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Tavis: Growing up in a--Shut up, man! Can I do this? Can I do this? Thank you. Growing up in a tough neighborhood like Compton, a kid can only dream of being a Hollywood star, but that's exactly what Anthony Anderson dreamed of as a child growing up in Compton. His career has now completely--Shut up. His career has now completely blown up, as they might say down in Compton, back in his old neighborhood. In addition to his TV show, 'All about the Andersons...'

Anthony: Set in Compton!

Tavis: Shut up! Set in Compton, he's now--You just cannot be quiet, can you? You want to host the show? Do you want to talk?

Anthony: Sit right here. I do.

Tavis: Finish reading the prompter there. Go ahead and finish reading.

Anthony: OK. All right. He's now a bona fide movie star. His next film opens in a couple weeks, and here he is in a scene from 'Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London.' Roll the clip.

Cody Banks: what the heck do you think you're doing?

Derek: Hey, man, it's called the double bluff. No way in the world somebody's gonna think a kid like you works for the C.I.A.

Cody: Shh.

Derek: Shh! You're 14.

Cody: 16.

Derek: Well, act your age and loosen up a little bit, all right, man?

Cody: who are you?

Derek: Derek Bowman. I'm your handler.

Cody: OK. Double cheeseburger, hold the pickle, easy on the mustard, no mayo, ayo, ayo.

Derek: Are you kidding?

Cody: come on, just say the code.

Derek: Chicken sandwich with everything. A-ling, a-ling, a-ling.

Cody: Thank you, but, uh, I don't need a handler.

Derek: Hey, I don't need a white Mini-me, but here we are.

Anthony: Hmm.

Tavis: We're back live now. So do your thing.

Anthony: Hey, Tavis, nice to see you.

Tavis: Ha ha ha! You don't know what to do. That's like me coming to your set trying to tell some jokes.

Anthony: Uh-uh. So when they fired you from B.E.T...

Tavis: See, I knew you had to go there.

Anthony: How did it feel? No. OK, let's go.

Tavis: You had to go there, didn't you?

Anthony: Come on, man. Stop it.

Tavis: So first of all, how you doin'?

Anthony: I'm all right, Tavis.

Tavis: Nice to see you. You like that chair?

Anthony: I love this chair, man. This is what--Eh, could y'all--Shh!

Tavis: Ha ha!

Anthony: This KCET, brother. This PBS, man. There's a different type of decorum. This the station that runs 'Sesame Street.'

Tavis: You can't be talking out loud over there.

Anthony: I'm just saying. He talkin' loud over there.

Tavis: So you--Ha ha! So you went to London to do 'Agent Cody Banks 2.'

Anthony: Yes, sir.

Tavis: So what's it like for a brother hanging out in London? How long were you there?

Anthony: I was there close to 3 months, man.

Tavis: So you and Lennox Lewis.

Anthony: Lennox Lewis. I was down in Brixton. 'Cause I'm welcome in any ghetto worldwide, brother. Yeah, they welcomed me, so...But it was wild, man. But you know, it's the place to be if you like, um, bad food and warm beer and women with bad teeth. But I can't talk, 'cause look. Zoom in. Zoom in...

Tavis: I know, with that big ol' gap. I know you ain't talkin'. Drive a locomotive through that gap, man. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That wasn't right, was it?

Anthony: No, it wasn't.

Tavis: Ha ha!

Anthony: Come on. Yes. Yes, Tavis.

Tavis: How your mama doin'?

Anthony: You know what? My mama waitin' on that house. I should have never told-

Tavis: The last time I saw you, I asked you about buying your mama a house. You still ain't bought your mama a house yet?

Anthony: I should've never told my mama I was gonna buy her a house. I'm waiting on my mama to leave me alone.

Tavis: You got money coming. You making money on TV, you got film projects, and I saw--Where's my card?

Anthony: OK, they're right there.

Tavis: I had to write this down so I wouldn't forget. I wanted to read this.

Anthony: Read it.

Tavis: 'Cause this seems like a Prince album back in the day. Remember Prince? All songs written, produced, performed, lead vocals, background vocals, all instruments played by, marketing, video shot by--on the TV show, co-creator, starring in, producing, writing...

Anthony: Right.

