The Underground is a sketch comedy television series produced by and starring Damon Wayans. It aired on Showtime. Wayans describes the show as "In Living Color on steroids." The show features raunchy behavior and as Wayans states in his opening monologue, "We decided to test the limits."
Contents
Premise
The description of the show information is "The future of comedy is here in Damon Wayan's hilarious and uninhibited comedy sketch show where no topic or taboo goes unturned."
Production
Following the cancellation of his ABC sitcom My Wife and Kids in 2005, Wayans conceived a new sketch comedy series. He self-financed a $700,000 pilot featuring 31 sketches and pitched it to Showtime, which acquired the show.
Pre-production for The Underground took place in Los Angeles, California, and filming took place in Burbank.
Critical response
Brian Lowry of Variety said the show "plays like warmed-over improv stew that labors way too hard to shock". Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times described the show's sketches as "really not funny".