Are We There Yet Cast - Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries

Are We There Yet aired from June 2010 until ? on TBS.

Are We There Yet? opened where the popular film left off, with Nick (Terry Crews) and Suzanne (Essence Atkins) newly married. After six months, their family was beginning to show growing pains, from the complexities of life as newlyweds to weathering the storm of teenage children. Work madelife all the more complicated. Former athlete Nick had sold his sports paraphernalia store and now worked in information technology. Party planner Suzanne also had a hectic professional schedule.

Teala Dunn and Coy Stewart co-starred as Lindsey and Kevin, Nick and Suzanne's 14 and 10-year-old children. They would spend their time texting friends and playing on the computer instead of connecting with the family. Telma Hopkins (Family Matters) played Nick's mother, who wasn't happy about his marriage or her new role as a grandmother. Keesha Sharp (Girlfriends, Why Did I Get Married) was Suzanne's best friend Gigi; she had a taste for men and the finer things in life. Comedian Christian Finnegan played Nick’s best friend and owner of a sports memorabilia store, Marty. Ice Cube played a recurring role as Suzanne's SWAT officer brother, Terrence.

A Review from The New York Times

Television
At TBS, Diversity Pays Its Own Way

By MEGAN ANGELO
Published: May 28, 2010

IN 2004 the cable station TBS, based in Atlanta, rebranded itself with a bold slogan: “very funny.” What it had to back up the tag line, at the time, were reruns of “Seinfeld” and “Friends” — shows that had already proven their hilarity on NBC.

Six years later the humor is more homegrown, and decidedly diverse. The most prominent new show is “Are We There Yet?,” a family sitcom based on the movie comedies starring Ice Cube. Starting this week, that show will be sandwiched on Wednesday nights between Tyler Perry’s two sitcoms, “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” and “Meet the Browns,” while George Lopez’s talk show, “Lopez Tonight,” runs four nights a week.

In a television world where “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “The Cosby Show” are distant memories, TBS has quickly become the home of minority-driven comedy. Actors of varying ethnicities can be found on the broadcast networks and the biggest of the cable channels, often playing characters in ensemble dramas like “Grey’s Anatomy,” although some (like “CSI,” which stars Laurence Fishburne) cast nonwhite actors in leading roles. But in comedy, diversity seems to hit a wall, especially since the demise of UPN, which broadcast shows like “Everybody Hates Chris” and “Moesha.” The recent Fox sitcom “Brothers” was quickly pulled from the schedule after disappointing ratings. Now TBS’s new block of minority-oriented programming sits virtually unopposed.

It was that momentum that led Ice Cube, the rapper turned actor turned television producer to bring “Are We There Yet?” to TBS. “I always wanted to be” on that channel, he said. “All these other stations, you can’t find anybody who will give diverse programming a chance. We had a few other meetings, but I knew if we went to another network, we’d have to teach them. TBS already gets it.”

Nothing convinced Ice Cube of that more than Mr. Perry’s success with TBS. In 2006 it ran a 10-episode test of “House of Payne” on its local Atlanta channel, WTBS. Viewer response prompted TBS to take it national. Mr. Perry’s “Meet the Browns” followed in 2009; it’s currently television’s No. 1-rated scripted series among African-Americans ages 18 to 49, the group most coveted by advertisers.

Both of Mr. Perry’s shows, and Ice Cube’s, spring from that most comforting of television traditions, the family sitcom. The household that is the focus of “Are We There Yet?” — much like the one in “The Brady Bunch” — is a blended one. Essence Atkins (“Half & Half,” “Smart Guy”) stars as a divorced mother of two who has recently married her second husband, played by Terry Crews (“Everybody Hates Chris”), and their adventures in merging lives fuel the show’s comedy. Still, the show’s creator, Ali LeRoi (“Everybody Hates Chris”), makes room for modern mishaps and gags. There are jokes driven by Facebook gaffes and plot lines built around Michelle Obama’s wardrobe.

“What ‘The Cosby Show’ would do today — that’s the model we’re following,” said Joe Roth, whose Revolution Studios is producing the series and produced the films “Are We There Yet” (2005) and its sequel, “Are We Done Yet” (2007).

The TBS model for comedy also includes building nightly blocks of similar programming. “The cornerstone of our development is what’s already working,” said Michael Wright, the programming chief for TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies. “We take an audience that’s already coming and program to them.”

For example, on Monday nights TBS has had success with syndicated “Family Guy” episodes. To feed an appetite for what Mr. Wright called the “irreverent, often satirical, sometimes scatological” humor found in that show, he ordered another animated series, “Neighbors From Hell,” a sitcom about a family of demons living on Earth, from the “South Park” alumna Pam Brady. Starting June 7 that series will run after “Family Guy.”