Tavis: 'All About the Andersons.' It's all about you.

Anthony: It's all about me.

Tavis: Can your mama get a house?

Anthony: I mean, you know, in time.

Tavis: What you waitin' on?

Anthony: I'm waiting for the market to change, you know. See, 'cause--See, my mama would have a house if she would just be content with a home. My mama want a mansion.

Tavis: Mm-hmm.

Anthony: I mean, and my mama--

Tavis: You ain't got but one mama.

Anthony: I understand that.

Tavis: Mama, I got your back. You ain't got but one mama...

Anthony: I will always love my mama. She's my favorite girl. You only get one. You only get one. But you know what, man? I don't have the money like my mama think I got. I mean, I got brothers and sisters that I'm putting through college and school and helping them with their children.

Tavis: So what have you done for your mama lately, if not a house?

Anthony: I've got a lot of debt.

Tavis: Ha ha!

Anthony: She got a 860 credit rating now because of me. She can go out and buy her own house if she had a job.

Tavis: Ha ha!

Anthony: My mama got credit now because of me.

Tavis: I ain't mad at you. OK, that's a start.

Anthony: All right.

Tavis: But don't let--Don't come back on this show no more and don't tell me you ain't bought your mama a house.

Anthony: Hear me out. Hear me out, Tavis. I sat down with my mother the other day, and I told her I will move her off her block that she's in right now into a nice little place--Hold on. Hear me out--Because my mama is quick to rush into--"Let's find the right place, mama. Let's take some time and do this."

Tavis: And takes a few years to figure that out.

Anthony: Not a few years. I said, "You know, I will put you up for a year. I mean, hopefully, we'll find a house before then. But I will get you out of the ghetto, move you to a nice little place where you ain't gotta lock your windows in the daytime."

Tavis: Let me ask you one question. Can I ask you one question?

Anthony: Yes, sir.

Tavis: One question.

Anthony: One.

Tavis: Can I hit it and quit it?

Anthony: Yes.

Tavis: Can I take it to the bridge? Where you live?

Anthony: I mean, you know, that's not--that's not--

Tavis: That's what I thought.

Anthony: That's not what this is about.

Tavis: That's what I thought.

Anthony: But I have a room for my mama at my house, too.

Tavis: In your mansion.

Anthony: It's not--

Tavis: But your mama's still avoidin' bullets. Your mama's still avoidin' bullets.

Anthony: That's 'cause my mama real. My mama like that.

Tavis: Yeah. Ha ha ha!

Anthony: I didn't tell my mama to move to 79th and Normandie. She moved there on her own.

Tavis: Your mama was livin' there before you became a star.

Anthony: No, she wasn't! My mama chose to go to ground zero, dawg. That's where they beat the white man in the truck.

Tavis: Reginald Denny.

Anthony: Yes, Reginald Denny. Damian "Football" Williams and the other dude. Yes! I didn't tell her to move there.

Tavis: Don't come back no more until you buy your mama a house.

Anthony: My mama is happy with the plan that I told her. Because you know what? I'm not gonna buy my mama a house. I'm buildin' my mama a house.

Tavis: That takes a little time.

Anthony: She knows, 'cause I told her. I said, "Mama, I'm gonna build you a house."

Tavis: Mm-hmm. OK.

Anthony: All right. Can we talk about me now?

Tavis: OK. How's your little TV show doing?

Anthony: My little TV show's doin' all right.

Tavis: 'All About the Andersons.'

Anthony: 'All About the Andersons.' Yeah, WB you know, we're Thursday nights now, 8:30, behind Steve Harvey. It's a better fit than where we were, Friday nights. Um, you know, and I believe the WB--What the WB didn't want to do was have a night of black programming. They wanted to work against that, and that sort of hurt us in the beginning. Uh, but now it's a perfect fit with Steve, our numbers are great, we're buildin' on his numbers, and it's, you know, it's something that should've happened to begin with, but--

Tavis: How do you wear all these hats on the TV show? You got hats, like I said, everywhere.

Anthony: I got a big head, man.

Tavis: Yeah, that's true.

Anthony: It's hard.

Tavis: I imagine.

