Loosely based on the titular comedian’s real-life stand-up material, Fox’s Emmy-winning “The Bernie Mac Show” followed a fictionalized version of comedian Bernie Mac and the character’s wife, Wanda (Kellita Smith), as they unexpectedly took in his sister’s three kids. Yet despite the series being inherently tied to his own life, Mac initially refused to attach his real name to either the character or the show’s title.
Series creator Larry Wilmore shed some light on that early backstage tug-of-war in Entertainment Weekly‘s oral history of the “Bernie Mac Show” pilot, revealing how he swindled the hesitant star to get his way: He invented the name Bernie Mann. “I wrote [the character] as ‘Bernie Mac’ …” Wilmore told the outlet. “But Bernie said, ‘No, it really shouldn’t be my name. I don’t feel comfortable with that.'”
Wilmore knew that a generic moniker would rob the show of its built-in comedic power, but direct persuasion wasn’t going to work on the stubborn comedian. “I’m thinking, ‘Are you kidding? You have the best f***ing name in showbiz! Bernie Mac! Why would we not use that?'” Wilmore said. “But I can’t just tell him that, because then he’ll just resist it. I have to figure out a way to trick him.”
Larry Wilmore rewrote the character’s name as Bernie Mann
Instead of arguing, the showrunner opted for psychological warfare, intentionally concocting a terrible alternative that he hoped would change Mac’s mind. “I wrote another draft where I made his name ‘Bernie Mann’ instead of Bernie Mac,” Larry Wilmore explained. “So every time he was supposed to be saying, ‘Bernie Mac don’t do that,’ he’d have to say ‘Bernie Mann.'”
The threat of his iconic catchphrases falling completely flat did the trick. “He read that and hated it. It was so hilarious,” Wilmore said. “I said, ‘Yeah, you’re right. Let’s change it back to Bernie Mac.’ But I chose the worst thing possible on purpose.”
The comedian quickly dropped his objections, and the rest is TV history. “The Bernie Mac Show” cemented itself as a classic and one of the best Fox TV shows of all time, running for five seasons and 104 episodes from 2001 to 2006. Mac, who played one of the most influential Black characters on TV, even earned Emmy nominations for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series two years in a row (2002 and 2003). And in 2002, the show took home the Television Critics Association Award for individual achievement in comedy, beating out other nominees that year including “Friends,” “Scrubs,” and “Everybody Loves Raymond.”