COSMIC SLOP

Creator, Executive Producer/Director

This was a three part special I did for HBO.  It was a backdoor pilot but didn’t get picked up as a series.  However, it did win two CableAce awards, which used to be a big deal until cable networks decided they could win Emmys and basically the award dissolved.

George Clinton was the host of three science fiction and supernatural stories with sociopolitical edge. Years later, Quinton Tarantino asked me what the hell was I thinking wasting the SPACE TRADERS story as a segment, when there’s clearly a great movie there.  Sigh….

THE LAST DAYS OF RUSSELL

Creator, Executive Producer/Director

It seems like a corny excuse to say something was “before its time” but this show really was.  It was a single camera dramedy before the format really existed.  It was based on my uncle Russell, who was named after HIS uncle Russell, who died at 14.   So he grew up thinking he was destined to the same fate.  He didn’t tell anyone, he just carried around this dread at such a young age.

I thought this was great material for a comedy.  After all, as a young black man, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you!

Later, directing the pilot of EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS, I kept thinking I had shot this before.  But I didn’t have the brilliance of Chris Rock first time around.

FREE TIME

Creator, Executive Producer/Director/Co-writer

Brandon Tartikoff was a television giant, a man who built the medium to what is it today.  We hit it off from our first meeting when he was at NBC and I pitched him a BEBE’S KIDS animated series.  When he left NBC and went to Paramount, I went with him, bringing theBEBE’S KIDS project which became a movie.

He was great to work with, especially on BOOMERANG, because he was cool headed and smart.  So when he became an independent producer, I was glad to work with him again.

I wanted to do a black Seinfeld series, and thought he could help make it happen.  We sold the idea to UPN, and I brought in Chris Rock to write it with me.

Brandon was a rock.  If we needed to do rewrites at 6 in the morning, he was there with donuts.  If the network wanted to eliminate the funniest cast members, he told them he was doing the show to be in business with me, not them, and he wasn’t changing a thing.

He was one of the great class acts in this business.  A learned a lot from this experience.  Meanwhile, UPN passed on the show, picking up HOMEBOYS IN OUTER SPACE instead.

THE BERNIE MAC SHOW

Director

Everyday on the set with Bernie was pure pleasure.  We’d spend lunches together where we would have long talks…some times he’d be telling the funniest stories EVAH.  Some times we would have deep conversations about the tragic state of black stand up.  He was a student of comedy.  That’s why he loved having the old masters like Don Rickles on the show.  Not only did I get to direct Mr. Warmth, after the first day he kissed me on the lips!

EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS

Director

Two of the funniest guys in the world, Chris Rock and Ali LeRoi made this show.  I’ve known both of them forever but it’s the first time we all made something together.  I had met Terry Crews years before as a filmmaker and Chris loved the idea of him as the dad.  I co-signed, not just because Terry is so charming while being a man’s man, he’s also the kind of stable, responsible grown up you want setting a proper tone on a set.

I remember seeing Steven James Tyler on an audition tape sent in from Yonkers.  I loved his face…it had a Woody Allen quality I thought was perfect.

After the show got picked up, I could have stayed on board…but then I was offered the Presidency at BET.  I had to choose.

THE BOONDOCKS

Executive Producer

I met Aaron before he graduated from college.  He was doing his deal for THE BOONDOCKS to be nationally syndicated in newspapers, and since we had the same lawyer, we were introduced because of my knowledge of comic-related stuff.

We started developing the series, but since the strip got into deadline trouble almost immediately, I ended up working a lot on the strip as well. I contributed jokes and concepts and help manage other writers and artists who came aboard as well.

I also sent him many screenplays so he could learn the form, and introduced to all of Hollywood, from studio and network heads to stars like Samuel Jackson, Chris Rock, John Witherspoon and the people who ended up being the cast of the show.  In the mean time, I convinced my girlfriend (later my wife) that Aaron could be a media figure, and she got articles about him place in the New York Times Magazine, Time, the New Yorker, etc.

Aaron spent endless days and nights at my house…he and his friends.  I fed them all.  Since he was almost always with me, and started to copy my behavior and even quote me at length, people started calling him “my son”.  Whenever I would show up somewhere without him, folks would immediately ask “hey, where’s your son?”

BLACK PANTHER

Writer/Executive Producer

As the writer of THE BLACK PANTHER comic book, I had revived a character which had a small but devoted fan base and over the course of several years given him his most popular run.  Since I was also the President of Entertainment of BET, I was in a position to do something that would almost impossible otherwise…actually get a prime time animated series on the air with all the bite and edge of original comic, because it would be made by the person who did the comic.

Marvel was reluctant, but my head of Animation produced an awesome 2 minute trailer that convinced everyone that a low cost version of the show could be made that was faithful to the beautiful art of John Romita Jr.

I showed it to the top brass at Marvel Comics and they loved it.  Executive Editor Axel Alonso thought it was better than the original comic, which was a huge hit.

The Chairman of BET Networks signed off and the show was a go.

Reggie TV

The Office
Episode:  Koi Pond
Directed by Reginald Hudlin

Modern Family
Episode:  Come Fly With Me
Directed by Reginald Hudlin

Episode: Fears
Directed by Reginald Hudlin

The Middle
Episode: Christmas
Directed by Reginald Hudlin

Better Off Ted
Episode: The Great Repression
Directed by Reginald Hudlin

Psyche
Episode: Ferry Tale
Directed by Reginald Hudlin

Outsourced
Episode: Temporary Monsanity
Directed by Reginald Hudlin