Flavor Flav acts up for 'Under One Roof'

April 16, 09:49 AM

Flavor Flav, hype man extraordinaire and bona fide reality TV star, is surprisingly humble about his acting prowess on MyNetworkTV's "Under One Roof."

"Uh, it's getting there," Flav tells Zap2it.com with a laugh. "I'm looking forward to [an Emmy] soon. I know that this is my first time really acting, so I'm not doing bad."

On the sitcom, which debuts on MyNetworkTV on Wednesday, April 16 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, Flav plays Calvester Hill, a streetwise ex-con who moves in with his wealthy real estate broker brother Winston (Kelly Perine), his wife Ashley (Carrie Genzel) and their two kids Heather (Marie Michael) and Winston, Jr. (Jessie Reid).

"The reason why I went to jail was when me and him was little, we had stole a car," explains the actor, whose energy, even through the phone, is infectious. "He crashed the car. I jumped behind the wheel and took the weight for him. So I'm in jail all of these years. He goes through school and everything and becomes this rich person.

"Then, when I get out of jail, I say, 'Brah, you remember I took the weight for you all them years ago. I got nowhere to go. Can I stay?' He moves me in with him and his family and boy, does the saga continue."

Part of the friction in the household comes from Ashley's disapproval of Calvester and his many friends that traipse in and out of the Hill household. Guest stars, who often play ex-convicts themselves, include "A Different World's" Kadeem Hardison, rapper Twista, "Friday" star Tiny Lister and Fredro Starr from Onyx.

Although Calvester and his sister-in-law butt heads, he takes to being an uncle easily.

"The kids, yeah man, the kids love me, man. I'm Uncle Cal to them," says Flav. "We have a good time. I start teaching my nephew how to become a rapper, teaching them not to be in gangs or stuff like that. So I teach them some street-y ways, start corrupting the house a little bit."

Naturally, Calvester finds that he's dependent on his newfound family to navigate society outside of the clink.

"I learn a lot from them. I learn about proper mannerisms I never really had," he says. "Not only that, but my brother is very smart in the corporate world, so I learned some things from him as well. And at the same time, my street-y ways help him out in the corporate world as well. So one hand washes the other, you know?"

Flav, born William Drayton, is a performer at heart. This classically trained pianist first gained fame as Public Enemy's outrageous hype man. In 2004, he brought his exuberant personality to reality TV with the third season of "The Surreal Life," which in turn spawned "Strange Love," featuring him and Brigitte Nielsen, and the tongue-in-cheek reality dating show "Flavor of Love," which is in its third season.

As a longtime lover of classic sitcoms such as "Diff'rent Strokes," "Good Times," "The Jeffersons" and "Maude," Flavor Flav always wanted to realize his acting dreams through a sitcom of his own.

"I've done reality TV for about four years now," he says. "I was able to reach one of the goals, which was to become a TV star, but now I want to become a bigger TV star in the sitcom world. I feel that I can really grow from this and hopefully go to the movie screen."

The rigorous schedule is proving to be a bigger challenge than he expected though.

"I'm still not used to it because of the way that we're shooting. We have one rehearsal day and two shoot days," he explains. "I'm shooting two episodes a week. This is not really an easy run for me because in most sitcom shows, they practice for four days, and then they shoot for one day. In my case, I'm doing double time, lady. Hey, like a coat in a closet, I'm hanging in there, baby girl."

Always the hype man, Flavor Flav knows what viewers will want when they tune in for "Under One Roof."

"The most surprising thing that people will see is: Flav can act!"

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Comments (12)

Comments

I hear everybody saying that "Flavor of love is not real, their all acting." I finally now know the truth!" Flavor flav is not acting! He can't act he's horrible at it. Its bad enough that flavor of love has set women back 10 years but wowwww! He set the entire race back on his prime time t.v show "under one roof" He hangs out with x-cons, makes fried bolongia sandwhiches and the worst part is....none of it is funny. "hated it".......now that's funny

chris | Apr 16, 2008 8:25:19 PM | #

chris | Apr 16, 2008 8:25:31 PM | #

I don't agree. The show is FUNNY and that's enuf. It looks like the role was written to fit Flav's personality, but I had a good time watching it.

