Kenan Thompson, who currently holds the record as the oldest Saturday Night Live cast member, brings his abundant charisma to the appropriately titled Kenan. The NBC series stars the beloved comedian as a widowed father recently trying to raise his daughters Aubrey (Dani Lane) and Birdie (Dannah Lane) alongside his father-in-law Rick (played by Don Johnson) and brother Gary (Chris Redd).
Tuesday’s premiere shows the title character still struggling to reconcile his work as an air host and full house after the death of his wife Cori (Niccole Thurman). The episode begins with the sweet image of Kenan waking up in a jumble of members of his children and running very quietly to get ready and his girls for the day. That means taking a quick shower, packing clothes, packing backpacks and preparing lunch – in this case, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – while they sleep. Unfortunately, your tiptoe care around the house is a vain effort.
Rick (Johnson) appears without warning, eliciting a high-pitched scream from the single father and waking up his over-adjusted daughters (seriously, they quote the father’s self-help books and refer to the mother as a “deceased parental figure”). After a quick chat with Gary, who has just left a night at the club, he goes to work.
Kenan’s work team includes some sitcom favorites, including The Mindy ProjectFortune Feimster as sports correspondent Pam and Single parents former student Kimrie Lewis as Kenan’s boss, Pam, along with Taylor Louderman as Tami, her vibrant co-host. Pam checks it out after the anchorman in the air again appears late, attacks Tami and hasn’t been himself lately. Of course, his co-workers are concerned that he hasn’t yet processed his pain, which is a terrible time, given that the show’s audience is falling.
Kenan insists that he is fine and has lunch with Rick and Gary, with the first stating that Kenan is fine. Meanwhile, Gary expresses his concern that Kenan hasn’t changed, as he devotes all of his time to his children (thanks, Gary, for introducing “trillgen” into the lexicon) and just ignored the obvious advances made by his attractive coffee seller. During dinner, it’s normal with the family until Kenan scolds his daughters for wanting a phone so they can be Instagram influencers, joking about his mother coming back from the dead just to drag him the other way with her. A sorry Kenan quickly apologizes for the comment, but the girls are relieved to hear their father finally talk about his mother. This leads Kenan to tell a funny story of how they met on the set of a sitcom where Cori played his mother, despite being only three years older, because Hollywood is sexist.
Relieved to finally be able to talk about Cori, a confident Kenan mentions her again during a TV segment the next morning. However, it ends disastrously when he is defensive about Cori’s decision to use an epidural and accidentally insults working mothers and those staying at home. This causes a great deal of controversy among viewers of the show, which Kenan downplays as a small mistake. But according to Pam, who says he really needs to take care of his business, the network is demanding an “I’m sorry you took offense” in the air and not an apology to calm things down.
The next morning, Kenan starts his statement prepared before stopping to express his genuine feelings. “When Cori passed away, I was devastated,” he told the audience impassively. “I blew it and I’m really sorry.” His sincere apology wins over everyone and he is back in the good graces of the internet.
Back home, Kenan reveals that he has successfully baked a hybrid cake pie mix for his daughters’ cakes. In fact, he got it from a segment of his program, but that is not important. It is a pity that Aubrey and Birdie were not able to use it for their school duties, as Rick immediately ate the cake with a fork. The episode ends with the family curled up on the couch watching old scenes of Cori and Kenan and their highly inappropriate sexual tension while playing mother and son.
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