Wyclef - The Opportunistic Sitcom: Coming Soon

HBO makes some good shows -  like Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Sopranos and Deadwood. It’s also responsible for mediocre shows that idiots like - we’re referring mainly to Sex And The City here.

But it doesn’t really make any stinkers, any shows so opportunistic and bad that people can’t watch more than a second of it without beating their TV to dust with their bare fists. And now, maybe HBO wants to rectify this.

That has to be thinking behind it’s commissioning of a sitcom based on the life of Wyclef. It has to be.

Wyclef Jean (CDs) has signed up with HBO to produce and star in comedy
series loosely based on his life - in particular his childhood, when he
moved to New York from Haiti with his preacher father and couldn’t
speak any English. Wyclef will also produce music for the series.

Sounds to us like the Everybody Hates Chris floodgates have opened.
Call us cynical, but this news sounds like HBO wants a piece of the
’sweet outsider kid finding his own way in the big wide world’ sitcom
market. Everybody Hates Chris - the childhood story of Chris Rock - is
one of the success stories of the autumn season, and has restored
people’s faith in mainstream sitcoms.

But that doesn’t mean that people want Golden Years-style amusing nostalgia for every single celebrity on the planet. And if we’re not careful, it’ll happen. Look what happened after The Osbournes was first broadcast - our screens were suddenly filled with all kinds famous idiots doing their best to get rich by looking quirky. It’s not too much of a leap to imagine the same thing happening here. And we promise that if we ever have to watch a sitcom based on the childhood of Vanessa Feltz, we won’t be held responsible for our actions.

Back to Wyclef, though. It’s clear that he’s missing a trick by focusing completely on his
childhood, especially when his solo career has been so constantly hilarious. We’d
like to see an episode based on Wyclef deciding to change the words of his song 911 to 999
on Top Of The Pops, and we’d love to see the episode where he
single-handedly managed to destroy the career of Tom Jones.

Read more:

‘Comedy show’ for musician Wyclef - BBC

[story by Stuart Heritage]