Cee Lo Green's the Good Life' debuts on TBS

The evolution of Cee Lo and his Goodie Mob brethren took another leap this week with the TBS premiere of their new reality show, "Cee Lo Green's The Good Life." Far from the stereotypical reality show, they forgo the catfighting and backstabbing for scripted comedic fare. In fact, producers told an audience in February that they were intentionally going for something closer to "Curb Your Enthusiasm" in tone. It falls somewhere between that and BET's reality satire "Real Husbands of Hollywood."

In this first episode, Gipp sets Cee Lo up with an opportunity to throw the opening pitch at an L.A. Dodgers game. But the curve ball is Cee Lo can't pitch and, as R&B singer Eric Benet tells him, stepping up to the plate ain't easy. (There's a potential Halle Berry joke in there somewhere.) Meanwhile, the crew decides to start its own female limo driver service, which is just an excuse to hire incompetent eye candy to drive them around. If some of the funny feels a bit forced at times, it only reveals their desire to break themselves out of the righteous-rap-saviour category their first two albums, Soul Food (1995) and Still Standing (1997), boxed them into. Despite bringing an unsurpassed depth to the Dirty South in those early years, they sacrificed the career spoils enjoyed by their peers in the process.

As T-Mo said during a preview screening a few months ago, regarding their motive for doing the reality show, "We wanted to get outside just rapping.... We wanted to take our careers to another level."

Ray Murray of Organized Noize Productions, who co-produced the bulk of the first two Goodie albums, spoke about the Mob's attempt to broaden its image last week on ABL's Day 1 Radio with hosts Maurice Garland, Branden Peters, and Nadine Graham. Check it out if you missed it.

Recorded during Cee Lo's Las Vegas residency, "Cee Lo Green's The Good Life" is set to run Monday nights at 10:30 p.m. on TBS.