Tyler Perry's House of Payne - Production History

Production History

The sitcom ran in first-run syndication for 10 episodes during the summer of 2006 on the Atlanta-area broadcast version of WTBS, along with nine other broadcast outlets across the country, as a limited run, with additional episodes to be available for national distribution on TBS in June 2007. An order of 100 episodes was requested by TBS.

A cable record for sitcom airings was broken with 5.2 and 5.8 million for the two premiere episodes on TBS on June 6, 2007. However, the audience has declined to a recent 4.3 million as of the week ending September 30, 2007 and 2.260 and 2.099 as of May 19, 2010.

The principal cast remained the same (with the exception of Lance Gross being added), led by LaVan Davis. The original format of the series centred around C.J. (Allen Payne) and his family moving in with his Aunt Ella and Uncle Curtis (Cassi Davis and LaVan Davis). Robinne Lee had a recurring guest stint in Season 1–2 as Malik and Jazmine's principal, Nicole Jamieson, whom C.J. soon began dating. Rochelle Aytes originally portrayed as Nicole Jamieson in the test pilot episodes; whereas she was Malik's math teacher. In the test run, Ella and Curtis were originally C.J.'s parents, but in its current format, Calvin is their son and C.J. their nephew. Despite his top billing, Allen Payne is not considered the main actor of the series, especially due to his long absence in the fifth season. The show is recorded in front of a live studio audience but sometimes uses a laugh track.

At the beginning of the fifth season, China Anne McClain (Jazmine) and Denise Burse (Claretha) were removed from the series. The characters were written out, with Jazmine going away to a school for gifted children in North Carolina and Claretha marrying a prince and moving away. In real life, McClain and Burse left the series for undisclosed reasons. In the beginning of Season 6, both McClain and Burse have returned. Some of the cast members of Tyler Perry's were on The Mo'Nique Show in October 2009. Beginning with seventh season, China Anne McClain has appeared infrequently due to her work schedule for A.N.T. Farm. Denise Burse is no longer credited as a regular cast member. She appeared in a recurring role.

Larramie "Doc" Shaw, who portrays Malik, has appeared infrequently since the sixth season. This is due to Shaw's work schedules for The Suite Life on Deck and Pair of Kings, a show he currently stars in on Disney XD. He remained a cast member throughout the series.

Tyler Perry directed every episode of the first 5 seasons. Throughout Season 6, each episode has been directed by actress Kim Fields or her mother Chip Hurd. Tyler Perry directed some of the episodes in Seasons 7 & 8 while other episodes were directed by Kim Fields, Chip Hurd, and producer Roger M. Bobb.

During the first 5 seasons, the show was rated TV-PG but due to a rapid increase of strong language and mature content (particularly sexual), recent episodes have been rated TV-14.

TBS has picked up a new Perry comedy, For Better or Worse, based on Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? films.

On September 28, 2011, TBS ordered 42 episodes. Newer episodes have been aired on TBS since October 21, 2011 with season 8, and concluded the series with a total of 254 episodes. The show aired its final two episodes on August 10, 2012