—Kel McKnight, B1Daily

Martin Lawrence could easily spend the rest of his career living off nostalgia.

Between Martin, Bad Boys, Big Momma’s House and a stand-up career stretching back decades, Lawrence has already secured his place in Black entertainment history. Instead, his latest television project demonstrates something that has often been part of his career: when Martin Lawrence gets a platform, other Black entertainers frequently end up standing on it too.

On September 1, Paramount+ will premiere The Varnell Hill Show, an eight-episode workplace comedy built around one of the most memorable guest characters from Martin. Tommy Davidson returns as Varnell Hill, the gloriously self-important talk-show host who originally appeared on the classic sitcom more than three decades ago. Lawrence and longtime collaborator Bentley Kyle Evans serve as executive producers, while Davidson also executive produces and stars.

The premise is clever because it doesn’t simply photocopy a 1990s joke. Varnell is now the host of a long-running late-night television show struggling to remain relevant in a changing entertainment industry. Network executives want modernization, the writers’ room is chaotic, celebrities come and go, and Varnell’s enormous ego remains wonderfully intact.

The supporting cast makes the project even more interesting. Kym Whitley, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Emmanuel Hudson, Chris Williams and Nick Cafero join Davidson, while guest appearances include Deon Cole, Damon Wayans, Mike Epps, Ms. Pat and Omarion. Lawrence himself will make special appearances.

That lineup makes The Varnell Hill Show feel less like a simple spinoff and more like another gathering point for Black comedy.

Martin Lawrence Has Been Doing This for Decades

Lawrence’s importance to Black entertainment extends well beyond his own performances.

His early run hosting HBO’s Def Comedy Jam placed him at the center of one of the most influential showcases for Black stand-up comedy ever televised. The series became an important platform for comedians who would become major figures in American entertainment. Contemporary coverage described Def Comedy Jam as an incubator that helped launch or elevate numerous Black comedians.

Then came Martin.

Premiering on Fox in 1992, the sitcom didn’t water down its Black cultural identity in pursuit of mainstream acceptance. It embraced Black relationships, music, fashion, slang, neighborhood life and comedy with an energy that helped make the series enormously influential. Looking back on its legacy, Andscape described the show’s importance as demonstrating that television rooted unapologetically in Black culture could still achieve mainstream success.

And Lawrence wasn’t merely the face on the poster. Contemporary reporting at the conclusion of Martin described him as the show’s major creative force, shaping its direction and many of its characters.

That created visibility not only for Lawrence, but for performers surrounding him.

Tisha Campbell, Tichina Arnold, Carl Anthony Payne II and the late Thomas Mikal Ford became permanently associated with one of the defining Black sitcoms of the 1990s. Guest appearances and recurring roles turned the show’s Detroit universe into a revolving door of Black comedic talent.

Now Lawrence is reaching back into that universe and handing Tommy Davidson the keys.

Giving Varnell His Own Spotlight

That choice carries particular weight.

Davidson doesn’t need to be “discovered.” He was an original In Living Color cast member and has spent decades in comedy, television and film. But Hollywood has a habit of celebrating veteran Black performers nostalgically without necessarily building new starring vehicles around them.

The Varnell Hill Show does something different.

It takes a character Davidson made memorable decades ago and asks: What if he was finally the star?

There is something fitting about Lawrence helping make that happen.

The entertainment industry constantly hunts for younger audiences and newer faces, sometimes treating veteran performers as museum pieces from another era. Lawrence’s new project instead recognizes that Black entertainment history contains intellectual property, characters and performers capable of generating new stories.

That is how a cultural legacy stays alive.

Not by endlessly replaying old episodes.

By building something new from them.

More Than Nostalgia

There is certainly nostalgia involved here. Paramount+ knows Martin remains beloved, and bringing back Varnell Hill provides an immediate connection to an established audience.

But nostalgia doesn’t have to be creatively bankrupt.

Marvel can build universes around characters created generations ago. Hollywood can resurrect action franchises from the 1980s. Studios routinely mine decades-old intellectual property for new movies and television series.

Black television history deserves the same opportunity.

There are characters, actors and fictional worlds from Black entertainment that still possess commercial value. Instead of allowing that history to exist exclusively in reruns, creators can expand it, modernize it and create employment around it.

The Varnell Hill Show represents precisely that possibility.

And Martin Lawrence, once again, is helping hold the door open.

He helped bring raw Black stand-up into American living rooms through Def Comedy Jam. He helped make Martin one of the defining Black television comedies of its era. He became one of Hollywood’s biggest Black movie stars without abandoning the comedic identity that built his career.

Now, more than 30 years after Varnell Hill first swaggered onto television, Lawrence is helping Tommy Davidson put the suit back on.

Only this time, Varnell finally gets the whole show.

—Kel McKnight, B1Daily