The Chicago roots of the creative team behind Comedy Central's 'South Side'

CHICAGO - I'm not sure I've seen a TV show that is as much a family affair as "South Side," which premiered last week on Comedy Central.

A rent-to-own business on Chicago's South Side is the show's center of gravity, where a striver named Simon begrudgingly works. One upside? That's where his longtime pal and partner in knuckleheadedness Kareme works as well. Their boss is Kareme's frequently exasperated twin brother, Q.

Here are the real-life family ties: Simon is played by Sultan Salahuddin, who is the older brother (by two years) of the show's co-creator Bashir Salahuddin and they both grew up on Chicago's South Shore and in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood. They've known the twins, played by Kareme and Quincy Young, since high school. Sultan and the twins attended the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences; Bashir is a Whitney Young alum.

Bashir also co-stars on the show along with his wife, fellow South Side native Chandra Russell (who went to Lincoln Park High School) and together they play a pair of cops who are a study in opposites: He's by the book but forever