With her new Netflix series Leanne, Tennessee comic Leanne Morgan proves it’s never too late to fulfill your dreams — even if those dreams involve getting your own sitcom.
Achieving this months before she turns 60, Morgan’s series, inspired by her stand-up, focuses on the life of a grandmother whose world is upended when her husband, played by Ryan Stiles, unexpectedly leaves her after 33 years of marriage.
Morgan’s path to the stage, and to this series, was anything but traditional. She decided to try her hand at stand-up after leaving a lasting impression on customers, while selling jewelry door-to-door, and has spent the decades since honing her craft, leading to her breakout with viral clips amid the pandemic. She continued to build out her following with I’m Every Woman, a 2023 Netflix special which drew the attention of many, including the “King of Sitcoms,” Chuck Lorre.
No stranger to crafting comedies centered around stand-ups, between work on shows like Roseanne, Grace Under Fire, and Bookie, Lorre teamed with Morgan and Susan McMartin to create Leanne at a time when the genre of the multi-cam sitcom has faded, with far fewer programs on the air than in the days of Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond.
In a recent sit-down for Deadline’s Comedy Means Business podcast, Lorre and Morgan discuss the reasons for the sitcom’s decline, and what fuels Lorre’s continuing desire to return to the soundstage. The duo also discusses Morgan’s learning curve in adapting to TV production, and challenges in authentically translating a stand-up’s voice to the small screen.
Alongside the CMB pod, Deadline releases a CMB newsletter — chronicling the latest happenings in comedy — twice a month, on Mondays. Sign up to receive that here. View a video clip from the Leanne conversation above and listen to the full cut below.
