SOMEBODIES Comes To BET

The Corsair interviewed via email Brett King, Black Entertainment Television's Senior Vice President of Scripted Programming, on the decision to run with SOMEBODIES, the network's first scripted series. This is a significant point of departure from the network that previously gave us "Hell Date" and "Hot Ghetto Mess."

SOMEBODIES, in contrast, is a coming of age tale of an African-American college student named Scottie coming of age at the University of Georgia. It made a big impression at Sundance in 2006, and on BET the storyline will pick up where the Indie film left off.

The Corsair: What made you decide to go in this direction?

Brett King, BET SVP: While music and reality programming will always remain an important part of BET's programming mix, one proven strategy for growing audiences and branding a network is the inclusion of scripted programming. Our audience has long looked to BET to reflect their voice and their worldview; we think that scripted shows in general, and SOMEBODIES in particular, has a great shot at doing just that.

The Corsair: How did Rusty Cundieff come on board?

Brett King: Many of the people on the project - Jordan Levin and Pete Aronson from Generate, as well as Reggie Hudlin and I -- have known Rusty and worked with him for many years. In addition to his work on The Chappelle Show, he had directed Bernie Mac when Pete was the Executive Producer of the series, and both Reggie and I have developed projects with Rusty and known him socially since we all arrived in Hollywood in the early 90s. We've all known him to be fiercely intelligent, riotously funny and extremely collaborative. His great comic sensibilities and skills behind the camera made him a natural to set off the series, and he was so beloved by the cast, crew and producers that he ended up coming back to direct several episodes of the first season.

The Corsair: Tell readers of this blog who are not familiar with the film what it is about?

Brett King: SOMEBODIES -- the movie -- was a slice of life look at Scottie, a college student who was trying to do the right thing and get through college with the help of his friends, extended family and the local storefront church that he regularly attends. In the film, he recognized that he probably partied a bit too much and didn't study quite enough, and worked to change that. The movie is an easygoing walk through contemporary southern life, with a pace that reflects Scottie's laid back approach and quirky worldview and it served as BET's introduction to a singular new comedic voice.

The Corsair: Is Scottie going to finally get some order to his life this season? Or is it an ongoing project?

Brett King: I don't know that Scottie will ever get his life completely together, but he is certainly to be commended for making best efforts to get there. In each episode of the series, he tries to do his best despite the less than perfect circumstances of his life - he's been in school too long, he can't decide if he and his friend Diva are a couple or not, and his friends and family sometime steer him in the wrong direction -- but he is doing his best to make it work. Just about everybody has been down Scottie's path, and we think that most folks are going to enjoy tagging along for Scottie's ongoing journey.

SOMEBODIES premeiers at 10:30 PM on Tuesday, September 9, 2008 on BET.