Similarly TBS is developing a fraternity comedy to play to the channel’s weekend movie audiences. Observing that comedies like “Old School” and “Wedding Crashers” pulled in the biggest numbers, Mr. Wright set out to find a show “in the vein of likable guys occasionally behaving badly.” The show TBS purchased, “Glory Daze,” was created by two masters of raunch comedy: Walt Becker (“Van Wilder”) and Michael LeSieur (“You, Me and Dupree”).

And Wednesday night’s block will be aimed squarely at minority audiences.

“That’s where TBS is really smart,” said Vic Bulluck, the executive director for the N.A.A.C.P.’s Hollywood bureau. “There are no African-American comedies on any of the major networks. ‘The Cleveland Show’ on Fox is the closest thing we’ve got, and that’s highly rated. So if an animated African-American family can find an audience on network television, why wouldn’t a real African-American family?” (It should be noted that the creators and star of “The Cleveland Show” are white.)

Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks, said he wasn’t sure why broadcast networks weren’t giving TBS’s diverse programming more competition.

“I imagine that would be a very uncomfortable question for networks to answer,” Mr. Koonin said. “There’s a huge audience out there that wants to see people on television that look and live their lives like they do. We’re happy to accommodate them.”

And TBS has quickly earned a reputation of being accommodating. “They let artists be artists,” Mr. Perry said in an e-mail message, “and don’t interfere in the process.” All of this collaboration is nothing but good business, Mr. Koonin said. “We’re not doing this for philanthropy,” he said. “Our whole strategy is aimed at youth, and diversity drives young people to us.”

Exhibit A of Mr. Koonin’s argument: “Lopez Tonight,” which has the youngest audience in late night. (With Conan O’Brien coming to TBS this fall, “Lopez Tonight” will get pushed back to midnight.) Mr. Koonin said he firmly believes that without talent like the Mexican-American Mr. Lopez, young viewers would slip away. He and Mr. Wright are searching for programming they hope young people want — and can’t get anywhere else.

And that’s where “Are We There Yet?” fits in. “Don’t forget, we’re not just serving an underserved African-American audience,” Mr. Roth said. “We’re serving an audience that has not seen family comedy in quite some time.”

It’s the dearth of diversity in those shows — broad comedies — that concerns the N.A.A.C.P.’s Mr. Bulluck most. “TBS is cornering the market, and I don’t mean to not applaud them,” he said. “But it’s disconcerting that we don’t have one show like theirs on the broadcast networks. Sitcoms gave us Will Smith and Queen Latifah. They anoint tomorrow’s stars. My concern is that we’ll wake up in 15 years and still have the same problem.”

A Review from The LA Times

Television review: 'Are We There Yet?'

TBS sitcom starring Terry Crews, Essence Atkins and Ice Cube is fundamentally sweet but inconsistent in tone.

June 02, 2010|By Robert Lloyd, Television Critic

"Are We There Yet?," which premieres Wednesday on TBS, is a sitcom sequel to the 2005 theatrical feature of the same name (mostly bad reviews but pretty good box office). Terry Crews stars as Nick, who has married Suzanne (Essence Atkins), who has two children, Lindsey (Teala Dunn) and Kevin (Coy Stewart). Nick has a best friend named Martin (Christian Finnegan), and Suzanne has a best friend named Gigi (Keesha Sharp), both of whom are around all the time, in the sitcom way of things. Less often seen are Suzanne's mother (Telma Hopkins) and brother ( Ice Cube, who played Nick in the film and is an executive producer of the series), a SWAT officer.
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As we fade in, they have been a family for only six months and are still defining their roles. Nick thinks it's not too soon for the kids to call him Dad; they'll call him Dad but only ironically and with creepy insistence. But things settle down soon enough to the more usual business of their playing one grown-up off another and when that fails, as it must, everyone learning a lesson in respect.

Crews, who was wonderful as the father on " Everybody Hates Chris," has less interesting things to do here, but he is a friendly presence, not a little reminiscent of the self he plays in his sitcom-like reality show, "The Family Crews," which premiered on BET in February. (His landing "Are We There Yet?" is part of the story line there.) Atkins has the burden of playing the more adult adult, which can make her seem a bit tetchy at times.

But with Finnegan and Sharp — his Martin is inauspiciously described in press materials as "a lovable rogue," and her Gigi is an unfortunately familiar TV type, the hot, kind of dumb girl who goes from one rich unseen boyfriend to another — taking the weight of the wackiness, like human flying buttresses, Crews and Atkins get to behave more or less like real, reasonable people.