Fortcookie | Apr 17, 2008 11:55:24 AM | #

Hi,
Filmaka.com wants people to come up with the next "Southpark" type comedy and pitch it to them. You have to shoot a 3-minute film, but it doesn't have to be high-tech - they're looking for the idea. Then you write a page or two about what the whole series would be like. FX Network wants to pick up one of the submissions to make into a TV show for their fall season. Not a bad return for making a little video and writing 2 pages.

From the competition submissions, ten semi-finalists will revise their shorts based on notes from FX and receive $1,000. Filmaka will begin accepting uploads for this competition on Monday, April21. The deadline for submitting your film and written brief is midnight on May 1, 2008. After the shorts are revised, one winner will be chosen to receive a budget of up to $40,000 to create a 15- to 20-minute presentation. For more details Log on to
http://filmaka.com/competition.php?page=current&competition_id=251
Regards
John

Johnronald | Apr 18, 2008 3:58:28 AM | #

Nielsen Ratings:
MyNetworkTV numbers: 4/16/08 (Wednesday)

8:00/7:00c - "Under One Roof" series premiere on MyNetworkTV managed only 1,210,000 viewers (1.21 million viewers) and 0.5/2 in the Adults 18-49 demographic.

8:30/7:30c - "In Living Color" (only reruns/repeats) network premiere stumbled to 980,000 viewers (0.98 million viewers) and 0.4/1 in the A18-49 demo.

SOURCE: http://tvcraze.blogspot.com/2008/04/international-television-mynetworktv_17.html

Josh | Apr 20, 2008 2:41:48 PM | #

This may be the worst show of the millennium so far. Stupid, racist, lazy, obnoxious, and incompetent. If "Seinfeld" could save a network, this putrid bit of feces could destroy one.

Mike K. | Apr 22, 2008 4:12:23 AM | #

I love Flav & all, but man this was bad!!! Its on My Network for a reason.

sideshow AL | Apr 22, 2008 1:10:45 PM | #

So I watched the show last night for the first time because I do believe in supporting my people. I watched 30 seconds of it and I was immediately embarrass and disgusted with the show but I wanted to be fair in my opinion so I watch the hold show and I was not impress. The writers of this show should all be fired! I can not believe that this level of tv can still make it to the network I'm mean what the hell were you guys thinking about this show sucks on all levels of garbage tv but it does not surprise me because this is just like Flavor Flav no class just trash and the white people are just laughing this one up. I heard Flavor Flav on Power 105.1 radio station saying how this show will last for the next ten years and that it was on the same level as Fresh Prince of Bell Air what an insult to Will Smith because this show is no where close to Fresh Prince and oh please I give this show 3 months before they pull the plug on this mess and I really want to say earlier but then again I've notice how ignorance pays the bills these days right Flav.

Kymberly H. | Apr 24, 2008 8:40:46 AM | #

flav its ya boy larry from roosevelt l.i i love ya show yo and i wish you mad success gee! i`m are proud of you my boyeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

larry | Apr 30, 2008 6:50:35 PM | #

Only in America can a barely articulate, drug addled moron get work while so many talented people can't. The IQ of the US drops every time this dreck airs.

Juke Early | May 4, 2008 10:30:01 PM | #

I'm African American and think this show is horrible; I thought the PJ's was bad (and I actually laugh at it at times but most times I shake my head in disbelief).
Some humor should be reserved amongst ourselves/our race...

kbn | May 8, 2008 9:48:24 AM | #

This under one roof show is corny as hell and flavor is the worst actor I have ever seen and I thought johnny knox was bad but compared to flav im loving the knox

lady A | May 11, 2008 4:27:34 PM | #