![]() ![]() ![]() “It was, what was Reggie surviving in terms of his father’s alcoholism and physical abuse? What was Cassie surviving and trying to forge? What was M-Chuck surviving and trying to forget? And when you begin to take on those stories, it’s amazing what it opens up in terms of people talking about things.”Īs it broadened its ambitions from wrapping up plots within the 25-30 minutes of a given episode to multi-episode storylines, Survivor’s Remorse developed a reputation for addressing complex, difficult issues. “That title became something that wasn’t necessarily just about Cam and him being a big-hearted guy who wanted to help people and always wanted to help people,” O’Malley said. It was interested in being a different show from Ballers and its predecessor, Ballers in Hollywood - I mean, Entourage. In fact, Survivor’s Remorse wasn’t really interested in that at all (although Uncle Julius was). Survivor’s Remorse didn’t surrender to cliché and become a bacchanalia of loose women, fast cars and cocaine-fueled partying with little else to say. He’s a massively famous person who has a tremendous amount of, not just young kids who look up to him, but people like myself who are 20 years older than him. He never resisted a story, which was great, considering the stuff we were doing. “We would go and pitch him … when you’d see his eyes light up, you’d know there was something there … he never said no. “He was really responsive to the story about Reggie and Cam renegotiating the contract with Jimmy Flaherty in season three,” O’Malley said Monday. He also offered insight into how to make the sports business angle accurate and relatable. This is a guy at the height of his game,” O’Malley said.Īnd where more squeamish producers might have pulled rank to exercise control over tricky, controversial storylines, James was willing to embrace the creative freedom of O’Malley and the Survivor’s Remorse writers room. ![]() James would visit the set in Atlanta, which surprised O’Malley. (Uninterrupted was the company behind The Carter Effect, the documentary about Vince Carter that recently debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival.)Įven though work on the series often overlapped with James’ sports schedule, he became more involved as it progressed, from OK’ing showrunner Mike O’Malley’s initial pitches to offering more personal input as their relationship evolved. The show was unconventional, creatively profane and always willing to “go there.” That was even more of a surprise knowing that the show was executive produced by LeBron James, who is committed to more forays into media with his new production company, Uninterrupted. Flaherty became a friend, mentor and father figure to M-Chuck, while Chen fell in love with Cassie. On top of all that, Cam’s relationships with his bosses, team owner Jimmy Flaherty (Chris Bauer) and Chinese shoe company impresario Da Chen Bao (Robert Wu) were complicated by their personal involvement with his family. When Cam experienced a come-up, so did his family, and they all moved together from Boston to Atlanta. Thus, we were introduced to not only Cam but also his mother, Cassie (Tichina Arnold) his sister Mary Charles, known as M-Chuck (Erica Ash) his cousin/manager Reggie (RonReaco Lee) Reggie’s wife, Missy (Teyonah Parris) and their uncle Julius (Mike Epps). After all, the show was built around Calloway’s life in Atlanta as a franchise player for a professional basketball team.īut Survivor’s Remorse was more interested in telling a story about the jump from extreme poverty to sudden wealth, and the complications that arise as a result. Usher) nail a pull-up jumper or lead his team through a challenging postseason. ![]() When I first began watching, I wondered when we were going to see Cam Calloway ( Jessie T. The gift of Survivor’s Remorse was that it dared to be a sports comedy that used its premise as the starting point for discussing life and contemporary culture. Even in an atmosphere of 400-plus scripted shows, there wasn’t anything else that so adroitly married a down-to-earth style with thematic sophistication and told stories about black people black-ish may come the closest. But it also leaves a chasm not easily filled in television. That leaves fans with quite a few loose ends. Survivor’s Remorse, like so many good things, has come to an end far too quickly, thanks to its network, Starz, which announced recently that it was canceling the show after four seasons. ![]()
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