Ellen Gray | Perry's 'Payne' recalls 'All in the Family'

HOUSE OF PAYNE. 9 and 9:30 p.m. tomorrow, TBS.

WHAT IF MEATHEAD had been a crackhead?

Would we still have laughed?

More than three decades after "All in the Family" turned the American sitcom on its ear, Tyler Perry's taking his own shot at the troubled genre in "House of Payne," a TBS comedy that begs to be compared to the house that Norman Lear and Archie Bunker built.

Perry, the famously once-homeless man who's now a celebrated playwright, author, filmmaker and actor, isn't shying away from controversy in this show about a firefighter named C.J. Payne (Allen Payne) who moves his family in with his aunt and uncle after his drug-addicted wife accidentally burns down their home in the show's second episode.

Unfortunately, he's not shying away, either, from the kinds of situations and characters that in the years since the Bunkers left that house in Queens, N.Y., have become cliches, including C.J.'s cranky uncle - and boss - Curtis (LaVan Davis), who in tomorrow's premiere seeks to cancel the family's Sunday dinners so he won't have to fight for the drumsticks anymore.

"C.J., how many times I got to tell you? Leave the dark meat for the dark people," Curtis tells his lighter-skinned nephew.

Well, OK, there's a distinction Archie probably wouldn't have drawn.

But then he wouldn't have put up, either, with C.J.'s two kids (Larramie Shaw and China Anne McClain), whose sitcommy patter might actually have you siding with Curtis.

At least he treats his wife Ella decently. Ella's a keeper.

Pilots are notorious for spending too much time introducing characters and too little making us care about them, but this is Perry's second shot at "House of Payne," the producer having bankrolled a 10-episode test run last year in several cities, including Philadelphia.

For anyone who saw that experiment, the major change, other than making Curtis and Ella (Cassi Davis) C.J.'s aunt and uncle, rather than his parents, and giving them a college-age son (Lance Gross), is tomorrow's guest appearance by Perry's Madea character.

Fans of Perry's tough-as-manicured-nails alter-ego will no doubt cheer, but it doesn't change the fact that the appearance of a very tall man dressed as a grandmother takes viewers out of whatever world "House of Payne" wants us to believe in.

If there's good news, it's that Madea leaves, but Perry is sticking around. And having negotiated a groundbreaking 100-episode deal for his Atlanta-film series, he'll have more time than most TV producers get to continue work on his "House of Payne."

As I sat in a crowded theater this weekend, laughing - along with everyone else - at Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up," I couldn't help wondering why Apatow's had so much success getting people to pay to see actors they once wouldn't watch for free.

Starting with Seth Rogen, who's been Apatow's go-to guy since NBC's "Freaks and Geeks," later appearing in Fox's equally unsuccessful "Undeclared" (and then in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," which made both of them bankable).

Jay Baruchel? "How I Met Your Mother's" Jason Segel? A lucky few of us remember these guys before they were famous, but not before they were funny.

So is it the swearing? The massive promotion? Or is it just that people who've shelled out seven or eight bucks or more are inclined to believe they got what they paid for?

I wish I knew. *

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