By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo Credit: Andrew Semel/Fox/Courtesy Everett
A Martin spinoff will be coming to BET Plus. The new series Varnell Hill has been ordered for eight episodes starring Tommy Davidson.
Martin Lawrence and Bentley Kyle Evans will co-create and executive-produce Varnell Hill. Martin ran from 1992 to 1997 on the Fox Network. It has become an iconic show. Many viewers watch the series through reruns and streaming services.
Lawrence could reprise his role as Martin Payne for a few episodes. The fans would love to see him come back. Martin has played many characters in the show.
As for Davidson, he only appeared for about one or two episodes in Season Two of Martin, but his impact became huge for the show’s fans. We won’t forget the episode and the highlight of the scene where Martin Payne travels to Los Angeles and crashes Varnell’s talk show. Varnell didn’t like how Martin tried to steal his spotlight. It’s a funny episode.
We now have a show that centers around Varnell Hill, and the fans are ecstatic.
Evans was part of the production team for the original Martin series. In Varnell Hill, Evans, who wrote the pilot and will direct, serves as showrunner. The series will focus on Varnell’s journey to remain relevant in an industry where he has to deal with the power and authority of studio executives, the behind-the-scenes production process of his show, and everything you can imagine that goes into the business of a talk show.
The news of the spinoff comes right after Davidson participated in the sketch comedy series classic In Living Color, which turned 35. In Living Color ran from 1990 to 1994 on Fox.
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com and themmmjournal@gmail.com
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