Anthony: It's hard. It's hard sometimes, man. It becomes frustrating just because, you know, the show itself is based on my life, so I'm a bit more passionate about it than everybody else that's working on it, so I'm coming from a different place. But, you know, it's responsibility that I welcome, because that's what I wanted to do. That's the only way I would do television--if I created it and I control a part of it.

Tavis: Back to your mama--ahem--when you go--

Anthony: You got a thing for my mama? You like big, funny women, don't you?

Tavis: I love your mama. Ha ha! When you go visit your mama down in the neighborhood, the people must love you down there, 'cause you really are a bona fide star now.

Anthony: They do, but you know what? I try not to visit my mama.

Tavis: Ha ha ha!

Anthony: The neighborhood's rough. It's been changed. I've been off the block for a long time. I'm a little soft now, you know. No, but it's cool, man. Every time I go to my mother's house, people come out like I'm the mayor, man. I mean, it's rough.

Tavis: Well, you are the man. You are the man.

Anthony: Yeah, and the complex comes--I could never just come by my mother's house. I could never tell her I'm coming, because then it becomes something bigger than what it is, so I just have to show up.

Tavis: Just ease up in there.

Anthony: Yeah, just ease up, and then--They eventually still find out, 'cause my mama gets on the phone--"Girl, he here."

Tavis: With that big fat car out front.

Anthony: Uh-uh. I drive a hoopdy.

Tavis: With--with the Sprewells. That kind of gives it away.

Anthony: I drive the '92 Geo Prism to my mama house, dawg. I keep it real.

Tavis: Ha ha ha!

Anthony: It got the dent in the front and everything. Ain't even got a tape deck in there. Stock. It's my wife's first car. That's what I roll.

Tavis: So, you do this "funny" thing so well. You ever given any thought to being a serious thespian? Like--

Anthony: Yeah, man.

Tavis: Doing something serious.

Anthony: Yeah, I have. I have. I eventually will. It's just that the scripts that are comin' across my desk are in that vein. Uh, there are a couple of projects out there that we're waiting to get green-lit that I'll be in that's a little bit left of what I've been doing.

Tavis: Explain "green-lit" to the audience.

Anthony: That's when the studio agrees to make the film, you know? And that's when they have all the talent attached, or someone like myself, and a director. It's like, "OK, now we have a John Singleton and an Anthony Anderson. We'll give you the OK to make this film."

Tavis: That's how this works. If you're gonna sit in the host's chair and be all that, you need to explain stuff--

Anthony: I'll explain to them. I mean--but you know what?

Tavis: What? What? What?

Anthony: Your audience is learned.

Tavis: Ooh, not off the learned.

Anthony: Yes.

Tavis: I'm scared of you.

Anthony: You should be.

Tavis: The learned.

Anthony: I'm in your seat.

Tavis: I see. Ha ha!

Anthony: But you know what I want to do, man? Eventually I'm gonna make the Donny Hathaway story, man.

Tavis: That's a great project.

Anthony: Yeah, that's something that I--

Tavis: His story is a fascinating story.

Anthony: Yeah, it's a story that not too many people know about, and I think it's a story that needs to be told. And so that's sort of like my passion right now.

Tavis: I see you're moonlighting on 'Jimmy Kimmel' this week on ABC.

Anthony: Yeah, I'm a whore. I'm a whore.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha!

Anthony: Anything to get me closer to buying my mama that house.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha! Why don't you bring your mama on the show on 'Jimmy Kimmel'?

Anthony: She is. You know, we're doing a parody of the Muhammad Ali/Laila Ali commercial where they're boxing each other right now. Since my mother always whupped my--can you say, on TV, on PBS--

Tavis: They understood it.

Anthony: They understood it? Since my mama always beat my--they gonna have, instead of boxing, it's just gonna be my mama with, like, switches and extension cords and belt buckles. You don't know it's me. You just see her--Aah! Aah! Then you just see me getting whipped.

Tavis: She oughta keep doing that till you buy that house. And you're welcome back here any time as long as...

Anthony: Hey!

Tavis: You buy your mama a house.

Anthony: That's our show for tonight. As always, you can catch me on the radio on NPR, and we'll see you back here next time on PBS. A lot of acronyms and letters. Until then...Good night from Los Angeles, and keep the faith. I'm Anthony Anderson. He's Tavis Smiley. We won't be back together.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha!