TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. A new TV comedy series called "Clean Slate" premieres today on Prime Video. It's about a widower in Alabama, whose long-estranged son returns home but as his daughter. Veteran comedian George Wallace plays the dad, and actress Laverne Cox from "Orange Is The New Black" plays the trans daughter. The show is one of the last TV series from pioneering sitcom producer Norman Lear, who died in 2023. Our TV critic, David Bianculli, has this review.
DAVID BIANCULLI, BYLINE: "Clean Slate" won't be the last we'll hear from Norman Lear. The man behind "All In The Family" and "The Jeffersons" and "Maude" and "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" had several other TV projects in development at the time of his death. His death, by the way, came when he was 101 years old. Among those projects still in development is a remake of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," Lear's somewhat twisted parody of a soap opera. And in a way, "Clean Slate," the new comedy series on Prime Video, is a remake, too, or at least a variation on a familiar theme. But it's very well-cast and has a lot more laughs and tenderness than I expected.
To picture the basic framework of "Clean Slate," start with "All In The Family," Lear's most famous creation, and imagine that Archie Bunker was still living in the same house in which his wife had died decades earlier. Then imagine that Archie's longtime former household nemesis, the son-in-law he called meathead, was not his son-in-law but his was not his son-in-law but his son. And finally, imagine that after a very long, estranged absence, the son was returning home as a daughter. This premise allows for a lot of intergenerational arguing under one roof, just as "All In The Family" did, but with some significant changes. The father, Harry Slate, is Black, played by the veteran comic George Wallace. The trans woman who moves back in with him is played by Laverne Cox from "Orange Is The New Black." And while Norman Lear began developing "Clean Slate" back when he was 96 years old, the credit for creating the series and writing the pilot goes to three people. Dan Ewen, who wrote "Dear Santa," George Wallace and Laverne Cox.
The show isn't shot in front of an audience, and there's no laugh track. But there are laughs, mostly because "Clean Slate" is so well-cast from top to bottom. Wallace's Harry Slate, just like Carroll O'Connor's Archie Bunker, manages to be liable, even lovable, even when he's being gruff and loud and way too opinionated. And Cox brings a lot of heart, as well as a lot of combative playfulness, to her role as well, which you can tell from their very first scene together. He's at home watching TV, awaiting the first visit from his son, Desmond, whom he hasn't seen or talked to in 23 years, when the doorbell rings.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "CLEAN SLATE")
LAVERNE COX: (As Desiree) Hello.
GEORGE WALLACE: (As Harry) Hey, Ms. Fancy Lady. I don't know what you're trying to sell me, but you can just go ahead and leave your little Watchtower magazine because I'm just really having a good time right now. My son's coming any minute now.
COX: (As Desiree) Harry.
WALLACE: (As Harry) Harry? How you know my first name? What's the suitcase for?
COX: (As Desiree) Dad, I'm your daughter, Desiree.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WALLACE: (As Harry) Desmond?
COX: (As Desiree) No. No, no, no. It's Desiree. I've always been Desiree. Clearly, we have a lot of catching up to do. May I come in?
WALLACE: (As Harry) Yeah, come on in.
BIANCULLI: In lesser hands, "Clean Slate" could be a one-joke show, or at best, a one-act play. After all, if Harry doesn't accept Desiree into his home, the show is over. And if Harry does share his household, where does the show go from there? Well, "Clean Slate" does have places to go, in part because the small Alabama town in which Harry runs his car wash is well-populated.
There's the formerly incarcerated man with a young daughter, both of whom work at the car wash. The local pastor, who was a childhood friend of Desmond's, the next-door neighbor, who's not exactly neighborly, and even a town busybody played by another veteran performer, Telma Hopkins. But the spine of "Clean Slate" and what makes it work is the relationship and the comic timing between Wallace's Harry and Cox's Desiree. Instead of a swear jar, they have a pronoun jar. And every time he slips, he has to pay $1. And just like Archie and Meathead, Harry and Desiree have clashing opinions about just about everything, including, from Episode 2, a vintage velvet painting on Harry's wall called "The Last Supper Of Soul."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "CLEAN SLATE")
COX: (As Desiree) So it's time to declutter. We can start by replacing that eyesore on the wall.
WALLACE: (As Harry) Eyesore? That's a tasteful, enduring masterwork created on the finest velvet and sold to me on one of the finest off-ramps in Birmingham.
COX: (As Desiree) It's hideous. Not to mention, you can't have a Last Supper of Soul without Beyonce as Jesus, of course.
WALLACE: (As Harry) Well, hell, Ray Charles is clearly Jesus. And you can't have no alive Jesus. Beyonce is still roaming the Earth.
COX: (As Desiree) Beyonce is roaming the Earth? She is not a T-rex. She is an icon. She is a legend. And she's forever the moment.
WALLACE: (As Harry) And this is my prized possession. And it ain't going nowhere, son - daughter. Dammit.
COX: (As Desiree) Jar.
BIANCULLI: The feel of the show is a little old-fashioned, like comfort food. But the very point of "Clean Slate," which is to be open to other viewpoints and embrace diversity, couldn't be more timely or more potentially controversial. Even from beyond the grave, Norman Lear is stirring up some good trouble and a pretty good TV sitcom.
MOSLEY: David Bianculli is a professor of television studies at Rowan University. He reviewed "Clean Slate," which begins streaming today on Prime Video. Coming up, book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews two quintessential New York books. This is FRESH AIR.
(SOUNDBITE OF KYLE EASTWOOD, ET AL.'S "SAMBA DE PARIS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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