Damon Wayans

Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier are two of the most talented performers on all of television.But you would never know that from watching the pilot of "Damon," the new Fox sitcom starring Wayans and Grier that premieres tomorrow night. The trajectory of their television careers has been downward since "In Living Color." Let's hope this is rock bottom.Wayans plays a Chicago police detective who regularly goes undercover in various disguises. Grier is his older brother, a timid home-security officer making $2.50 an hour who dreams of joining his brother on the force.

Dick Vitale has a $4 million, nearly 13,000-square-foot home in Lakewood Ranch, Fla. He has a Lexus and a Mercedes bearing the license plates "ESPN 79" and "T-O BABY." He has a private jet. And maybe you think he has an annoying voice. But he's undeniably popular and perhaps as big a name as any college basketball coach or player he talks about on ESPN. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski says Vitale belongs in the Basketball Hall of Fame. "As a contributor to the game, he deserves to be in," Krzyzewski told the Los Angeles Times.

Some of the ethnic diversity so lacking in last year's new network television series is expected to be seen today when ABC and the WB unveil their fall lineups to advertisers in New York. ABC has Emmy-winning Andre Braugher, of "Homicide: Life on the Street," starring as the head doctor of a large hospital in a new drama called "Gideon's Crossing," and Damon Wayans in a sitcom titled "Wife & Kids." In addition, The WB will announce that it is picking up Eddie Murphy's animated series, "The PJs," from Fox, where it has languished since its 1999 debut.

With the sitcom looking more and more like an exhausted genre, originality might be far too much to hope for. Perhaps a good imitation, or parody of a classic sitcom, is as good as it's going to get. By that downsized standard, "My Wife and Kids" - a new ABC series about an African-American, upper-middle-class family in Stamford, Conn. - is the pick of the midseason sitcom litter. The series desperately wants to be "The Cosby Show," the hit NBC sitcom of the 1980s. "My Wife" isn't as smart, socially conscious or ultimately even as funny as "The Cosby Show," but that's life in these post-postmodern television times.

Damon Wayans is the name Fox has been using to promote "413 Hope Street," a gritty new ensemble drama about life at a teen crisis center, and it's a good choice.Wayans, the wildly talented comedian of "In Living Color" fame, is the creator of the series, and his writing and producing efforts here are impressive.But let me submit three other names for your consideration that go a long way toward explaining how Fox came up with such a strong pilot: Richard Roundtree, Eric Laneuville and Henry Bromell.

Fox's impudent comedy show "In Living Color" may have joined the dead poets' society, but its influence lingers on.Not only is Jim Carrey -- the white face in the crowd -- a smash hit in "The Mask," Damon Wayans is now starring in his own feature as the homemade superhero "Blankman.""In Living Color" was produced by Damon's older brother, Keenan. And at first everybody at Fox thought of Damon as a tag-along shadow of his handsome sibling."They never believed in me," says Damon Wayans, who at 34 is two years younger than Keenan.

The obvious jokes in "Major Payne" may give you minor pain, but laughter is pretty good medicine, and this film does have laughs.Damon Wayans stars as Major Payne, a none-too-bright killer for the Marines who finds himself removed from the service, the only life he knows. A mentor digs him up a spot as the Junior ROTC chief at a private school, but the major, whose only idea of fun is taking apart his guns and putting them back together while he hangs upside down and blindfolded, has a bit of trouble adjusting.

When comic Damon Wayans was a little boy -- one of 10 kids -- he and his siblings used to play a game called "Make Me Laugh or Die."He explains: "We'd sit there and you'd act the fool and everyone would try not to laugh. If you lost, you'd have to die. To die was to go in a room and pour my father's beer out, knowing it was his last one."It must have worked, because nearly half of the Wayans kids are funny. Damon and his older brother, Keenen , proved that on their television show, "In Living Color."

You could blow "Bulletproof" out its socks with .22 blanks, that's how weak it is.A ninth- or 10th-generation clone of "48 HRS.," all those years ago, it's thinly imagined and pedestrianly engineered chase melodrama about a black guy and a white guy, one a cop, the other a crook, who find they have more in common than not, and bond to bring down a really nasty villain. Main difference between then and now: this time through, the cop is black and the crook is white.The two guys are potentially amusing but the screenplay is so naked in its manipulation of emotion that it feels infantile.

With the sitcom looking more and more like an exhausted genre, originality might be far too much to hope for. Perhaps a good imitation, or parody of a classic sitcom, is as good as it's going to get. By that downsized standard, "My Wife and Kids" - a new ABC series about an African-American, upper-middle-class family in Stamford, Conn. - is the pick of the midseason sitcom litter. The series desperately wants to be "The Cosby Show," the hit NBC sitcom of the 1980s. "My Wife" isn't as smart, socially conscious or ultimately even as funny as "The Cosby Show," but that's life in these post-postmodern television times.