It is so far minor stuff, inconsistent in tone and not particularly original yet fundamentally sweet and, if not stared at too hard, appealing. Occasionally it gets on to an interesting or unusual track — Nick and Kevin's arguing football versus futbol, for instance. But notwithstanding the presence of "Everybody Hates Chris" vet Ali LeRoi as show runner, the series is (on three episodes' evidence) still too subscribed to sitcom solutions to sitcom situations to be actually convincing on the subject of family, or any sort of actual human relations. It is just nice people telling jokes.

A Review from The New York Daily News

Ice Cube's 'Are We There Yet?' feels like a trip viewers have already taken with stale humor

David Hinckley

Wednesday, June 2nd 2010, 4:00 AM

"Are We There Yet?" Wednesday night at 9 on TBS

"Are We There Yet?," the TV incarnation of Ice Cube's hit movie about a couple of precocious kids tormenting their new stepdad, traps a buoyant cast in a sitcom that's slow out of the gate.

The deliberate absence of a slick production, which gave the film a kind of rough street cred, is less effective on TV.

The story picks up more or less where the movie left off.

Terry Crews and Essence Atkins star as Nick and Suzanne, who have been married six months and are still working through the issue of Nick's relationship with Suzanne's children, Kevin (Coy Stewart) and Lindsey (Teala Dunn).

At 10 and 14, respectively, they're old enough to know how to push Nick's buttons and not quite old enough to be held fully accountable.

So when Suzanne fixes Nick's favorite breakfast and leaves it for him to enjoy in the morning, the kids pop it into the freezer.

As this suggests, much of the sabotage here isn't as over-the-top as it was in the movie, and that's okay, since a TV show has to pace itself a little more.

Nick and Suzanne also are still sorting out issues between themselves. For instance, Nick doesn't like the way Suzanne has to fix her face before she goes to bed.

"In the daytime, you look like Halle Berry," he tells her. "At night, you look like Tyler Perry."

This remark suggests both the level of the humor and the degree to which the writers will be relying on popular culture. Other references include Octomom and Tiger Woods.

The problem is that despite the advantage of timeliness, neither joke feels fresh or imaginative.

Ice Cube plays the recurring role of Suzanne's brother, a cartoonish SWAT officer who vanishes without a trace the moment a conversation ends.

Long before Wednesday night's back-to-back, half-hour episodes are finished, this gimmick feels old.

Other major characters will include Nick's mother (Telma Hopkins), who doesn't care for Suzanne, and Suzanne's best friend (Keesha Sharp), a high-end groupie (or, if you prefer, "player") whose jet-setting lifestyle stands in contrast to Suzanne's settled domestic situation.

This provides Suzanne with an ongoing reminder that her own life used to be more glamorous. Nor is she alone, since Nick has sold his sporting-goods store and is now in "information technology."

The premiere's story line mostly revolves around a dispute between Nick and Suzanne about whether she will take his name.

While the story feels thin and forced, it does let the show dig into their real feelings toward each other, and reminds us that we like them both.

That core affection can go a long way. If the show can build on that, and also become a little funnier, it could get there.

An article about Are We There Yet?

‘Are We There Yet?’ interviews with Ice Cube, Terry Crews, Essence Atkins

6:41 pm June 1, 2010, by Rodney Ho

Terry Crews

After two successful “Are We There Yet?” movies, Joe Roth of Revolution Studios wanted a third. Executive producer Ice Cube didn’t.

So Roth suggested TV. He convinced “Everybody Hates Chris” executive producer Ali LeRoi and actor Terry Crews to come on board.

“It was a no brainer,” Ice Cube said in an interview last month before the show debuts Wednesday, June 2 at 9 p.m. on TBS sandwiched between “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” and “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns.” “This is something we can do that creates longevity. I’m a big fan of ‘Everybody Hates Chris.’ It’s still one of the best shows on TV even though it’s now in syndication.”

The new sitcom takes up where the first movie ended, about six months into the new marriage of Suzanne and Nick. Suzanne’s two kids are trying (sometimes reluctantly) to accept the new daddy in their lives as the newlyweds struggle to merge their lives.

“It’s when things are starting to get real,” said Crews. “The honeymoon period is over and he has numerous complaints about that.”

Essence Atkins (”Half and Half”), who plays Suzanne, said she thinks a lot of people “will relate to maintaining a full-time job and being independent and managing your kids and your life and now you’re not sure how to incorporate the new person.”

“They’re a family and I wasn’t,” Crews said. “That’s a whole different dynamic. That takes trust and it takes time. I’m trying to rush it a little bit.”

And Crews will take advantage of his penchant for physical humor.

