‘Baby Daddy’ premieres at 8:30 p.m. tonight on ABC Family!
Being a teen dad is hard — just ask Gary Shirley, y’all — but it’s even harder when your baby mama drops your kid off at your doorstep and skips town! Fortunately, ABC Family’s newest Baby Daddy Ben (Jean-Luc Bilodeau) gets by with a little help from his friends. Former Smart Guy Tahj Mowry plays one of those friends, and he tells HollywoodLife.com what to expect from the hilarious new series, including who his character will be butting heads with!
First of all, how glad are you to be back doing a sitcom?
Oh man, it feels great to be doing a sitcom again. It’s been a while since I’ve done one, and that’s where I grew up doing. It feels like I’m coming back home in a sense. It’s very fun. And a sitcom is its own beast, you know? It’s very different from film, and it’s very energetic. It’s fun having that live audience there every Friday night to give you that extra oomph. I’m super excited.
Well, we’re definitely glad to have you back on TV. Can you tell me a little bit about your character, Tucker?
Wow, where to begin? There’s no dull moment with Tucker; he’s just basically the funny guy in the house. The show takes place in Manhattan, just like the movie Three Men and a Baby. It’s basically a younger version of that, but more modernized and a little more hip. … Tucker is Ben’s best friend, and he’s basically the best friend everyone wants to have. He’s funny, he’s charming, he’s hip, he’s cool, he has great fashion sense, he’s very New York. Everyone else in the house is wearing T-shirts and jeans, and Tucker comes out of the hallway, and he’s in a skinny tie and a vest. … I take longer than Chelsea Kane for my wardrobe, cause they have me in the most ridiculous outfits.
I hear Tucker’s attitude gets him into trouble sometimes. Is that true?
Well, he has no filter whatsoever. So he’ll say the first thing on his mind no matter who he’s talking to — even if it’s Ben’s mother. Tucker and Ben’s mom don’t get along too well. That whole thing they have going on is hilarious. And as the season goes, you’ll see more of them together, which is very awkward because they don’t like each other whatsoever.
Does Tucker have a life of his own, or does everything revolve around Ben and the baby?
That’s what this show is really about, us trying to balance our young-adult lives while trying to take care of this baby. So, it’s a challenge cause we can barely take care of ourselves. Tucker has a girlfriend, but in the beginning of the season she owns him completely. Like, he’s whipped; the definition of being whipped is Tucker. For some reason, he can’t muster up the courage to say what he feels to his girlfriend, even though he can say it to everyone else.
Did your real-life experience as an uncle help prepare you for working with a baby?
Yeah, I definitely feel like it did, but it’s tricky because it’s not the same as dealing with a baby in normal life. You’re dealing with a baby while shooting a TV show, so you have to be quick on your feet. You have to stay in character because if the baby’s crying in a scene where it’s not supposed to be crying, you have to be ready to jump to the next part of the scene, or a whole other scene in which the baby is supposed to be crying.
So the babies pretty much run the show?
[Laughs] Oh, yes. Definitely.
