The sitcom takes a very real and oftentimes humorous look at family life and parenting. And the show doesn't hold back a thing when it's doing that.
"The message of the show is that God gave kids parents for a reason, and that's because the kids are too dumb to do things on their own," Wayans tells JET laughing during a recent interview. "Usually what kids want to do is bad for them. So they need parents to guide them."
As an executive producer and co-creator of the series, Wayans says the show is about "simple family values with a strong father figure and love as the glue that keeps everyone together."
A combination of things has made the show work, says Don Reo, another of the show's executive producers and co-creators.
"You need a charismatic star in the right role at the right moment and at the right time. You need really good writing, direction, a good supporting cast and a good time slot. It's impossible to duplicate," says Reo.
He adds that timing is everything in show business, and the Wednesday night time slot has worked well for the sitcom. "You have to have the opportunity to be seen because there are so many choices. It's hard to get attention in the first place. It's a hard hill to climb for a new show. It can be difficult getting seen and liked and revisited."
Audiences aren't having any problems visiting "My Wife & Kids." They like what they see, and the numbers indicate it's not just watched in Black households. It averages a weekly audience of 12 million.
The show has become the first family sitcom on a major network that centers around a Black comedian since "The Cosby Show" to achieve wide popularity with White audiences, reported the Los Angeles Times.
Bill Cosby is great company for Wayans, who doesn't mind the comparisons. "We are trying to do what Cosby (`The Cosby Show') did," says Wayans. "We want to make you live, love and laugh."
The show is most entertaining, but it also offers clever solutions to parenting and handling conflict during trying family times. Past episodes have dealt with Junior's experimenting with drugs, Claire's pretending to be sick in order to stay home from school to have a boy come over to the house, and Michael's waning desire for intimacy with Janet after her sudden weight gain.
The show doesn't "sugar coat" things, says Campbell-Martin. Kids today are very mature, and it's important to be able to "reel" them in on a sitcom, she believes.
"This is an MTV generation and [Jerry] Springer generation. Kids see a lot more, so we can't sugar coat things. We did a show on masturbation. That topic was not hit in the '80s and '90s. We deal with realistic subjects, which makes it more appealing."
Campbell-Martin and her real-life husband, actor Duane Martin, became the parents of a son, Xen Martin, five months ago. After giving birth, she says she still had "baby weight" when she returned to work. Because the show's creative forces encourages everyone's input in developing storylines, Campbell-Martin thought an episode which addressed her weight gain could be cool.
"When I first came back, I asked to do a show that dealt with the weight. Most of the times when you deal with actresses who have children, they go away and come back slim and trim like you remembered them," she chuckles. "With me, I had to come back and show the world. The world has to see me lose weight. It's a subject that's real. In the end of that episode, the message was that I'm going to love you no matter how big you are. Michael says he fell in love with [Janet's] heart. So the show sends messages without being heavy- handed."
It's no secret that Wayans uses his real-life family as a blueprint for stories on the show. As the father of a 19-year-old, 16-year-old, 14-year-old and 11-year-old, Wayans has also put a couple of them to work on the show.
