Comedy Central show ‘South Side’ aims to change minds one laugh at a time

With the debut of “South Side” this week, Chicago finally gets the sitcom it deserves.

Labeled “bonkers-funny” by The Hollywood Reporter and loaded with “upbeat authenticity,” the Comedy Central show (at 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays) takes viewers along for the ride through a part of the city not often seen beyond the evening news, and one definitely not often played for laughs.

“Our goal is to change the world’s perception of black Chicago,” said Bashir Salahuddin, a South Shore native and graduate of Whitney Young (OK, and Harvard, too), who co-created the series with his fellow “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” alums Diallo Riddle and Michael Blieden.

That’s a lofty goal, even in this era of “peak TV.”

Here’s why it’s important to Salahuddin that “South Side” is a comedy, not a gritty drama like Showtime’s “The Chi”:

“The first thing you hear about the South Side is ‘Isn’t that place dangerous?’ The reality is that it is a place with economic challenges, that stuff is all real, but let’s show you the whole picture. Let’s show you the stuff that puts a smile on our face,” Salahuddin said.

All 10 episodes of “South Side” were shot in Chicago in the summer of 2018, either on location (hello, Harold’s Chicken) or at the sprawling Cinespace Chicago Film Studios on the West Side.

Adding to the credibility, the cast is loaded with local talent. Salahuddin’s brother Sultan heads an ensemble that includes Harvey’s LaRoyce Hawkins, sliding over from “Chicago P.D.” to play a sexy, not-so-bad bad guy. There also are theater mainstay Antoine McKay, clearly having a ball hamming it up in a gem of a supporting role, and twins Kareme “K” Young and Quincy “Q” Young, old high school pals of Sultan, in their first-ever acting gigs.

The writers’ room is also stacked with Chicagoans, and it shows in lines like “the Chicago Reader listed him in ‘15 to watch under 13 south of 22nd Street.’ ”

“One of the things we’re most proud of is to let the city of Chicago rep the city,” said Salahuddin, who, in addition to writing and producing, stars as the inept, straight-arrow Officer Goodnight.

Adds Riddle, who’s from Atlanta, said: “I don’t know what’s in the water here. There’s so much comedic talent coming out of this city.”

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Though Riddle said he and Salahuddin share a shorthand about what they find funny, he said writing for Chicagoan’s brashness was an adjustment.

“Chicago is very upfront, very forward. In Atlanta, we’ll wait till you’re out of earshot,” Riddle said.

As hard as producers have worked to make the show look, feel and sound true to Chicago, Salahuddin is confident “South Side” will have universal appeal.

Viacom — Comedy Central’s parent — “tested the s—- out of this with audiences not familiar with Chicago. People loved the realness; people loved being led into a new world,” he said.

Finding the funny

On the surface, “South Side” is a workplace comedy, with a number of episodes focusing on the wacky goings-on at a Rent-A-Center knock-off Rent-T-Own (or just RTO on staffs’ ubiquitous polo shirts). In fact, Quincy Young spent 15 years working at Rent-A-Center and his stories provided the initial inspiration for “South Side.”

“Quincy took us to Rent-A-Center on his route, and we knew it was the perfect vehicle to meet the South Side,” Salahuddin said.

While there’s comedy gold to be mined from scenarios like a “repo-off” between Q and K — as in a competition to see who can repossess the most RTO merchandise — the show also digs deeper for its laughs, finding the funny in the unlikeliest of topics, like excessive use of police force and a failing justice system.

Though race isn’t at the forefront of “South Side,” it’s a constant presence around the edges.

It’s there in scenes like the one in which Kareme realizes his degree in remote planetary studies from Kennedy-King College — a nod to Salahuddin’s obsession with astronomy — doesn’t remotely qualify him for a job at the Adler Planetarium.

It’s there in characters like Riddle’s bougie public defender Allen Gayle, who desperately wants to be accepted by the city’s black elites even as he compulsively tells his clients, “I’m from Englewood.” (Do not sleep on the show’s courtroom scenes. The sight of Ronald Conner’s Bluto, a sort of gangster-lite character, converting his do-rag into a pocket square is priceless.)

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“Our characters don’t accuse the world of racism, but they are going to face a lot of headwind,” Salahuddin said. “One of the things we say about Simon” — played by Sultan Salahuddin — “is that, because of his intelligence and passion, if Simon had been born white and in Evanston, he’d have a whole different set of things. He’s being told to stay in his lane, but he’s never ever going to accept that.”

From lows to highs

The show’s theme of limitations, of reaching heights only to be brought back low, is balanced by an overarching sense of optimism, which in a way describes the path “South Side” took to reach the screen.

Salahuddin and Riddle originally were preparing an Atlanta-set series for HBO, but it was pulled by the network at the 11th hour.

At that low point, it was Salahuddin’s wife Chandra Russell who suggested they shoot a “sizzle reel” for the “South Side” concept.

“If I gave you a script for Q and K, you’d say, ‘Who?’ ” Salahuddin said. “The sizzle reel sort of became an audition for [Russell] and Q and K. Comedy Central saw her and said, ‘Holy hell, she’s amazing.’ She scored. The twins scored.”

Russell is also a member of the show’s gender-balanced writing team, a parity that led to some of the series’ standout episodes.

In a scene written by Russell, a group of female characters speak their truth in the form of jokes Salahuddin said no man would or should give himself permission to write.

“It’s from a writer who knows where it’s coming from, somebody from the inside saying, ‘This is how [women] laugh at ourselves,’ ” he said. “That’s why it’s super-important to have a diverse writers’ room.”

As the always hustling Sgt. Turner, Russell is poised to become the show’s breakout star, which is more than fine with Salahuddin, who coincidentally plays the most supportive husband on the planet in Netflix’s “GLOW.”

“America’s going to love her. It’s such a validation of her talent,” he said. “There are so many incredible, talented people who don’t really get a chance.”

As they wait and hope that viewers will fall in love with their cast and show, Salahuddin and Riddle already are dreaming up plots for a hoped-for second season or, heck, the 30th.

The two bonded in college over their love of “The Simpsons” and can envision “South Side” evolving in the same way as the long-running animated series, which first focused on Bart, then Homer, then the entire village of Springfield.

Said Salahuddin: “Let’s turn the South Side of Chicago into Springfield.”