Lee Daniels says show is worth ‘years of fighting’ – deadline

A family sitcom Mrs. Pat’s show, based on the comedy and memoir of the titular comedian, didn’t have the easiest path to BET +, executive producer Lee Daniels revealed during a TCA panel for the show on Tuesday.

According to the Oscar-nominated director, the comedy’s creative team “went through the wringer trying to bring it to light.” For Daniels, bringing Ms. Pat’s humor and memoir to the screen was a no-brainer. However, momentum slowed as she tried to find a home for the series. The series originally premiered at Fox with another writer in the 2016-17 season, then moved to Hulu in fall 2019 and finally landed at BET + in 2020.

“Years ago we tried to find the right writer, the right visionary for it, trying to fight the studios and networks that wanted to do it but were afraid to do it because it was too dark and too real.” , he told the panel. “We’ve never seen a voice like this on TV… it was fighting – years of fighting.”

Mrs. Pat’s show, which started on Sunday August 12; follows a former convicted felon turned suburban mom (Mrs. Pat), whose restlessness and resilient spirit were forged on the streets of Atlanta. With great reserve, she now finds herself in conservative Central America alongside her pinching husband penny (J. Bernard Calloway), a one-sister struggle played by Tami Roman, and two separate sets of children played by Theodore Barnes, newcomer Briyana Guadalupe and Vince Swann, raised under very different circumstances. Daniels joined series muse Patricia “Ms. Pat” Williams and creator-writer Jordan E. Cooper to discuss the new family comedy BET.

Williams, who is also an executive producer, said the comedy is a chance to open the doors to what black families, especially mothers, can look like on screen.

“I’m just proud to be up front and being a different type of mom where I don’t have to cut veg,” she said. “Thanks to Jordan and Lee, I became a real woman on TV. I’m a convicted felon and you can see a side of a mom that Hollywood doesn’t really want you to see, other than on. The cops. “

“Her story is a lot of stories of women, instead of staying in the negative and making her sad, she knocks it down. We laugh with her. I knew we were on something, white people didn’t know we were on something, ”Daniels added.

Daniels, Brian Grazer, President of Imagine Television Samie Kim Falvey and Anthony Hill (who is the showrunner of the series) will be the executive producers, alongside Ms. Pat and Jordan E. Cooper, who also wrote the pilot. Mrs. Pat marks Grazer and Daniels’ first scripted project on the network.