Barbershop: The Series is an American sitcom which made its debut on the Showtime cable network in August 2005. It is based upon the Mark Brown-created characters from the popular films Barbershop (2002) and Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004), and was developed for television by screenwriter John Ridley. It starred Omar Gooding as Calvin Palmer, Jr., the proprietor of an African-American barbershop on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois.