As The Neighborhood grows with Paramount+’s Crutch, stars Jermaine Fowler, Adrianna Mitchell and Kecia Lewis break down what makes their sitcom special — and their hopes for season 2.
Crutch, which premiered on Monday, November 3, introduced Tracy Morgan as a widower whose empty-nest plans get disrupted when his son (Fowler) and daughter (Mitchell) move back in, which forces him to adjust to his new normal.
Filming the spinoff was a labor of love for the cast, who spoke exclusively with Us Weekly about the hard work that went into bringing Crutch to life:
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Were you fans of The Neighborhood before joining Crutch?
AM: I was! yeah, I was definitely watching the show. Marcel Spears is like my big brother. We did a show on Broadway together so I’ve been supporting him in The Neighborhood for forever. So I’m like, ‘Oh, now are TV cousins — and we are almost like real-life cousins.’ It’s a really good show so I was really excited about the spinoff opportunity.
JF: I was a big fan of Cedric [the Entertainer] before anything. I remember him being on set and when I first met him I was picking his brain about The Kings of Comedy Tour. It still mesmerizes me how monumental all that was. It was just a beautiful situation to be a part of.
KL: My connection is both Marcel and Sheaun [McKinney]. With Marcel, I was in his first show ever. Just to watch his progression over the years, Sheaun and I have known each other since we were teenagers. We both grew up in Queens and went to performing arts high schools. We went to sister schools so we would see each other on the subway.
What would you say makes Crutch different or unique from other sitcoms?
JF: Now it’s one of the few Black shows — so that makes it stand out. I would say the chemistry is just very prevalent in the show. We all truly care about each other and love being around each other. So it started there.
One of the other things was we shot it in New York. It didn’t feel very procedural. When we shot it in New York, it felt like the audience was very appreciative. The energy was special. It was one of those things where they were very excited to have a multi-cam film there after such a long time. They were really into it.
KL: And Tracy is so beloved. He has this amazing quality to be both irreverent and lovable at the same time. That dynamic made the show different. But also in terms of the feeling that everybody has on stage and off, he’s just that interesting combination so it was really cool to be around that energy, which infected us.
AM: I also feel like a lot of shows like to be set in New York but don’t feel like New York. They’re still great shows but as you are watching you think, ‘That’s a pretty big apartment for New York.’
It’s really cool because Jermaine lives upstate and I lived in Harlem and the Bronx. Kecia is from the Bronx and Tracy’s from Brooklyn and the Bronx. I felt like the texture and the feeling tone of the show feels like a letter to New York. Our show runner talked a lot about wanting it to feel like it had the texture of Harlem — in a very specific way.
KL: New Yorkers know when a show isn’t actually in New York from the set. That is what part of the world, but that ain’t here,
AM: There was an episode where we were going in and out of the subway station and the art department blew me away. I used to get off at this stop and I know what that station looked like. The movie magic of making that look [almost exactly like the real station]. It was a little cleaner than it probably is in real life. But it is amazing. This is a commitment to the New York experience in a way that I really appreciated.
JF: We should give kudos to the art department. It was almost like they had their own show. It was beautiful the way they designed our brownstone, the way they designed the trains and the way they designed the roof. All of the attention to detail on the show is incredible.
Everybody who was a part of the show, they saw it as this opportunity where they all just get to shine — and they really did.
You mentioned improv so how did filming this push you as comedians? How did the live audience help?
JF: We improvised a lot but they didn’t choose a lot of those takes. They were crazy takes and some wild moments. It was one of those things where you rehearse a show for about five straight hours so when you start to shoot it in front of the audience, you want to make it fun for yourself. We got some chances to do different takes and to make them fresher for each other and for the audience.
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What kind of research did you want to do for your characters?
JF: I was kind of the straight guy in the show so I had to go back and study some of my favorite straight characters in sitcoms and multi-cam and single he got, So I just went back and watched some of the greats.
AM: A lot of the conflict points had to do with what was going on with my character, with her kids and her husband. I was like, “I’ve only been to Minneapolis once so maybe she lived in Minneapolis because I have some context for that.”
I also wanted to know the real texture of dealing with someone who has a gambling addiction. I did a deep dive on that and how that could potentially be devastating. You have a house — and now you don’t. You had money in the bank — and now you don’t. It is all about how people want to stop and really can’t. It is about the brain rewiring one must do even if you have the desire to quit or stop.
So I just did a lot of backstory work because she has a 9-year-old and a 12-year-old and she’s only 30-something. Did they get married super young and then she left Harlem? So there was a lot of backstory that I feel like my character comes in with — and then there’s a lot of activity around what has just happened. I spent a lot of time just thinking through that and then also piecing it together because the script would change and give me new information about what had happened. So then I’d have to adjust what I was thinking. That was where I spent the most of my time.
I just asked a lot of questions because this is my first time ever doing multi-cam. Jermaine was a fantastic leader and I would just watch and observe him. He downplays himself but he would come up with a lot of just brilliant ideas. As I got more comfortable in the medium, I was able to find what worked for me.
JF: A lot of the episodes are pretty grounded and you can’t really execute that without a sense of having grounded characters and actors who know how to just bring it back to the story. We had eight episodes of real family drama. It’s balanced with a lot of comedy and a lot of silliness because it is a multi-cam but the same time, there were these moments when I would watch Adrianna and Kecia just really soak in what they’re actually supposed to be doing and what the intention of these certain scenes are. You just can’t look away. So those moments really, really helped the comedy shine a lot.
Crutch is set in New York — as is Only Murders in the Building. Should there be a crossover since Jermaine stars in both shows?
JF: That’s hilarious. It would be a good crossover because Crutch does own a boring textile business. I’m sure that The Arconia could use some updates, right? Martin [Short] and Steve [Martin] love Tracy so that would be amazing to have them three together. Actually, I think that’s a good idea. That’s great also to see Martin and Steve on a multi-cam set.
KL: Our stomachs would hurt from laughter. Oh my goodness, I would love that.
JF: That’s a good idea.
Crutch is currently streaming on Paramount+.
