Sex, lies, manipulation, and the occasional bitch slap for good measure. Take all of these elements, sprinkle them liberally throughout an over-the-top nighttime soap, and what you get is “Tyler Perry’s The Haves and the Have Nots.” An unlikely breakout hit, it’s a show about a ruthless, rich and powerful Savannah, Ga., family, headed by Judge Jim Cryer, and the struggling household help who are only too happy to even the score.
Once again, this series mines the theme of pitting the entitled against those who make their cushy lives possible. But this is no “Downton Abbey.” These characters rarely edit their own thoughts, and have little time for ethics, or manners. “It does cry,” says the heartless judge, who is running for governor, leads a double life, and walks in on his cynical, manipulative wife crying in the bedroom.
Now in its second season on the struggling Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), this show may not have the expensive scenery, staging or costume design of ABC’s “Scandal” or “Revenge,” but what it does have is more than enough emotional mayhem to cut a swath through the land of cable, gobbling up almost three million viewers a week, and, on OWN, becoming the second highest-rated program in the network’s history. The only show to top it was Oprah’s interview with Whitney Houston’s only child, Bobbi Kristina.
The question is, why has it caught fire? The best place to start looking for answers is with the name in the title, Tyler Perry. A one-man entertainment factory with a devoted following, Perry has been churning out plays, movies, books and TV shows since 1990. He not only writes them, but produces, directs and often stars in them, as well. His most popular creation by far is Madea, a heavyset, take-no-prisoners, gun-toting, pot-smoking granny — played with wicked broad humor by Perry himself in drag. Madea has been the inspiration for seven comic movies to date.
So why would OWN sign him up to write, produce and direct the network’s first scripted prime-time drama? “His track record of success wherever he’s gone,” says OWN President Erik Logan. “I think the question mark going into the deal was: How would he perform with a drama? I think that’s no longer a question.”
The next explanation for the show’s success is in the casting. John Schneider, best known for playing Bo Duke on the ’80s series “The Dukes of Hazzard” and Superman’s father on “Smallville,” plays Judge Jim Cryer with merciless abandon. Schneider says that despite his good-guy image, the big bad judge is actually closer to his true nature.
“I said, ‘Finally, I get to play someone who’s more like me,’” says Schneider, 53. “The judge is a chronic overachiever, used to getting his own way. I think there’s a certain amount of personal pride in getting what he goes after and enjoying the battle.”
Does that necessarily make him a bad guy? In this case, yes, says Schneider, who is married and the father of four. “It’s like somebody was following me around and listening to the things I say. I have to apologize a lot. I played [the late] Michael Landon a long time ago. And one of the things a family member told me was, ‘It was always difficult for Dad to go home and be told to take out the trash.’ And I’m a little like that, too. I’d be delighted to take out the trash. Just don’t tell me to.”
Then there’s Tika Sumpter, who plays Candace Young, a hooker clawing her way into the judge’s high-priced world. “She’s vicious, but she’s just trying to survive, really,” says Sumpter, 33.
Candace, another character the audience loves to hate, will do or say almost anything to get what she wants. Unlike Schneider, however, Sumpter swears she’s nothing like her character. But the Queens native says she had a powerful role model who taught her how the tough get going when the going gets tough: Her mother, a woman who, after her divorce, had to raise seven children on her own.
“She worked as a corrections officer at Rikers [Island] for over 20 years,” says Sumpter. “And she’d come home tired. But she found a way to feed us, found a way to pay the electricity, found a way to get the car fixed when it was always breaking down, found a way to make Christmas happen. She was a Find-A-Way Mother.”
And what effect did that have on Sumpter, who was rejected repeatedly for seven years when she decided to become an actress? “I have such a fighter’s mentality,” says Sumpter, who finally broke through in 2005, landing a role on the ABC daytime soap, “One Life To Live.” “You tell me no, that makes me work even harder to make sure I actually get what I want.”
The actors will tell you that it’s the on-set atmosphere that helps makes the show such wicked fun. And they’re in awe of Perry, who directs every episode.
“He’s such a dynamo,” says Schneider. “He rules by example. If you had never been to the set, you would look at him and say, ‘That guy must be Tyler Perry because he’s working harder than anybody in here and they’re all working their asses off.’”
“He knows what he wants,” says Sumpter. “But he is definitely a collaborative director because he’s an actor himself. So he give us a lot of freedom.”
Whatever the reason “The Haves” has caught fire, it’s a good bet that the show will become a staple on OWN. Have they renewed it for a third season?
“Not yet,” says Logan. “But it’s safe to assume we will.”