If you’re like us, you’ll have spent the last few years wondering why there hasn’t been a TV show all about the childhood of Alicia Keys as written by someone who once wrote The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air.
Well, wonder no longer, because that TV show is on the way! Alicia Keys has signed a development deal with UPN to create a series based entirely around her early years. Finally, the eternal pub question of "I wonder what hilarious/dramatic scrapes Alicia Keys got in when she was six years old," can be put to rest.
There’s a weird obsession in America at the moment with turning the lives of
famous people into heartwarming Wonder Years-style nostalgic TV shows.
Well, we say ‘obsession’ – so far there’s only been Everybody Hates
Chris, a sitcom based on the childhood of Chris Rock. We’d like to say
that the whole series is based on kiddy Chris Rock taking the piss out
of kiddy Jude Law and making him cry, but that’s untrue.
Everybody Hates Chris has been a big success in America, and it has opened the floodgates for all kinds of entertainers to pimp their childhood for cash
remember fondly what it like to be young in TV shows. Second through
the gates, but almost certainly not last, is R&B warbler Alicia
Keys (CDs).
Alicia wants the world to see what life was like as a mixed-race
girl growing up without a father in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. And
being a precociously talented singer, of course. According to MTV,
Alicia Keys first showed her talent:
at age 4
when she sang in her kindergarten’s production of The Wiz. She
started weekly classical piano lessons at age 7, later trained with a
vocal coach, and enrolled at the Professional Performing Arts School,
where she was valedictorian. By 16 she had a major-label deal.
So
we’re set for a one-hour drama series about an irritating girl who
bursts into song at every opportunity, then. Urban Annie. Just what we
all need.
There aren’t any real concrete details about cast or shooting for
the pilot – which we’d like to see called Everybody Mostly Tolerates
Alicia – or the period of Alicia Keys’ childhood in which the show will
take place. The show will be produced by Alicia Keys and written by Felicia Henderson, a writer with credits on shows such as Moesha and The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air.
So long as the Alicia Keys TV show doesn’t stray into her adult life, which –
according to her music videos – is mostly spent arguing with her
convict boyfriends, watching people somersault on the tube and
playing grand pianos in snow-covered amphitheatres in the middle of nowhere.
Read more:
Alicia Keys’ Early Years To Be Made Into A TV Series – MTV
[story by Stuat Heritage]
Pamela says
I’m not quite sure why you’re hating on Alicia Keys’ new project. Is it you would have rather her project be more CSIish, X-Filish, NYPD Bluish or not be happening at all? I could possibly understand your position if it was the 10th one of its kind, but even as you said, only Chris Rock’s show has started this type of showcasing and has been quite successful – and deservingly so. Also, Keys’ show is a drama and not a comedy – an hour and not a half hour with a totally different premise and possibly audience in mind.
Why not embrace it, wish it well or even VIEW it before you diss it? I’d rather another inspirational show rather than another who did it to whom and how TV show. Maybe I could even watch it with my kids – wow, what a concept!
Lighten up,
Pammie
Alicia Keys Fam Member
john says
this was one funny review lol.
Joy says
I agree with the first review written by Pamela. Well said, Pamela. I love Alicia Keys and so I will support anything she does. At least she’s not like Beyonce and the other female artists of today. She has more talent than a little ass-shaking and she has never exploited herself. Im sure whatever the show turns out to be, it will be a positive thing for kids and adults alike