Grizz Chapman looks to follow the geek culture trend in a new TV show endeavor. Evan Agostini/AP
By Amanda Giglio
New sitcoms and TV comedies surface every year, each with crazier concepts than the last. From “How I Met Your Mother,” chronicling a man’s quest to find his wife, to “Modern Family,” showing the crazy everyday life of three interconnected families, sitcoms touch upon different aspects of people’s lives. Recently, geek culture has become more prevalent in television shows. TV series like “The Big Bang Theory,” “Comic Book Men” and HBO’s hit show “Game of Thrones” bring geek culture to mainstream culture.
Top-grossing movies from the past year, including Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, also feature superheroes, fantasy and science fiction. With the rise of the nerds, some people are trying to benefit from the success. Former “30 Rock” star Grizz Chapman, who played Tracy Morgan’s tender-hearted bodyguard on the show, is taking his real-life experience as the owner of a Bronx comic book store to TV sitcoms.
After becoming the co-owner of The Lair, a small comic book and collectibles shop in the Bronx about two years ago, Chapman came up with the idea of a sitcom based on the characters that come through the store on a daily basis. He compared his show to the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” only with a broader perspective on what comic fans look like. As a self-proclaimed nerd, he hopes to show the other side of comic book fans. According to Chapman, “There are people who don’t look like you and me who do read comic books and who love artists.”
Recently, “The Big Bang Theory” has received awards for being the biggest comedy force on television today. With about 20 million viewers in its most recent rating, the show has renewed its contract with CBS for another three years, a deal only the most popular TV shows achieve. A show about two socially-awkward physicists who learn about life outside the lab from their cool-girl neighbor, “The Big Bang Theory” has launched geek culture to the forefront of night comedy shows. This is a big difference from only a decade ago, where being a so-called “nerd” was taboo. People are becoming more comfortable with their geeky side as Star Trek, web comics and Star Wars become more prominent in the media. Also, nerds can get behind new pop culture phenomena like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars movie franchises and now with new social networking, technologies and video games.
This is reason enough for Chapman to want to start his TV show idea now. He hopes to pitch it to mainstream television, but if that fails he plans to go to the Internet for an audience. Chapman’s friend and owner of The Lair, Jorge Rodriguez, is flattered at the idea of a show based on his store that he opened back in 2005.
Chapman goes to The Lair about twice a week and believes the store has a welcoming environment and is a place to talk about books and movies with people who are like-minded. And since comics have traditionally been seen as a part of nerd culture, Chapman holds that that connection is not a bad one. As he says, “being a nerd is actually cool.”
Whether or not the show gets picked up by a network, the idea of a show based off of a comic book store has potential to do well. Other stars have gotten behind this idea, including “Orange is the New Black” star Laura Gómez, who plays Blanca Flores. The superhero genre and nerd culture are becoming more popular, and with the right approach, Chapman’s show can bring this little comic store from the Bronx to life on the small screen.
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Amanda Giglio is the Assistant Culture Editor for The Fordham Ram.
