Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Wanda At Large: Cast Photo

Wanda At Large aired from March until November 2003 on FOX.

Wanda (Wanda Sykes) was an unemployed stand-up comic in Washington, D.C. whose life changed radically when she met her friend Keith's boss Roger ( Jason Kravits).Keith ( Dale Godboldo) was a segment producer for The Beltway Gang, a local political talk show on WHDG-TV, and Roger, after meeting her, decided that her outspoken in-your-face attitude would make her the perfect on-air correspondent to liven up his boring show. Wanda, who was very opinionated and got down and dirty on the air, clashed with the show's two anchors-stuffy Rita ( Ann Magnuson), who sometimes found her amusing, and uptight Bradley ( Phil Morris), who couldn't stand her-and the sparks flew. It was good for ratings but certainly strained relationships ,and manipulative Roger kept stirring the pot to maintain the friction. Wanda lived across the hall from her widowed sister-in-law, Jenny ( Tammy Lauren), who was raising two teenage children, Barris and Holly ( Robert Bailey, Jr. Jurnee Smollett), with Wanda's "help." Each episode opened with Wanda doing an outrageous out-of-studio segment on a topic of the day, such as gun buyers or plastic surgery, followed by the bemused, befuddled or repulsed reactions of the other members of The Beltway Gang panel.

At the start of the fall season, the station had a new general manager, Max ( Mark McKinney), a recovering alcoholic.

A Review from Variety

Wanda at Large
(Sitcom; Fox, Wed., March 26, 9:30 p.m.)
By MICHAEL SPEIER

Filmed in Los Angeles by Mohawk Prods. in association with Warner Bros. Television. Executive producers, Bruce Helford, Deborah Oppenheimer, Les Firestein; co-executive producer, Barton Dean; supervising producer, Lance Crouther; producers, Wanda Sykes, Ernest Johnson, Lisa Koontz; director, Gerry Cohen; writers, Helford, Crouther, Firestein, Hawkins

Wanda Hawkins - Wanda Sykes
Bradley - Phil Morris
Keith - Dale Godboldo
Barris - Robert Bailey Jr.
Jenny - Tammy Lauren
Roger - Jason Kravitz
Rita - Ann Magnuson

Get past the voice and you'll get into Fox's "Wanda at Large," a peppy little vehicle that carries loud and lewd comedienne Wanda Sykes. Tailor-made for her brash attitude and Don Rickles-like insults (which have alienated some and made her an acquired taste), show follows stints on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and, of all places, HBO's "Inside the NFL."

Taking its cues from "Seinfeld" and "The Bernie Mac Show," "Wanda at Large" is about a real standup playing a fake standup. In this case, she's Wanda Hawkins, a D.C. comic who gets a shot to be a cheeky correspondent on a political talker.

After scoring an audition thanks to her producer friend Keith (Dale Godboldo) and a barbed barrage of one-liners at one of his company parties, she's offered the job by station manager Roger (Jason Kravitz), who grabs her with the intention of boosting ratings and making a name for himself.

On week one, she lets it rip, leaving nothing in her wake as she batters her colleagues, including fussy pundit Rita (Ann Magnuson) and button-down, womanizing anchorman Bradley (Phil Morris). Only when the phones light up after her first appearance does management decide to hire her full-time, despite misgivings.

After a short warmup period, Sykes melts into her role with ease; she's as tart-tongued and acerbic as every other character she's played (her "Curb" role as Cheryl Hines' best friend and Larry David's foil allows her to swim in profanity). Like Mac, she's completely comfortable with her limitations and confident that whatever it is that has gotten her to this point can indeed steer her through every half-hour.

"Wanda at Large" also has a snappy supporting cast. Although the kids don't quite gel -- her nephew and niece look to her for guidance ever since their father died -- Morris, better known as attorney Jackie Chiles on "Seinfeld," is like a sleazy Ted Baxter, and Magnuson is solid as the weekly punching bag.

