A young, pre-Miami Heat, pre-NBA-championship-winning LeBron James once famously said in an interview that his goal was to become “a global icon.” This was, and is, kind of hilarious, if only because the phrase “global icon” is such a blindingly audacious goal that he might as well have said “I want to own the moon” or “I want to be the president and a ninja and a rock star.” But time has a way of making seemingly insane statements seem reasonable (I mean, at some point someone walked into A&E’s offices and said “I want to make a show about a bunch of dudes who make duck calls”), and so here we are in 2013 and LeBron James is arguably the most famous athlete in the world, and now he’s branching out into entertainment.
LeBron James is joining forces with Starz and the man behind classic shows like The Cosby Show to create a sitcom that will touch on something he knows a lot about – Survivor’s Remorse.
The Miami Heat star will be the executive producer of the half-hour show. It will focus on two people who make it big after getting out of Philadelphia’s inner city and will chronicle the characters as they try to adjust to that fame along with feelings of guilt for having made it while peers are still struggling.
Hmmm. A half-hour sitcom about a young person (or, in this case, two people) leaving a rough Philadelphia neighborhood and becoming fabulously wealthy, and dealing with the class and identity issues that stem from both this new-found status and the fact that the friends and family they grew up with are still struggling while they live it up in mansions and pool houses in an exclusive gated community? Where have I heard that before? No no. Don’t tell me. I’m sure I’ll think of it. I’m picturing dice in the mirror of a taxi, for some reason…
If no one physically throws DJ Jazzy Jeff out their house during the pilot, I will boycott this show forever.
(via EW)
