Martin (TV series)
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Template:Infobox television Martin was an American television sitcom produced by HBO Independent Productions that aired for five seasons from 1992 to 1997 on FOX. The show starred African-American comedian Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell.
Overview
The show revolved around a brash twenty something talk show host named Martin Payne (played by Lawrence), who worked at WZUP an urban hip-hop station in Detroit, Michigan for the first half of the series and a local television network for the second half until the series' end when he was offered to host a nationally-syndicated talk show in Los Angeles, thus moving there. His girlfriend (later wife) was Gina Waters (played by Campbell), an ad executive that can be as egotistical as Martin, but otherwise maintains a level head. In the last episode, she gets promoted to Senior Vice President of the ad office in Los Angeles after the Detroit office ceases operations, forcing her to move there with Martin.
Martin's closest friends were Tommy Strawn (played by Thomas Mikal Ford), a well-to-do guy who was a voice of reason for the circle of friends, a common running gag is whenever Tommy mentions his job in a situation everybody exclaims "You ain't got no job!", and Cole Brown (played by Carl Anthony Payne II, who was previously Theo's friend Cockroach on The Cosby Show), a loyal, yet idiotic airport attendant who lived at home with his mother, later on in the series though, he finds his own apartment and gets married to Shanise, who also appears to be idiotic. Gina's friend and co-worker Pamela "Pam" James, played by Tichina Arnold (who co-starred with Campbell in the theatrical adaptation of the off-Broadway musical The Little Shop of Horrors) completes the circle of friends. Pam and Martin constantly berate and belittle each other in every episode, even though ironically, Arnold is one of Lawrence's closest friends in real life.
One of the trademarks of Martin was Lawrence's numerous multiple costumed characters that made frequent appearances on the series. One of the most memorable characters was the walking stereotype Sheneneh Jenkins, played by Lawrence in drag. Sheneneh lived across from Martin in their apartment complex and factored into many of the sitcom's stories. Other notable characters played by Lawrence include:
• Roscoe, a short 10 year old who seemed to have affection for Gina and his nose would always have snot running down from it
• Otis, a wacky security guard who seems harmless, but prevented Pam & Gina from getting murdered in one episode
• Jerome, a pimp who runs a casino and wears a family gold tooth he almost lost possession of once, he often parties and has a crush on Pam. In every appearance, he would always have a funny pickup line for her. "Girl, ya name must be can-day, cause ya look so sweet..." (with a "blinging" gold tooth smile after each line)
• Momma or Mama Payne, Martin's mom who dislikes Gina and is very overprotective of Martin
• DragonFly Jones, A martial arts "expert" who got beat up in every appearance almost. He always seemed to owe money to a real martial artist, who would then beat him up.
• Elroy The Mechanic, this aspiring singer works on Pam's car in one episode. He can't really sing though. He did sing the memorable, "Dontcha know no good?" song, from which Campbell and Arnold sung backup in the ending credits (with complete Tina Turner style wigs).
There were few times during the run of the show when Martin Payne and one of his other characters appeared together. One occurred in the pilot episode when Martin spoke with his mother in Martin's apartment. Another occurred when Sheneneh was sitting on Payne's living room couch and Martin tried to sneak up on her from his room with a lamp in his hand intending to hit her, though before any action is done, Gina waves Martin off. There was also another time at Nipsey's club when Martin and Gina were separated. Otis, the security guard came over to Martin, who was crying and gave him some advice on how to get her back.
This show introduced a plethora of catchphrases and slang terms that became prominent in the lexicon of Americans, including You Go, Girl!, Talk to the hand, Get Ta Steppin, You ain't got no job!!, and Wazzuuppp, among others.
During the last few seasons of the show, Lawrence began abusing drugs and suffered numerous psychological effects as a result. Campbell sued Lawrence for sexual harassment, and subsequently left the show during its last season. Campbell appeared on the final episode of the series, though not appearing in any scenes with Lawrence, with the exception of a split-screen segment. Many viewers believe that Campbell's disappearance from the show (due to her real-life problems with Lawrence) was the exact moment when Martin "jumped the shark". To this day Lawrence and Campbell are still personally feuding.
Following the cancellation of the show, the stars went on to have successful careers. Lawrence has starred in several high-grossing comedy movies and Campbell recently starred on the sitcom My Wife and Kids with Damon Wayans. Ford and Payne continued acting in film, television, and theater while Arnold continued in film and television, recently becoming a main cast member of Chris Rock's semi-autobiographical UPN sitcom Everybody Hates Chris.