To its credit, Wanda's sister-in-law (Tammy Lauren) is white, a point that's neither blasted home nor tiptoed around. It's a welcome feature.

A Review from The New York Times

TELEVISION REVIEW; A Beltway Show Intentionally Funny

By RON WERTHEIMER
Published: March 26, 2003

There's something subversive about ''Wanda at Large,'' the promising sitcom that starts tonight on Fox. The show, starring Wanda Sykes as an unorthodox reporter, pokes fun at television news in general and conservative commentators in particular. That may be surprising, but here's the subversive part: Ms. Sykes's character, Wanda Hawkins, is not only feisty, funny, loud and (you should excuse the expression) liberal, she's also smart.

In tonight's episode Wanda announces on a Sunday talk show that her colleague Rita (Ann Magnuson) has had a face-lift. ''I'm not ashamed to admit that I had a little enhancement,'' says the airheaded Rita. Wanda, looking horrified, blurts: ''Enhancement? You had a metamorphosis. Who did your face, Kafka?''

The opening installment must introduce the series's premise and characters. Art imitates life, as Ms. Sykes, a stand-up comic who contributes tongue-in-cheek features to ''Inside the N.F.L.'' on HBO, plays a stand-up comic who's hired to contribute tongue-in-cheek features to a Washington station. The fictional Wanda needs the job. She's broke, and her health insurance has lapsed: ''If I catch something you can't cure with Epsom salt, I'm dead.''

When Wanda's pal Keith (Dale Godboldo), a news producer at the station, takes her to an office party, her outgoing style irks the uptight anchor Bradley (Phil Morris, who played the bombastic lawyer Jackie Chiles on ''Seinfeld''). Bradley, who like Wanda is black, complains, ''It's people like her that lead to people like me being pulled over in my Bentley.'' (In a later episode he calls her ''Excedrin the Entertainer.'') Over Bradley's objection, the mousy station manager, Roger (Jason Kravitz), hires Wanda to pep up his news team and adds her to that talk show, ''The Beltway Gang.''

Wanda lives alone but across the hall from Jenny (Tammy Lauren), a willowy blonde who was married to Wanda's conveniently dead brother. Jenny relies on Wanda's sitcom-daffy help in raising two sitcom-cute teenagers. Naturally, both Wanda and Jenny hope to enhance their sitcom-bleak love lives.

Yes, there are more than a few sitcom-threadbare elements here. And the dynamics among the ensemble characters, the hallmark of an enduring sitcom, still need fine-tuning. No one will confuse this newsroom comedy with ''Murphy Brown,'' even if the Roger character does seem modeled on Grant Shaud's portrayal of Murphy's boss, Miles Silverberg.

But Wanda's barbed television reports, which play knowingly with real issues, make you root for this show. Tonight she skewers gun owners. Next week she talks about golf courses that bar women, saying that some segregation should be encouraged: ''Old white guys should be segregated from movies with young women.'' The following week, considering the matter of reparations for slavery, she stops a white man on the street, presses some buttons on a calculator and says: ''Hi, I'm black. You owe me $15.13.'' These bits are clever, maybe even courageous.

Like Ms. Sykes, her show sometimes tries too hard. Still, it packs real laughs and real ideas. That's no small accomplishment.

WANDA AT LARGE
Fox, tonight at 9:30, Eastern and Pacific times; 8:30, Central time

Bruce Helford, Deborah Oppenheimer and Les Firestein, executive producers; Barton Dean, co-executive producer; Lance Crouther, supervising producer; Wanda Sykes, producer and writer.

WITH: Wanda Skyes (Wanda Hawkins), Dale Godboldo (Keith), Phil Morris (Bradley), Ann Magnuson (Rita), Jason Kravitz (Roger) and Tammy Lauren (Jenny).

For a Review of Wanda at Large go to http://www.popmatters.com/tv/reviews/w/wanda-at-large.shtml

For more on Wanda at Large go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanda_At_Large