On paper, "The Royal Family" looks like pretty much your run-of-the-mill sitcom.
Retired grandfather, with sassy wife, is stunned when his soon-to-be-divorced daughter moves in with her three children.But what makes this show stand out from your average sitcom are the two lead actors - Redd Foxx is that retired grandfather and Della Reese is his sassy wife. The chemistry between these two show business veterans lifts "Royal Family" (which debuts tonight at 7 on Ch. 5) above the crowded sitcom field.
Not that it's terribly well written - it isn't. And the daughter (Mariann Aalda) and three kids (Sylver Gregory, Naya Rivera and Larenz Tate) are entirely too much like sitcomish cartoons. But there are definite possibilities here, if the production end can work up to the performances of Foxx and Reese.
Although the pair have known each other for decades, it took a recent movie and Eddie Murphy to bring them together on this show.
"It was his idea in the first place," Reese said of Murphy. "He had the idea because Redd and I were doing `Harlem Nights' and Redd and I got into a conversation that amused Eddie and made him laugh.
"And he said, `This is a television show.' And he went immediately into his dressing room and began to write scenes for us."
Murphy's production company developed "Royal Family," and the actor/comedian is one of the show's executive producer.
But the pair go way back - they met long before Murphy was even born.
"Redd and I have known each other at least 40 years," Reese said. "We've worked together. We like each other, aside from the fact that we love each other. We come from the same roots.
"He doesn't have to explain himself to me, and I don't have to explain me to him. We both come from the slums - that was before the `ghetto.' . . . And we can relate because of everything that we have done through these 40 years."
Foxx's character, Al Royal, recalls his most famous and most successful television creation, Fred Sanford - although Foxx claims not to see the similarities.
"I don't think they're any way the same because Sanford didn't live in that kind of an atmosphere," Foxx said. "You know, he was a junkman and his son was the one who was doing the work, really. Sanford didn't want to do anything but stay home and sell some junk.
"Al was a postman, which is a pretty fair job . . . and then (he's) on retirement, got some money coming, and (he's) enjoying his life. Then the kids come."
Both Sanford and Al Royal are cranky, irascible old codgers. Al does, however, have genuine love and affection for his wife, daughter and grandchildren even while he tries to hide it.
"He believes in family, he believe is right and wrong, and he believes in respect," said Greg Antonacci, the show's executive producer.
"And he believes his woman is a fox," Reese said.
"This is a great love affair . . . that's lasted 40-some years, and that the real core of it," Antonacci said. "And this great love affair holds that family together, and it's the rock that if the kids are in trouble they'll come home to."
And with the rock of Redd Foxx and Della Reese to build a sitcom on, "The Royal Family" just might succeed.BIG BUCKS: Foxx, who's problems with the Internal Revenue Service have been well publicized, was very specific about what lured him back to do another weekly series:
"Grand-theft bucks," he said.EDDIE'S INVOLVEMENT: According to Antonacci, Murphy "comes in, he'll take a look at the script. He'll say, `Wouldn't this be funny?'
He's giving us punch-ups. He's come to run-throughs. He's been very involved."