coming to fruition completely outside of the Hollywood system. With a unique distribution model as well as the popular appeal of Perry, Atlanta may just produce a hit syndicated series and prove that knowing your audience is more important than knowing the head of a studio.

"The short term plan is to launch the show," says Bobb. After that, they'll stay busy as they begin production in June on Perry's third feature film, Daddy's Little Girl, to be shot in Atlanta once again. They're sticking to their guns and making it happen in the South.

"There are great crews here," Bobb explains. "The only disadvantage is with all the major projects coming here, there is getting to be a limited amount of crew for them."

Sounds like a good problem to have for the local film production industry.

Martin Kelley is Editor-in-Chief of CinemATL.com. He's also a local screenwriter and filmmaker who co-founded and became co-president of the Atlanta Screenwriters Group, one of the largest screenwriter organizations in the Southeast.