Marlon Wayans Says NBC Passed On ‘The Wayans Bros.’ Because They Thought John Witherspoon Was ‘Too Ghetto’

Marlon Wayans, John Witherspoon

Marlon Wayans Says NBC Passed On ‘The Wayans Bros.’ Because They Thought John Witherspoon Was ‘Too Ghetto’

NBC missed out big time when they opted not to invest in the iconic The Wayans Bros show.

Marlon Wayans recently revealed how the network passed on the opportunity to produce the series because of their racially charged perception of John Witherspoon.

Discussing the matter during a newly published interview with Shannon Sharpe on his podcast Club Shay Shay, Marlon Wayans stated:

“[NBC] didn’t want John Witherspoon…they thought that he was too ghetto. They thought that John was too country, that he was too Detroit…they didn’t want him as our father.”

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? original sound – Marlon Wayans

Continuing, the actor shared that he and his brother Shawn Wayans, who also leads the series, refused to compromise on John Witherspoon’s casting.

“Me and Shawn was like ‘we don’t want no other father’ and they was like ‘either you replace the father or you don’t get on our air’ and we said ‘we not replacing the father.’ And so NBC didn’t pick us up.”

Marlon Wayans, John Witherspoon, Shawn Wayans

In case you’re unfamiliar, The Wayans Bros. is a sitcom created by and starring real-life brothers Shawn and Marlon Wayans. The series centers around the daily (fictional) lives of a Harlem, NY family operating their local businesses. Witherspoon starred alongside the siblings as their father John “Pops” Williams. The show aired for 5 seasons on the WB from 1995-1999 and has since become a popular syndicated classic.

Further in the interview, Marlon explained that at the time of NBC’s rejection, The WB was just starting and needed a flagship series. The pilot for their show landed on the desk of one of the network’s execs, who Marlon said agreed to back the show without reservation. He stated:

“They was like ‘we’ll take it’…we said ‘you gotta take John Witherspoon’ they was like ‘bet.’ And from there, The Wayans Brothers.”

Could you imagine The Wayans Bros. without John Witherspoon? Share your thoughts in the comments below!