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Tavis: Steve Harris is an award-winning actor who became a prime time fixture on the long running ABC series "The Practice." This week, he's back on TV in a much talked about new series for NBC called "Heist." The show premieres this Wednesday night at 10:00 PM. Here now, a scene from 'Heist.'

Tavis: (laugh) Steve. How you living, man?

Steve Harris: Good, brother. What's up?

Tavis: Good to see you, again.

Harris: Thank you, pleasure.

Tavis: Could I just tell you, when I saw this, you are, how do I put this? The wisest, most philosophical, Socratic criminal I have ever met. I'm like, this brother... (laugh)

Harris: (laugh) I'm glad I made a statement in the first one. I like that.

Tavis: I'm like, you did. You made a statement. I'm like, if you're going to be a criminal, at least have something to say.

Harris: Yeah, and that's part of why you really dig this show. The show is clever. The show invites you to think, invites you to question. And at the same time is entertaining, and it takes you on an entertaining ride, you know what I mean? So obviously, I looked at it because it was just smart and didn't have me being sort of the sidekick.

It allowed me to do what I do, which is make it better, make it happen. So, it's been a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it opening up Wednesday night, and finding out what people think.

Tavis: I'm looking forward to it as well. A lot of hype, a lot of buzz on this thing. Let me ask, where you are concerned specifically, the obvious question that many of your fans are gonna wanna know, I think, at least. And if not them, this one fan wants to know. How did you decide that you wanted to do this? I'm glad to have you back in prime time, but we know you as this brother who's very serious, you know where I'm going already.

Harris: Yes, of course.

Tavis: I see you nodding your head already. You knew this was coming. You knew it was coming, didn't you?

Harris: Well, it has to come. And I hope that people, people that they turn to are looking for me. They got the whole history of 'The Practice.'

Tavis: Now hold up; let me ask my question first. (laugh)

Harris: Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. (laugh) Don't let me stop you.

Tavis: No, no, no. You and I are communicating telepathically here, and I'm like.

Harris: Yes, yes. We got people watching.

Burns: The audience is like, we're brothers. Can we get a question here? Can we get a question before we get an answer? So the question is, very simply, this. (laugh) For those of us who love your work, we are used to seeing you choose roles that make strong, powerful statements. Affirming statements about Black men.

Now, I love you in this role, so don't get me wrong. And I think you gotta be wed to one thing or the other. But how did you process coming back to prime time in a role like this, so dramatically different from your role in 'The Practice?'

Harris: Well, that's key, right there. It is dramatically different from "The Practice." So, I was offered other opportunities that were basically different variations on the theme that I already laid down. So it was a choice to do something drastically different. It was a choice. He still had to be smart. He still had to have passion about what he was doing.

But it's a different character completely. And it was nice the Cullens, the guys who wrote it. NBC wanted to take this shot. Because a lot of people couldn't see you as anything else but that. That was sort of the pocket they wanted to put me in. And now I get a chance to blow that up. And I'm looking forward to it.

People who've seen other things I've been in know that you can see differences. But it's nice to be back on prime time and be able to show everybody else, okay, take another look.

Tavis: How does it challenge you, and I should back up in a second and ask you to give more about the story line, for those who haven't seen, nobody's seen it yet. It doesn't start until Wednesday. Matter of fact, why don't I start there? Tell me what "Heist" is about. Then I'll follow up on that.

Harris: Well, 'Heist" is about basically these gang of thieves who are trying to pull off one of the greatest heists in history. Basically trying to rob three jewelry stores on Rodeo Drive during Academy Awards week. That's the basic premise. That's the job we're trying to do. And at the end of the day, that's the job we're trying to pull off.

But up to that point, you have to go with us. Because if you already got that much money to just pull this heist off, why do it? We have to get the means by which to make that happen. So we end up, that's what we want to do. But have we to backtrack and get to there. At the same time, you get a look at our home lives.

I have a wife and two children. Other characters, Mickey has an ex-wife, and you find out a lot about his past and why he's really into this. I'm into this because this is the money. This is the way I can make my living, this is what I enjoy doing. At the same time, I got a family that I love at home that I can't tell them what I do.

'Cause I tell them what I do, she jets on me. That's basically it. So, there's a lot of layers, a lot of levels to the character, and to the story. But the ultimate thing is, you gonna go for this ride from show one to show 13 of whether or not we gonna pull this off. And we have cops on the show who are standards on the show as well.

They're not dumb. They're not, like, the idiot sidekick sort of thing. So they actually, along the way, are gonna cause hiccups. And maybe at the end, we don't pull it off. That part, I actually don't know yet. I hope we do, 'cause then (laugh) in year two, I get to come back, you know what I mean? So I'm hoping we pull it off. But basically, that's the ride we're gonna take you on. And on that journey, you get to know about us.

Tavis: I love this. So at this point, 'cause those of us who have seen the pilot, were taken for ride in the pilot. But I'm fascinated when you sit here tell me now that you, as a star of the show, one of the stars, honestly don't know what happens at the end of 13 weeks.

Harris: Oh, no. No, no, no, no.

Tavis: So you don't know if you pull this off or not.

Harris: We don't really know. No, no. We don't really know.

Tavis: Wow. That's cool.

Harris: But the truth of the matter is when we signed on, we didn't know if we would pull it off. We don't know. Obviously, you're gonna get people to watch this show, and they're gonna wanna know what happens with us. And so, like I said, those layers, layers, layers, layers. Now, I'm obviously hoping that we pull it off, and it's a big ta-da to do, and people really wanna turn in on that thirteenth episode and check us out. But right now, we don't know. And I think that adds to everything that's involved in encompassing this show.

