TV: BARBERSHOP The Series

BARBERSHOP, the new single-camera half-hour comedy series features a talented cast of rising stars including Omar Gooding (ESPN's "Playmakers") in the lead role. Joining Gooding will be an ensemble cast including Gbenga Akinnagbe ("The Wire"), Anna Brown ("If Tomorrow Comes"), John Wesley Chatham (UPN's "Girlfriends"), Leslie Elliard (Broadway's "The Lion King"), Barry Shabaka Henley ("Collateral"), Toni Trucks and Dan White ("Ali").

The series begins where the MGM movie franchise left off, with most of the same endearing characters and a few new memorable ones added to the shop, set in a gradually gentrifying Chicago neighborhood. The cast of characters is headed by Calvin (Gooding), the soul of this close -knit community who runs the barbershop he inherited from his father which serves as the local hangout. There, with every snip of the scissors, hilarious conversations and heated discussions about the trials and tribulations of everyday life on Chicago's South Side take place. But unlike the original films, the series goes further as it delves humorously into issues of all kinds relating to these characters -- no subject is off-limits in the shop.

The lively banter and funny wisecracks don't stop in the shop either. The series will further explore the personal lives of this multi-ethnic group of haircutters. BARBERSHOP will be distributed by MGM Television Entertainment Inc. and will be executive-produced by prolific writer and showrunner, John Ridley along with the feature films producing team of Robert Teitel, George Tillman Jr. and executive producer and star of the original films, Ice Cube.

Series Premiere: Wednesday, August 10 at 10pm ET/PT Showtime