Lucious is the patriarch of Empire, returning to Fox on Sept. 27 for its fourth season of music, madness and melodrama. The Lyons family dynamics make The Sopranos look like The Waltons. Howard, who has done Broadway, films and TV, never expected Empire would be a hit.
“I looked at it and said, ‘It’s not going to make it,’” he recalls of reading the pilot. “The father in the pilot is a drug dealer, wanting to become a rapper. He throws his son in the garbage can, then beats his son with a broomstick and another son makes out with another guy.”
Being gay was a bigger stumbling block than dealing drugs, Howard notes, figuring that, at least in the beginning, Empire would attract a predominately black audience.
“The moment they show two guys making out, everyone will turn the channel,” Howard assumed. “It was worth $125,000 an episode (his original pay). I never thought it would get picked up. Homosexuality within the black community is a taboo subject. No way would my father have let me watch this show.”
Yet the show caught fire. Its second season premiere event was at a packed Carnegie Hall, where fans lined the streets and paid to watch an episode. “I was so surprised when we hit numbers of 24 million viewers,” Howard says. “I know the majority were black people. Now, we have grown.”
As has Empire, the fictional music company on the show. There’s plenty of court intrigue with the sons plotting against the father. Last season Cookie, played by the divine Taraji P. Henson, Lucious’ ex-wife, business partner and rival (it’s complicated), destroyed his offices.
Plot lines are intricate and stars drop in, such as Leslie Uggams playing Lucious’ mother, who makes Lady Macbeth seem cuddly. Phylicia Rashad plays the imperious mother of Taye Diggs, who was Cookie’s beau. Empireis steeped in loves and hates, mental and physical illnesses, and the sort of internecine battles that fueled medieval fiefdoms.