NBC’s new sitcom, Truth Be Told, wants to make you think. The series focuses on two couples, who are best friends and also neighbors. The quartet, played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Vanessa Lackey, Bresha Webb and Tone Bell, do everything together and talk about everything.
“Nothing is off limits,” explains Webb, who plays opinionated pediatrician and newlywed. Tracy. “We can talk about everything and anything and not get offended and if we do, we talk about it. Like friends do, there’s no curtain, we don’t have to mask our real emotions about things.”
Photo by: Joseph Culticel/NBC
A close group of friends open to discussing anything from race, to sex, to politics is is bound to start a few water cooler discussions. “That’s exactly what out show is supposed to do, foster conversation. At first, our show was called, People Are Talking because the whole objective of this show is to get people talking about what we go through, Explains Webb. “It’s supposed to inspire conversation about things that might be a little uncomfortable to talk about. That’s what TV should do, it should inspire a new way of thinking, it should make you think.”
The series is the idea of creator and executive producer DJ Nash and comes from his relationship with his close group of friends. The character of Mitch, played by Gosselaar, is loosely based on him. Webb thinks that the show’s viewers will easily relate to the situations and conversations facing the characters. “It reminds me of me and my friends. We’re all couples, and we talk about our issues of the week, which might be little issues, but they might be big.” The actress adds, “I think that a lot of people will be able to identify with and see themselves in one of the characters, or in a stance that they take on a topic.”
The pilot of Truth Be Told deals with Mitch and Angie hiring a new babysitter. “I don’t have kids,” says Webb, “but my friends do, and their babysitter is their god.” And when the new sitter is sexy and may have a porno past, the dilemma becomes, “to hire, or not to hire.”
“I like television that makes me think a little bit and makes me wonder how I would react in a solution, or how their friends might react,” says Webb. “We want people to sound off on Twitter with their opinions as well.”
Then Webb sounded off on a new of her favorites when she answered our “5 Questions”
Hair: Yvette Shelton
Make Up: Brandy Allen
Stylist: Adeel Khan
1. If your TV carried just three shows or networks, what would they be?
This is hard…only three? NBC, VH1 — because sometimes I like to watch a little gloss with a little music. You know sometimes I need a little bit of ratchet TV — and HBO.
2. What are three foods you have to have in your fridge or pantry?
Oreo cookies, chicken noodle soup, and Chardonnay.
3. Tell us about a time when you were star struck.
Funny story: I was an Emmy party — I’ve been at a couple — but this one was different because I’m in a new place in my career. And as I’m coming out of the party and I see all of these funny women. I love funny women and so I’m congratulating them on their work, and then Edie Falco turns around. I screamed in her face, “Nurse Jackie!!!” It was overwhelming; it had been pent-up in my soul from two days of Emmy parties and it exploded in her face. I felt really bad and I apologized, but I love her so much!
4. What has been one of your strangest of funniest fan encounters?<
When I run into fans of mine, they usually yell lines at me from the show, Love That Girl! They say, “Taste the Rainbow, Boo!” or “I’m Unique, I see you!” that’s really sweet and I love it. I cry with them too. Once, a little girl cried when she met me, and I cried too, because I don’t know how to not do this.
5. What did you want to be when you were a little girl?
I wanted to be an actress. I wanted “to be inside the TV.” Those were the exact words I would say to my parents. I would get dressed up ant watch Sesame Street, because whenever the camera would go all around the world, and kids from around the world would wave into the camera and say their little fun fact of the day, I thought that they were going to turn the camera on me. So I would get dressed up in my party dress. And they never came to me! It’s ridiculous.
Truth Be Told > NBC > Fridays at 8:30pm ET/PT beginning Oct. 16
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