In this farcial series, Damon Wayans played an undercover cop in The Chicago Police Department who relished the opportunity to disguise himself as everything from a flashy pimp, in order to break up an escort service, to a warehouse worker, to catch a cocaine smuggler. His inept older brother, Bernard ( David Alan Grier), worked as a security guard but wanted desperately to be a real cop. He had just seperated from his wife and moved in with Damon. Tough cookie Stacy ( Melissa De Sousa), was Damon's sometimes partner; Billy ( Greg Pitts), the ignorant new recruit; and Fontain ( Dom Irrera), an officer who hated to do the paperwork to close his cases. Captain Czynencko ( Andrea Martin), their pint-sized female boss, was pretty abrasive despite trying to find ways to "relate" to her less-then-receptive squad. Tracy ( Veronica webb), was the sexy, divorced reporter for the Chicago Times with whom Damon was in love. For a time she lived in the apartment across the hall along with Bernard, who'd had a falling out with his brother, but after 3 weeks she took a Peace Corps assignment and Bernard moved back in with Damon.
Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner were the Executive Producers of Damon.
A Review From The New York Times
TELEVISION REVIEW; Cop of Many Faces Chases Both Crooks and Comedy
By RICK LYMAN
Published: March 20, 1998
Sketch comedy, driven by caricature, is different from situation comedy, which is driven by character. Sketch comedy is a lot easier. The comedians who come out of America's sketch shows, ''Saturday Night Live'' and its clones, should have that needle-pointed and hung on their dressing room wall.
Damon Wayans, a genuinely talented comedian and actor who earned his spurs on ''In Living Color,'' a brilliant sketch program, finds himself stranded in his new sitcom, ''Damon.'' This is, in large part, because the show's writers, with the star's apparent connivance, lean too heavily on Mr. Wayans's considerable skills as a caricaturist without making more than half-hearted attempts to build the kind of easy intimacy between the audience and the character that any sitcom simply must have.
Mr. Wayans plays Damon, a Chicago undercover cop who is a master of disguise and whose detective skills seem to consist of dressing up as funny sketch characters and trying to fool crooks into admitting their guilt. Mr. Wayans becomes Silky Smooth, a gaudy pimp who screeches about his ''ho,'' trying to entrap the owners of an escort service. Then, when that doesn't work, he's a dirty old coot trying to hire himself an evening's entertainment. In another episode, he's a hallucinating street person thrown into the holding pen with a pair of bank robbers.
Mr. Wayans plays these parts preeningly, going straight for the laughs, which is the way sketch characters need to be played, but he does so at the expense of any sense of believability in the scenes, without which situation comedy flops on the dock like a gasping bass.
This master-of-disguise brand of comedy has always been attractive to actors and comedians who believe their greatest skills lie in sketch comedy, but it is not often done well. Eddie Murphy playing his entire family in ''The Nutty Professor'' is a rare success.
Normally, the results are closer to ''Damon,'' reminding one less of Melville's ''Confidence Man'' than Chevy Chase's ''Fletch.''
''Damon'' splits its attention between the precinct house and Mr. Wayans's apartment, which he shares with his brother, a home security officer with an inferiority complex, played by David Alan Grier. The scenes between the brothers are the strongest, largely because Mr. Grier's firm hold on his character brings out the best in Mr. Wayans.
It's early going for the series, of course, but the station house scenes seem fairly flavorless. The supporting coterie of cops tend to blend together, largely because the focus of almost every scene stays relentlessly on the star. An exception is the marvelous Andrea Martin, popping up now and then as the brittle, blustery precinct captain.
A juvenile vein of sexism and homophobia also runs through the series, at least for the early episodes. A visit to the precinct by a sexual harassment counselor, a flustered woman, ends with Mr. Wayans and the others pulling down their pants and simulating sex acts under the guise of seeking clarification. Another episode involves Mr. Wayans's fear of a prostate exam, which he associates with a homosexual act. This all plays even less funny than it sounds, if that's possible, and should be jettisoned early if ''Damon'' is to have any chance of success, or even honorable failure.
The show's premiere is on Sunday night at 8:30 on the Fox Network and will hold that time slot for two more Sundays before moving to its regular slot on Mondays at 8 P.M. on April 6.
DAMON
Fox, Sunday night at 8:30
(Channel 5 in New York)
Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner, Caryn Mandabach, Damon Waynans and Dick Blasucci, executive producers. A Nu Systems Production in association with Carsey-Werner.
WITH: Damon Wayans (Damon), David Alan Grier (Bernard), Andrea Martin (Capt. Carol Czynencko), Melissa De Sousa (Stacy Phillips), Dom Irrera (Carrol Fontaine), Julio Oscar Mechoso (Jimmy Tortone), Greg Pitts (Billy McCarthy).
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