House of Payne is an American sitcom television series created and produced by Tyler Perry that premiered in syndication on June 21, 2006. The series revolves around a multi-generational family living under one roof in Atlanta led by patriarch Curtis Payne and his wife Ella. While primarily a comedy, with elements of slapstick, House of Payne was known for featuring dark themes and subject matter, such as substance abuse and addiction. The show is also heavily serialized, with many references to past episodes, creating a continuing story arc. Reaching 254 episodes upon the conclusion of its sixth season, House of Payne has aired more episodes than any other television series with a predominantly African American cast, surpassing The Jeffersons with 253 episodes, Family Matters with 215 episodes, and The Cosby Show with 202 episodes. Production history The sitcom ran in first-run syndication for 10 episodes during mid-2006 on the Atlanta-area broadcast of WPCH-TV, along with nine other broadcast outlets across the country, as a limited run, with additional episodes to be available for national distribution on TBS in June 2007. An order of 100 episodes was later requested by TBS. A cable record for sitcom airings was broken with 5.2 and 5.8 million for the two premiere episodes on TBS on June 6, 2007. However, the audience declined to 4.3 million as of the week ending September 30, 2007 and 2.260 and 2.099 as of May 19, 2010. The principal cast remained the same (with the exception of Lance Gross being added), led by LaVan Davis. The original format of the series centred around C.J. (Allen Payne) and his family moving in with his Aunt Ella (Cassi Davis) and Uncle Curtis (LaVan Davis). Robinne Lee had a recurring guest stint in Season 1–2 as Malik and Jazmine's principal Nicole Jamieson, whom C.J. began dating. Rochelle Aytes originally portrayed Nicole Jamieson in the test pilot episodes as Malik's math teacher. In the test run, Ella and Curtis were originally C.J.'s parents and his name was Curtis Jr., but in its televised format, Calvin is their son and C.J. their nephew and his name was changed to Clarence. Despite his top billing, Allen Payne is not considered the main actor of the series, especially since his long absence in the fifth season. The show was recorded in front of a live studio audience but sometimes used a laugh track. At the beginning