Some of the ethnic diversity so lacking in last year's new network television series is expected to be seen today when ABC and the WB unveil their fall lineups to advertisers in New York. ABC has Emmy-winning Andre Braugher, of "Homicide: Life on the Street," starring as the head doctor of a large hospital in a new drama called "Gideon's Crossing," and Damon Wayans in a sitcom titled "Wife & Kids." In addition, The WB will announce that it is picking up Eddie Murphy's animated series, "The PJs," from Fox, where it has languished since its 1999 debut.

Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier are two of the most talented performers on all of television.But you would never know that from watching the pilot of "Damon," the new Fox sitcom starring Wayans and Grier that premieres tomorrow night. The trajectory of their television careers has been downward since "In Living Color." Let's hope this is rock bottom.Wayans plays a Chicago police detective who regularly goes undercover in various disguises. Grier is his older brother, a timid home-security officer making $2.50 an hour who dreams of joining his brother on the force.

Damon Wayans is the name Fox has been using to promote "413 Hope Street," a gritty new ensemble drama about life at a teen crisis center, and it's a good choice.Wayans, the wildly talented comedian of "In Living Color" fame, is the creator of the series, and his writing and producing efforts here are impressive.But let me submit three other names for your consideration that go a long way toward explaining how Fox came up with such a strong pilot: Richard Roundtree, Eric Laneuville and Henry Bromell.

You could blow "Bulletproof" out its socks with .22 blanks, that's how weak it is.A ninth- or 10th-generation clone of "48 HRS.," all those years ago, it's thinly imagined and pedestrianly engineered chase melodrama about a black guy and a white guy, one a cop, the other a crook, who find they have more in common than not, and bond to bring down a really nasty villain. Main difference between then and now: this time through, the cop is black and the crook is white.The two guys are potentially amusing but the screenplay is so naked in its manipulation of emotion that it feels infantile.

When comic Damon Wayans was a little boy -- one of 10 kids -- he and his siblings used to play a game called "Make Me Laugh or Die."He explains: "We'd sit there and you'd act the fool and everyone would try not to laugh. If you lost, you'd have to die. To die was to go in a room and pour my father's beer out, knowing it was his last one."It must have worked, because nearly half of the Wayans kids are funny. Damon and his older brother, Keenen , proved that on their television show, "In Living Color."

The obvious jokes in "Major Payne" may give you minor pain, but laughter is pretty good medicine, and this film does have laughs.Damon Wayans stars as Major Payne, a none-too-bright killer for the Marines who finds himself removed from the service, the only life he knows. A mentor digs him up a spot as the Junior ROTC chief at a private school, but the major, whose only idea of fun is taking apart his guns and putting them back together while he hangs upside down and blindfolded, has a bit of trouble adjusting.

Whatever values "Mo' Money" may lack, ambition isn't one of them.It's a 90-minute triple feature: There's a movie in here about a young man's crossover into mainstream society empowered by no less a force than love, another one that's a dark and violent thriller about a sophisticated credit card scam, and a third that's a raucous comedy about two brothers doing a trip on the Man.There's no doctrinaire reason why three separate personalities can't inhabit a...

Dick Vitale has a $4 million, nearly 13,000-square-foot home in Lakewood Ranch, Fla. He has a Lexus and a Mercedes bearing the license plates "ESPN 79" and "T-O BABY." He has a private jet. And maybe you think he has an annoying voice. But he's undeniably popular and perhaps as big a name as any college basketball coach or player he talks about on ESPN. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski says Vitale belongs in the Basketball Hall of Fame. "As a contributor to the game, he deserves to be in," Krzyzewski told the Los Angeles Times.

Fox's impudent comedy show "In Living Color" may have joined the dead poets' society, but its influence lingers on.Not only is Jim Carrey -- the white face in the crowd -- a smash hit in "The Mask," Damon Wayans is now starring in his own feature as the homemade superhero "Blankman.""In Living Color" was produced by Damon's older brother, Keenan. And at first everybody at Fox thought of Damon as a tag-along shadow of his handsome sibling."They never believed in me," says Damon Wayans, who at 34 is two years younger than Keenan.

Whatever values "Mo' Money" may lack, ambition isn't one of them.It's a 90-minute triple feature: There's a movie in here about a young man's crossover into mainstream society empowered by no less a force than love, another one that's a dark and violent thriller about a sophisticated credit card scam, and a third that's a raucous comedy about two brothers doing a trip on the Man.There's no doctrinaire reason why three separate personalities can't inhabit a...