“When all else fails,” Crews cracked, “fall down!”

Ice Cube did not want to be tied down as the lead character as he was in the movies. So he is executive producer and shows up as Suzanne’s protective older brother. (In one episode where he pops up, the applause is huge when he shows up, so much so that he has to wait several beats before he says anything.)

How important is Ice Cube to the project? His face – not those of Terry and Essence – is on the billboards in Atlanta.

Effectively, TBS is creating a night of sitcoms geared to African Americans that Fox did back in the 1990s and UPN and the CW this past decade. Tyler’s first-run sitcoms regularly draw 2.5 to 3 million viewers a week. Placing “Are We There Yet?” in between Perry’s two hit shows is about as strong a position as a sitcom can get.

And Perry is on board with the project, Ice Cube said. Perry invited his crew to come to his Atlanta studios to see how the Atlanta mogul puts his show together in a much quicker fashion than typical sitcoms (and naturally, much cheaper.). “He’s been really helpful putting this together,” Ice Cube said.

Cable budgets are far smaller than broadcast so the trick is to make it look just as good. “Be smart,” Ice Cube said. “We do a lot of pre-planning. If you do it right, you can pull off miracles. The comedy is in the writing and the interactions with the family. It’s not in the locations or amount of locations.”

“It’s an escalated pace,” Atkins said. “We love that. It’s more money quicker!”

The first ten episodes will feature a few cameos, including comic Charlie Murphy as Suzanne’s ex.

“I’ll try to get all my homeys to come through and sprinkle the show every now and then,” Ice Cube said.

Oddly, people think Murphy and Crews look alike although Crews said he weighs “200 pounds more.” “Suzanne,” Atkins said, “likes it bald. She has a type.”

Ten episodes is definitely a test. But Ice Cube hopes if it gels, he “can imagine getting into a 30-episode groove where we can really have fun. TBS gets a chance to test drive us before they really commit. And we get a chance to make sure it’s a quality product before we commit.”

Ice Cube acknowledges “Are We There Yet?” isn’t cutting edge. “It’s family fare. I’m going for the cheap seats so to speak. To me, it’s a situational comedy where you’re really dealing with a real-life situation that I believe is funny. We’ll see what the audience thinks.”

A Review from The Pittsburgh Post Gazette

"Are We There Yet" is triple the fun for cast
TV Preview

Tuesday, June 08, 2010
By Rick Bentley, McClatchy Newspapers

Terry Crews and the rest of the cast of the new TBS comedy "Are We There Yet?" have done what many thought impossible.

Since the early days of TV, it has been accepted that it takes a week to film a sitcom episode. That thinking might change with "Are We There Yet?" filming three episodes a week.

"For years everyone in Hollywood said this kind of schedule was impossible. But we did it. I do have to admit, it's really not as hard as you think. But it takes a lot of coordination," Mr. Crews says. "Our thing was 'It's comedy. Relax.' We aren't doing Shakespeare."

Mr. Crews plays the father in a blended family who's just trying to figure out his role as new husband and stepfather. The series is based on the feature film of the same name.

Mr. Crews likes the quick pace because there's less time to reshoot scenes. He's found that too many attempts can grind the spark out of a joke.

A lot of the jokes come from his character's former career selling sports memorabilia. That's familiar turf for Mr. Crews, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the 11th round of the 1991 NFL draft. He played professional football for six seasons with the Rams, San Diego Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins.

He spent most of his pro football career on the bench but has one claim to fame: During a "Monday Night Football" game between the Rams and Colts, Mr. Crews made such a brutal tackle on a kickoff, he knocked himself unconscious for about 30 seconds.

"The Colts have that horseshoe on the side of their helmet. When I got up I couldn't understand why they had a U on their helmet. I thought we were playing Utica," Crews says.

The Michigan native gave up his sports career in 1997 to go into acting. He played T-Money on the competition series "Battle Dome" and appeared in the films "Friday After Next," "Idiocracy" and "White Chicks." He can be seen later this summer in the Sylvester Stallone action film "The Expendables."

The highlight of his TV career has been playing the miserly, workaholic dad on the much-heralded "Everybody Hates Chris." Fatherhood is something he knows; he and his wife of 20 years, Rebecca, have five children, and their life was depicted in the BET reality series "The Family Crews." He wasn't necessarily looking to play another dad, though.

He just wanted to act.

"As an actor, you act. If I was a welder, I would have found a new house to weld," Mr. Crews says.

In this case, he would have welded three houses in a week.

To watch some clips from Are We There Yet go to http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=are+we+there+yet%3F+tbs&aq=f

For The Official Website of Keesha Sharp go to http://www.keeshasharp.com/