‘LAST’ MAN STANDING
TRACY Morgan says the idea to team with Jordan Peele for “The
Last O.G.,” Morgan’s return to series TV, was spurred by his grueling recovery from a nearfatal 2014 car crash.
“This was an idea I had in my head for about eight years. This [series] is my life. It’s the characters I knew growing up. When I was home healing from the accident, part of my healing process was watching ‘Key & Peele,’ ” he says of thee Comedy Central series Peele co-hosteded with Keegan-Michael Key.
“So I’m watching it every day and I would laugh,” he says. “I told my agent I wanted to meet Jordan Peele, that I would love to be a part of his magic. When I went out to do the Emmys [in 2015] my agent arranged a lunch between me and Jordan. I started telling him my idea, the wheels starting turning and we came up with this show.”
If timing in comedy is everything, then “The Last O.G.,” premiering Tuesday at 10:30 p.m., is hitting its mark in a perfect storm of publicity: Morgan, back on the small screen for the first time since his Emmy-nominated “30 Rock” role as Tracy Jordan; Peele’s recent Oscar win (for “Get Out”); and the presence of co-star Tiffany Haddish, one of Hollywood’s hottest stars.
The series (“O.G.” stands for “Original Gangster”) stars Morgan as Tray, a Brooklyn drug dealer who’s arrested in 2002 while watching the Season 1 finale of “American Idol” with his girlfriend, Shay (Haddish). He’s sprung from prison 15 years later and returns to his old neighborhood, now upscale and gentrified with bearded hipsters (“It’s just like ‘Planet of the Apes,’ ” Tray exclaims in astonishment), and discovers that Shay has married a white guy, Josh (Ryan Gaul) who’s helping to raise Tray’s teenage twins. Looking to reconnect with his kids, Tray gets a job at a trendy coffee shop owned by Wavy (Malik Yoba), his old partner in crime, moves into a halfway house and reconnects with his much-younger cousin, Bobby (Allen Maldonado). Morgan says he based Tray on his youth in Bed Stuy and, in part, on others from his life. “I am the authenticity,” he says. “WhWho else on the set ever sold cracrack with me? I was born in 1968 anand was part of the crack generatiotion, but I already had an ‘O.G.’ lilike that, my dad, and others,” he says. “I was like any other ininner-city kid in the ’80s trying toto make a buck. Tray wasn’t hard to find. I lived it. “The thing I love about ‘The LLast O.G.’ is, yeah, it’s pretty ddark and [Tray] sells crack and aall those things, but it’s funny aand it’s kind,” he says. “It’s not a harsh show. What happens this season, I’m not giving that up. I want everyone to hopefully get a wonderful surprise. The twists and turns are very interesting.” Morgan is asked if he feels fully recovered from the six-vehicle crash on the New Jersey Turnpike, which killed his friend and collaborator, comedian James McNair. Morgan suffered a broken leg and femur, a broken nose and broken ribs — and was in a coma for two weeks. “I don’t think any of us are fully recovered,” he says. “I try to keep my heart in good cocondition and just help people and love people. “We need more of that in the world today.”
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