"I guess I need a TV show to get mines, but I don't feel like kissing no director's behind..."
So went the lyrics to "Ain't No Stoppin' This", an album track from rapper LL Cool J's "14 Shots to the Dome" LP, released in 1993. This is significant because barely two years later, LL's lyrical diss toward rappers who discard their artistic integrity for mainstream fame would come to ring curiously ironic by the time that NBC sitcom "In the House" Premiered.
The concept centers LL (early promotional copy for the show ditched his rap moniker for his real name, James Todd Smith) as pro football player Marion Hill. Injured and unable to continue with his career for the Los Angeles Raiders, not to mention in financial dire straits thanks to crooked management, he rents out half of his palatial home to the recently divorced Jackie Warren (Debbie Allen) who brings along her two children: elementary school-aged Austin (Jeffery Wood) and teenaged Tiffany (Maia Campbell). The main tension of the series concerned Marion coming to terms with having to trade in his bachelor sports star lifestyle for being a surrogate father figure to Jackie's two children. (Jackie's ex-husband left her and kept most of their money). The first two sets of seasons reflected a fairly typical domestic sitcom. Looking back, one could argue that part of it was almost an updated version of "Who's the Boss?" early on, without any romantic tension between the two adult leads. (Debbie Allen, by then a veteran television producer and director, is 18 years older than LL Cool J, which possibly was a reason why their characters weren't 'shipped'). This was also the second formal collaboration for Allen and LL; the former directed the latter in the film-noir based "Out of Sync", released that same year.
The first "season" was only six episodes in the spring of 1995. The second, though technically first full season, came in the fall of that year. The end of that season coincided with the end of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air", also a co-production of Quincy Jones/David Salzman, and NBC was not willing to commit to "In the House" again without its lead-in.
Fortunately, UPN stepped in to renew the show. However, the backdrop was slightly retooled. Gone were actors Allen and Wood; newly added to the show were Kim Wayans ("In Living Color") and Alfonso Ribiero ("The Fresh Prince of Bel Air").
At this point, the domestic affairs of the Warren family (mostly) weren't an issue anymore, as Jackie and Austin have "moved back East". Tiffany (assumed to be a high school junior/senior by now), meanwhile, has been left to the care of Marion as a legal guardian, so her hijinks were still allowed to happen.
Marion, meanwhile, has officially retired from football and was now the primary owner of a fitness center in Los Angeles. Wayans played Tonya, a fitness trainer at the center, while Ribiero played Dr. Stanton, a physician in residence there. In the updated format, the zany Tonya and snobbish Stanton serve as foils for Marion's straight man/everyman character, with Tiffany's teen troubles never far behind.
With the updated setting, the show lasted another two years on UPN (and apparently added six episodes for a syndication package, giving it a final total of 76 episodes).
Overall, there was nothing groundbreaking about the series, but it is generally okay. Series star LL Cool J was already a popular musician, and the series gave him plenty of opportunities to showcase his physique for the female audience. The Marion character didn't seem to far removed from LL's real life personality. His acting appearances had been sporadic up until then, so he was an unknown quantity to headline a major network sitcom at the time. Still, he proved to be game to deliver one-liners nearly as well as former rapper-turned-actor Will Smith. When Wayans and Ribiero joined the cast, more physical comedy was in the mix.
Wayans channeled her various sketch characters from the "In Living Color" show, while Ribiero as Stanton was basically Carlton with a medical degree.
The show is pretty family friendly, despite some occasional rated PG banter.
The concept centers LL (early promotional copy for the show ditched his rap moniker for his real name, James Todd Smith) as pro football player Marion Hill. Injured and unable to continue with his career for the Los Angeles Raiders, not to mention in financial dire straits thanks to crooked management, he rents out half of his palatial home to the recently divorced Jackie Warren (Debbie Allen) who brings along her two children: elementary school-aged Austin (Jeffery Wood) and teenaged Tiffany (Maia Campbell). The main tension of the series concerned Marion coming to terms with having to trade in his bachelor sports star lifestyle for being a surrogate father figure to Jackie's two children. (Jackie's ex-husband left her and kept most of their money). The first two sets of seasons reflected a fairly typical domestic sitcom. Looking back, one could argue that part of it was almost an updated version of "Who's the Boss?" early on, without any romantic tension between the two adult leads. (Debbie Allen, by then a veteran television producer and director, is 18 years older than LL Cool J, which possibly was a reason why their characters weren't 'shipped'). This was also the second formal collaboration for Allen and LL; the former directed the latter in the film-noir based "Out of Sync", released that same year.
The first "season" was only six episodes in the spring of 1995. The second, though technically first full season, came in the fall of that year. The end of that season coincided with the end of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air", also a co-production of Quincy Jones/David Salzman, and NBC was not willing to commit to "In the House" again without its lead-in.
Fortunately, UPN stepped in to renew the show. However, the backdrop was slightly retooled. Gone were actors Allen and Wood; newly added to the show were Kim Wayans ("In Living Color") and Alfonso Ribiero ("The Fresh Prince of Bel Air").
At this point, the domestic affairs of the Warren family (mostly) weren't an issue anymore, as Jackie and Austin have "moved back East". Tiffany (assumed to be a high school junior/senior by now), meanwhile, has been left to the care of Marion as a legal guardian, so her hijinks were still allowed to happen.
Marion, meanwhile, has officially retired from football and was now the primary owner of a fitness center in Los Angeles. Wayans played Tonya, a fitness trainer at the center, while Ribiero played Dr. Stanton, a physician in residence there. In the updated format, the zany Tonya and snobbish Stanton serve as foils for Marion's straight man/everyman character, with Tiffany's teen troubles never far behind.
With the updated setting, the show lasted another two years on UPN (and apparently added six episodes for a syndication package, giving it a final total of 76 episodes).
Overall, there was nothing groundbreaking about the series, but it is generally okay. Series star LL Cool J was already a popular musician, and the series gave him plenty of opportunities to showcase his physique for the female audience. The Marion character didn't seem to far removed from LL's real life personality. His acting appearances had been sporadic up until then, so he was an unknown quantity to headline a major network sitcom at the time. Still, he proved to be game to deliver one-liners nearly as well as former rapper-turned-actor Will Smith. When Wayans and Ribiero joined the cast, more physical comedy was in the mix.
Wayans channeled her various sketch characters from the "In Living Color" show, while Ribiero as Stanton was basically Carlton with a medical degree.
The show is pretty family friendly, despite some occasional rated PG banter.