If you ever talk to Leslie Jones, go ahead and ask about her current TV favorites. She’ll soon launch into a hilariously foul-mouthed rundown. “All my shows are starting to come back on!” she says. “And I am caught up, girl.”
Her take on Doc: “The writing is so fucking good. I’m so obsessed if Dr. Amy [Molly Parker] is going to get back with her ex or not, but I kind of don’t want her to — because I don’t want to hurt that lady.”
She’s passionate about Reasonable Doubt, too: “It just gets better and better. It does not make sense how good the writing is!” And, oh boy, she has major thoughts on 9-1-1. “I’m so fucking mad at them, because they killed Bobby [Peter Krause]!” she exclaims. “They shouldn’t have taken him away! Like, I’m telling you, it took me a long time to get past it.”
The comic/actress/writer has been a small-screen mainstay since breaking out on Saturday Night Live in 2014. After leaving the long-running NBC staple in 2019, Jones has gone to do everything from host Supermarket Sweep to reporting from the Olympics. But she has a special place in her heart for performing live comedy — which is why she’s so excited about her new stand-up special, Leslie Jones: Life Part 2. It premieres October 24 on Peacock.
“That’s where I’m at home,” she explains. “It’s all about instant satisfaction. There’s nothing like telling a joke to myself at the beginning of the day, and then saying: ‘I’ll do it on stage.’ Laughing also brings people together. I think that’s really healthy.”
As for that show title? Jones notes that, at age 58, she’s just hitting her stride: “The second part of my life is better in how I feel about myself, the way that I look, the way I think about things and the way I make my decisions.”
That said, Jones freely admits to agonizing over her My 7 Shows list. (“Damn, this is hard!”) In fact, for as much as she loves The Cosby Show, Living Single, A Different World and Girlfriends, all were relegated to honorable mentions. So which gems made the cut? Jones lets loose with The Television Academy.
Photo credit: Peacock
Good Times (1974-79, CBS)
First of all, you need to know that my family watched anything Black on TV. If somebody was Black on The Lawrence Welk Show, we watched. So I loved this show because it was the perfect picture of how black families really did work. We do eat breakfast together. We eat dinner together. We pray together. We cry together.
When James [John Amos] died on Good Times, you could not console me. I remember running to my bedroom and crying. My dad was like, “Baby, yo, this is TV. The man is not really dead.” Then he showed me another movie with John Amos. When I finally did meet John Amos, I told him that he once broke my heart.
The Jeffersons (1975-85, CBS)
Photo credit: CBS
The Jeffersons is kind of like my life. You know the opening song? “We’re movin’ on up, to the east side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky!” When I got SNL, I literally moved to an apartment in the sky.
This show is so funny and so good, because we loved a real Black family that got rich. Like, of course we’d have a maid [Marla Gibbs’ Florence] that talked shit. Weezy [Isabel Sanford] goes to church, but she’s still ghetto when she needs to be ghetto. This was also my introduction to an interracial couple [Roxie Roker and Franklin Cover]. I didn’t understand why this beautiful Black woman — with bomb-ass hair — was with this white man!
Three’s Company (1977-84, ABC)
Three’s Company is very important to me because of John Ritter and his physical comedy. He was part of my training. Look, slipping on a banana [peel] will always be funny — just like John Ritter tripping over a fucking couch was always funny. He always made me feel safe, and he always made me feel like it was okay to be silly. Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett were the same way on their shows.
Designing Women (1986-93, CBS)
I mean, just for the fucking crazy hairstyles and the fucking great Southern jokes and the shoulder pads. You know, Delta [Burke] as Suzanne Sugarbaker was just so good on it. Everybody needs to watch it! I actually want to put it next to The Golden Girls, which was a similar kind of show about four women — but they had jokes. Let me tell you something: You can't fuck with Betty White. And then you put Betty White up there with Maude [Bea Arthur]?! I just liked watching those two play. They were so good and quick.
ER (1994-2009, NBC)
Photo credit: NBC
I didn't watch ER’s finale for at least three months; I couldn't believe that they had the audacity to end it. I loved it on every fucking level, and loved every situation. But they didn’t have to kill Mekhi Phifer. There was no reason for that. It happened so close to the end of the show — like, why not let the man live and go work at another hospital?!
I should also mention that I love The Pitt, too. And Noah Wyle is really, really good — I think that show has deserved all of the accolades.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999-present, NBC)
This show has always been in my life, and it is really good for me. For one thing, Olivia [Mariska Hargitay] and everyone else are fighting for women in these violent sexual cases. Especially in the climate we're in now, I really love the message that we need to protect women more. It makes me feel good knowing that someone is out there fighting for us. And at the end, when they catch the criminal and solve the case, I go, “Okay, thank god.” Like, maybe this can happen — maybe we can really get justice.
Game of Thrones (2011-19, HBO)
Photo credit: HBO
I didn't watch Game of Thrones when it first came out. I waited maybe six months when everybody was going crazy over it. I was like, “Let me watch the first episode.” And when they killed the father [Sean Bean’s Eddard Stark] in the first season, [and] I was like, “Oh, they’re not fucking around.” You could not love anybody on Game of Thrones because there was a possibility they were going to die. “The Red Wedding” episode took me out. I had to take a couple of days to even let that sink in; it was cold-blooded. So, that show fucked me up — but I loved it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
