With his starring role in TBS’ new fall series “The Last O.G.,” Tracy Morgan is returning to TV after a traffic collision in 2014 derailed his career and his life.
The only thing he has to say about returning? “Thank God,” he told reporters at the Television Critics Association summer tour on Thursday. “That’s all I’ve got to say.”
As for working on the set of the show, which marks his first starring role since the fatal collision, Morgan added that the production crew, along with many of his cast members, made sure he didn’t exert himself, forcing him to take breaks on set.
“I have production and I have my crew and they make sure I sit down,” he said. “They don’t ask me. They just say, ‘sit down for a while.’ I’m good! I’m taken care of. I love them with my heart.”
“The Last O.G.” is a show about second chances, Morgan says. It follows his character, Tray, as he gets back to Brooklyn after a 15-year stint in jail, only to find the world has changed around him. His neighborhood is gentrified, his girlfriend Shay (Tiffany Haddish) has married a white man and the two are raising twins Tray didn’t know existed.
Tray stays in a halfway house in order to get back on his feet, taken under the wing of Cedric the Entertainer’s character.
While he didn’t mention his crash directly, Morgan said during the Q&A session that the show is heavily themed around transition and change, not just for his character but for all the characters — and actors — involved.
“The hardest thing in life is going through transition,” he said.
The June 2014, which killed his friend James McNair, took place on the New Jersey Turnpike when a Walmart truck driven by Kevin Roper struck a vehicle carrying Morgan and others. Morgan was taken to a hospital with serious injuries. he was in a coma and then spent a year going through rehabilitation. He said in later interviews that he had to relearn how to walk and do other basic tasks.
He made his first public appearance in 2015 in an interview with Matt Lauer and then jumped back into his career. He made a surprise appearance at the Emmy’s that year and hosted an episode of “Saturday Night Live,” which poked fun at the incident.
After all he’s been through, and as the panel was wrapping up Kevin Reilly, the president of TBS and TNT, said “welcome back, Tray.”
Morgan replied, “thank you.”
Kathy Griffin Isn't Alone: 8 Other Celebrities Who've Been Eyed by the Feds (Photos)
Comedian Kathy Griffin, who caught heat last week after posing with a facsimile of President Donald Trump's severed head, said during a press conference Friday that Trump and his family have targeted her for retaliation, and that she is now the subject of a Secret Service investigation over the photo.
While Griffin's attorney, Lisa Bloom, called the situation "outrageous and unprecedented," that's not entirely true -- at least not the "unprecedented part." Read on for other entertainers who came under government scrutiny.
In the '80s, Milt Ahlerich. FBI assistant director of the FBI's office of public affairs, wrote a letter to rap group N.W.A's label Priority Records, saying that 78 police officers were "feloniously slain in the line of duty during 1988 . . . and recordings such as the one from N.W.A are both discouraging and degrading to these brave, dedicated officers," a reference to the N.W.A song "F--k Tha Police."
"I wanted you to be aware of the FBI's position relative to this song and its message. I believe my views reflect the opinion of the entire law enforcement community," the letter continued.
"Rocky Mountain High" singer John Denver was the subject of an FBI file that labeled the folk singer a narcotics user and noted his scheduled appearance a a 1971 anti-war rally in Minnesota.
Ill-fated Playboy Playmate/actress Anna Nicole Smith was investigated by the FBI in 2000 and 2001 over an alleged murder-for-hire plot against E. Pierce Marshall, the son of Smith's oil-tycoon husband J. Howard Marshall, who fought to prevent Smith from inheriting his father's fortune.
Silent-film legend Charlie Chaplin was the subject of a decades-long probe by the FBI, which sought to determine if he was a Communist. The final entry in Chaplin's FBI file was made in 1978, a year after the actor's death.
In the 1960s, the FBI requested to interview actor Rock Hudson, stemming from the belief that the actor had "homosexual tendencies." The interview, the bureau noted, was to be conducted by "two mature experienced Special Agents."
"I Love Lucy" star Lucille Ball earned a place on the FBI's radar because her possible Communist ties. The actress had admitted to the House Un-American Activities Committee that she had registered to vote as a Communist in 1936, saying that she only did so to satisfy her socialist grandfather. The HUAC let her off the hook, but the FBI continued to amass information on her nonetheless.
Thanks to his alignment with the anti-war movement, former Beatle John Lennon was placed under FBI surveillance in 1971, with the INS launching a campaign to deport the musician the following year. The FBI noted that "Lennon should be arrested, if at all possible, on possession of narcotics charges ... which would make him more immediately deportable."
In Mach, after Snoop Dogg released the video "Lavender," which featured the rapper shooting a clown-faced Donald Trump stand-in with a toy gun, a spokesman for the Secret Service told TheWrap that the Service was "aware of" the video, declining further public comment.
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From Lucille Ball to Snoop Dogg, comedian is in good company
Comedian Kathy Griffin, who caught heat last week after posing with a facsimile of President Donald Trump's severed head, said during a press conference Friday that Trump and his family have targeted her for retaliation, and that she is now the subject of a Secret Service investigation over the photo.
While Griffin's attorney, Lisa Bloom, called the situation "outrageous and unprecedented," that's not entirely true -- at least not the "unprecedented part." Read on for other entertainers who came under government scrutiny.
