Bernie Mac believes in tough love for kids and tough comedy for viewers. And, in both cases, it seems to work.
"The Bernie Mac Show," which premieres with back-to-back episodes on Wednesday at 7:30 and 8 p.m. on Fox/Ch. 13, is one of the surprises of the season. Best known as one of the foul-mouthed "Kings of Comedy," Mac translates his stand-up act (and his life) into a rather unusual — and quite amusing — family sitcom.
The fictional Bernie Mac and his wife, Wanda (Kellita Smith) are happily married and happily childless. He's a comedian; she's a successful career woman — a vice president at AT&T. But their bliss is interrupted when Bernie takes custody of his two young nieces and young nephew when their mother checks into drug rehab. And, given his wife's busy career, he becomes the primary caregiver.
And he's not about to take any guff from Vanessa (Camille Winbush), Jordan (Jeremy Suarez) and Bryana (Dee Dee Davis). The first thing he tells them when he gets them home is, "Mi casa es mi casa. Don't touch my TV, don't touch my DVD, don't touch my dual-deck VCR. And most definitely don't touch the remote that works my TV, my DVD and my dual-deck VCR."
Bernie often talks directly to the camera to let viewers know what he's thinking. And what he's thinking at times is along the lines of "I'm going to kill a kid."
But what makes all this work is that, for all his blustering, viewers can see that Bernie really cares about these kids, who have been through a lot. That, like most parents, he may want to kill the kids at times, but it isn't going to happen.
"Bernie is a chump," Mac said of his alter-ego. "Really, his bark is bigger than his bite. You can see he's soft. Bernie does not hit his kids."
He's certainly not going to coddle them, however. Mac recalled fondly of his own grandfather's brand of "tough love," saying, "I think that's something that's missing today. We want to be friends instead of parents.
"We always say, 'I want to give my kids more than what I had.' Well, more is not better."
And he speaks from experience. Mac and his real-life wife took in and raised her niece and grand niece — a story that he combined with that of a friend who took in her nieces and nephews because of her sister's drug problem.
"The luxury of being a comedian (is) I get to fabricate and make up my own story," he said — a story he made a centerpiece of his stand-up act.
Unlike that act, however, the TV show will be free of the R-rated language that Mac is so identified with.
"The audience that always supported Bernie Mac — that's what they want to hear," said Mac, who has a tendency to refer to himself in the third person. "Now we're tapping into a whole different audience. You'll see another side of Bernie Mac that you didn't know exists.
"Bernie Mac is talented!"
And he's rather confident as well.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com