The natural course of life is catching up to the CW’s
Everybody Hates Chris. Most of its younger cast members are rapidly going through puberty, and in an attempt to capture them in their last stages of childhood, the show has decided to start filming the third season of the hit series earlier than usual.
“This is all my fault. All my fault,” actor
Tyler James Williams said during a break. Williams, who will turn 15 in October, is the star of
Everybody Hates Chris, a series that is loosely based on the life of comedian Chris Rock.
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Filming of the series’ third season is currently underway, consequently drawing the actors away from what would have been their summer break. As nature would have it, Tyler James Williams and his co-stars have been forced to postpone their plans in favor of hot days on the set.
According to co-creator and executive producer Ali Leroi,
Everybody Hates Chris received an early-pick up so that they “could get more of [the actors] as young as opposed to old.”
“There’s a cute factor that people kind of like to hold on to,” Leroi added. “So being able to shoot a bit early, I think, helps us.”
Aside from Tyler James Williams’ continuous growth spurt and deepening voice, co-stars
Vincent Martella,
Tequan Richmond and
Imani Hakim are also experiencing some changes related to development. Like Williams, Martella, who plays Chris’ best friend, Greg, and Richmond, who plays Chris’ younger brother, Drew, will also be turning 15 this fall. Hakim, who plays Chris little sister, Tanya, will celebrate her 14th birthday next month.
Everybody Hates Chris is not the first production in American television that has faced this kind of obstacle.
The hit family series,
The Cosby Show, experienced a dip in the ratings as Keshia Knight Pulliam, who played the youngest Huxtable daughter, Rudy, entered her teen years. The show decided to add three-year-old
Raven-Symone to the cast in order to preserve the show’s “cute factor.”
FOX garnered success for the first season of
Malcolm in the Middle, wherein
Frankie Muniz portrayed whiz kid Malcolm Wilkerson. Muniz was already 13 years old when the first season of the show was made. Before the second season began airing, he grew eight inches and his voice dropped at least an octave. Consequently, the show decided to start filming earlier and to change some of the storylines.
“We realized that a lot of the fourth-grade, fifth-grade, 10-, 11-year-old stories we had been planning to do with Malcolm we couldn’t do anymore,” creator Linwood Boomer said. “We had to sort of write to his age.”
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Akron Beacon Journal
(Image Courtesy of About.com)