90s royalty descended on Los Angeles this week to celebrate the return of one of television’s most beloved characters, as Scene & Heard partnered with Paramount+ to host an exclusive preview of The Varnell Hill Show on the eve of its premiere.

The evening opened with a “Late Night” reception that transformed the theater into a full 90s television celebration, complete with signature cocktails, before attendees settled in for a private screening of the series’ first episode.

Following the screening, Emmy-nominated comedian, actor, and writer X Mayo moderated a conversation featuring Martin Lawrence alongside co-stars Tommy Davidson, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Chris Williams, and Kym Whitley, digging into what it took to bring Varnell Hill back to screens more than three decades after the character first captured audiences.

On the red carpet ahead of the screening, Davidson reflected on just how long it took for this particular reunion to come together. “This really took 35 years for me and Martin to hook up and actually do our own show together,” Davidson said, tracing the friendship back to when the two of them, along with Chris Rock, arrived in Los Angeles from the D.C. area in the 1980s as part of a new wave of Black comedians following in the footsteps of Eddie Murphy, Kenan Ivory Wayans, and Robert Townsend.

He was clear that the show’s return wasn’t a matter of luck. “I learned that if you stick with the idea long enough, you can get it done,” Davidson said of the press run leading up to the premiere. “But you’ve got to be persistent with it. Every day got to be at least one inch of effort towards it.”

That persistence, Davidson explained, is rooted in a friendship that predates fame entirely. “We went to the same clubs. Both of us was working our jobs,” he said, recalling helping move Lawrence’s furniture in the early days. “I was pushing his couch down the damn street, trying to get an apartment and all that stuff.” He credited the origins of the Varnell Hill revival to Kid, of Kid ‘n Play, who noticed a lack of Black late-night talent on television and suggested reviving the format.

“Kid said, ‘Why don’t you call Martin and ask if you can use the Varnell Hill show to set up a late-night talk show for all the black talent,'” Davidson recounted, describing the resulting series as a talk-show-within-a-show built to spotlight new voices. “We’re going to be innovative. We’re going to make it happen,” he said. “You throw in some weeds, it’s going to be greens. Throw us the scraps, we gonna make ’em delicacies.”

Lawrence, for his part, opted not to reprise the role of Martin directly, instead appearing as a relative of the character to give himself room to do something different. “It’s about Varnell, so we thought it’d be fun for me to come as a character, cousin or something of Martin,” he explained. Like Davidson, Lawrence traced their bond back to their earliest days as young comedians. “We just go way back, man. Since D.C., Maryland, we started about the same time, and we just have a brotherhood,” Lawrence said. “My mother used to cook for him,” he said. “He helped me carry my couch in the car.”

Asked what he hoped audiences would take away from the special, Lawrence kept it simple. “I want them to feel the fun they had with Martin,” he said. “Genuine laughter and drama, and just fun.”

The first episode of The Varnell Hill Show is now streaming on Paramount+.

Photo Credit: Bexx Francois