Tavis: As an actor, let's get like 'Inside The Actor's Studio' for just a second.

Harris: Go ahead. No problem. (laugh) Hold on. Let me lean back, if we gonna get 'Inside The Actor's Studio.'

Tavis: (laugh) Yeah, 'Inside The Actor's Studio,' we gotta change your look now.

Harris: Let's do it proper, now.

Tavis: There you go.

Harris: No, no. (laugh) Later for that.

Tavis: My one 'Inside The Actor's Studio' question. As an actor, how do you process playing this role every week and not knowing where this thing ends up?

Harris: Well, to be perfectly honest, in this particular thing, that's like life. We play our role, hoping that we end up here. And then sometimes we get it and sometimes we don't. It's actually the closest job I've had to that.

Tavis: To reality, yeah.

Harris: To reality of life. Because you do things in life, good and bad. But ultimately, you're trying to get to a goal. Now, most people don't win the lottery. 'Cause if everybody win the lottery, everybody'd sit around and wait till it was they turn. So we're just trying to get to the lottery here. Our hard work means we get to the lottery quicker.

A lot of times, you work and you're a bus driver, you're a cab. You're working to take care of the family so that family gets to the lottery. You've signed over that it may not be your time. But now, I found a way, in this character, this is my lottery ticket right here for me and mine. And I'm going to go for it.

Tavis: That's the story of Black people, ain't it?

Harris: Oh, you always...

Tavis: Putting it out there and hoping there's somebody behind you. The Black kids yet unborn.

Harris: Well, that's ultimately how we raised. Because you gotta remember where start from here. So when you get from where we start from here, and then you rotate that over, it's always been about, okay, I gotta rough it out here so that we can push it on. And ultimately what happens is, and this is one thing that I was told in life, life ain't fair.

But at some point, it balances out. So we're working towards that balance. Once we get that balance, then you take it over. So we've taken things over, as history as shown, till we get to here. And then hopefully, we've opened more doors for more people. Like, doors been opened for me, Clarence Williams III doing 'Mod Squad' opened the door.

Bill Cosby doing "I Spy' opened the door. Paul Robeson opened the door for me. Ira Aldridge opened the door for us. Sidney Poitier opened the door for me. Hopefully, I'll open the door for somebody else. But I don't wanna ever forget who opened the door for me. Otherwise, I couldn't be in the position of playing the particular roles I've chosen to play, if those people before me, and many more that I haven't named, John Amos, and it goes on and on, that I haven't named, that opened it, that allows me to do this. So the next guy that pops off, you know, he'll do something else.

Tavis: See, ya'll thought I was lying. A wise, philosophical, Socratic thug. (laugh)

Harris: (laugh) True to life, baby! True to life.

Tavis: Let me put this out; I got two minutes to go. Let me put this out there right quick. I have so many great Steve Harris stories, but one of my favorites has to be what you said, let me to go back to "The Practice" right quick. What you said to the producers of 'The Practice' when after being on for X number of seasons, they wanted, out of nowhere, to give you a teenage son. A Black man. You remember this story?

Harris: Yeah, yeah.

Tavis: You said, I can't go for that.

Harris: Yeah. They just dropped it out of nowhere. And the one thing about, here's the idea about being on TV. Right now, it seems as though there's sort of this creed to always make us good guys at the end of the day, because of what has gone on in the past. And in that particular show, having me have a kid and a responsibility like that, they just wanted to drop a house.

As a matter of fact, when I first had a child on the show, and a wife and everything, that wasn't the way it began. So, at some point you gotta say, well, wait a minute. This doesn't fit at all the way we're going, and you just can't toss it out there because you think it's entertaining. I have a responsibility to this particular character.

That responsibility to that character is not the same one I'm gonna have for this one, or when I did "Diary." Not the same one I had to that one. Different responsibilities based on what you play. But if you honor that which you play, it'll work out. So when this particular character, when I was doing it on "The Practice," that was dishonoring the character and dishonoring everybody who watched it thinking they were gonna see something.

Tavis: Yeah. Well, you made them give you a wife and a baby.

Harris: Well, they had to give me a wife.

Tavis: And not just a son that came out of nowhere.

Harris: No, not just a drop-in. And also, we didn't want to necessarily, we wanted him to have a little struggle situation. My thing was, I also wanted to, if struggle really works, you see love beforehand. And then you see that love, then you go with the struggle.

Tavis: Man, stop, stop, man.

Harris: I'm just telling you.

Tavis: It's getting too deep.

Harris: Hey, no. Come on, this is Tavis Smiley.

Tavis: Man, you're getting way too deep.

Harris: This is Tavis Smiley.

Tavis: I'm out of time anyway. (laugh)

Harris: Come on, man. You can't tell me that.

Tavis: You know what? 'The Practice" is prologue.

Harris: Yes.

Tavis: What lies ahead is the "Heist.'

Harris: 'Heist.'

Tavis: On Wednesday night on NBC, starring Steve Harris, back in prime time. But don't call it a comeback. I'm glad to have you here.

Harris: Thank you, bro. Appreciate it, man.

Tavis: Good to see you, man. All the best. And we'll be watching Wednesday.

On a quick note, before we say good night, two years ago, we introduced you to an aspiring NASCAR driver named Bill Lester. Earlier today in Atlanta, Bill Lester fulfilled his dream of competing in a Nextel Cup race, that's big leagues in stock car racing.

Bill Lester became, then, the first African American to do so in 20 years. And though he did not win, he did compete and complete all 500 miles, which was the goal for the race. Congratulations, Bill Lester. Keep up the good work.

That's our show for tonight. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.