[captioning made possible by kcet public television] tavis: good evening from los angeles, i'm tavis smiley. earlier tonight on pbs we took part in a 90-minute primetime special on the state of health care in the u.s. and specifically the critical issue of childhood obesity. so first up tonight we continue that conversation with a look at what just one person can do to make a difference. tonight we'll introduce you to atlanta educator dr. yvonne sanders-butler. also tonight, actor daryl "chill" mitchell and former nfl great michael strahan is here.

the two have teamed up for a family comedy called "brothers" that premieres friday night on fox. more with a look at childhood obesity and the cast of "brothers" coming up right now. >> there are so many things that wal-mart is look forward to doing, like helping people live better but mostly we're looking forward to helping build stronger communities and relationships because with your help, the best is yet to come. >> nationwide insurance proudly supports tavis smiley. tavis and nationwide insurance, working to improve financial literacy and the economic empowerment that comes with it. >> ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

tavis: as we continue our look at the issue of childhood obesity tonight, i wanted to highlight an example of what just one person can do to make a difference in our communities. dr. yvonne sanders-butler is a former high school principal in atlanta who now serves as the executive director of health promotion in dekalb county. in 1999 she started something called the sugar-free zone which has been heralded now as a model all across the country for healthier kids. a quick note about her back story, dr. butler was born to share croppers in my native mississippi and despite the poverty of her youth she went on to college, eventually receiving, of course, a p.h.d., specifically in education and joins us tonight from atlanta. dr. butler, nice to have you on this program. >> it's always good to be with you, tavis, so i'll be able to go home tonight. i am an elementary school principal and i'm actually in metro atlanta, dekalb county,

so i just wanted to be able to go home tomorrow. tavis: if i said high school, i meant elementary school. i don't want to anger the little kids. i'm glad -- i take that. let me jump to the time i have to your story because there is another part of your story i didn't mention because i wanted to leave room for you to explain this but what got you on this sugar-free zone kick in the first place and the story has to do with your own health. i'll let you toll it. >> thank you, tavis. first of all, i'm a survivor of childhood and adult obesity and almost lost my life to a stroke 13 years ago. a lifetime of overeating. i was born and raised, you a you say, in rural mississippi, grew up on lots of cakes, pies, and fried chicken and catfish and somewhere along the way i developed a addiction for sugar and high carbs. and you know, eventually any habit, it has to come to an

end, so 13 years ago i almost had a stroke, i almost lost my life. and the physician told me that i would not have a second chance, that i had to lose 60 pounds. i had to get some of the stress out of my life and work out. that was very difficult because what i would like to tell the viewers tonight is that i had four educational degrees working on a doctorate and yet i was ignorant about how the lack of good nutrition, very little physical activity was in my life. i ran hard, i did all of the right things but when it came to my diet and physical activity, that wasn't in my life which almost cost me my life so when i was able to do research, i learned that i was just one of 60 million people in america suffering from the diseases that obesity brings

like hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol. and what i know today, and if the research and trend continues, currently 52% of african-americans are overweight or obese. we are the highest with the obesity rate of any other race in this country, but research is also saying if we do not get control of this disease that by 2035, over 90% of african-american women will be obese and 91% of hispanic men. so i had an opportunity as a school principal to stop the path that my children were on. because what i saw every day, my children were eating tons of cookies and chocolate milk. no one really ate vegetables, fruit. those things went in the garbage. and we didn't do it on purpose but somehow p.e. just sort of

left the schoolhouse and no children wanted to really go outside and play like we did growing up. and so i knew god had given me a second chance to get this right, and i went on this mission to change nutrition as i knew it in my school, to rework the curriculum and put an education about nutrition and also to pump up the physical activity and get our children back outside playing again. and i wish i could tell you yvonne butler did this by herself but i had a great staff, wonderful kids who have championed this cause for the last 11 years, and a community that embraced this cause. tavis: and the community, i appreciate the story, it's a powerful story but i know the community ultimately, i want to add the word "ultimately" and eventually embraced your cause. but i know you told me you told

the kids we've taken all the sugar off the school and everybody started jumping up and down saying you're speaking in tongues. >> i had a strong group of parents that showed up three days later to say that, you know, we hired you to be the principal and who says that my child can't have chocolate cake and chocolate milk? tavis: that's what i thought. >> so then that went to the school board, i was reported to the school board before however, i pleaded my case, tavis, and what i can share with you today and with the audience, that 10 years ago, i shared with the p.t.a. president that if we do not get control of our children's diet and put physical activity back into their life, this will be the first generation of children that will die before their parents. and what we know today, that 1/3 of our children in the united states are overweight or obese. but for children of color, especially african-american

children, 35% of these children are overweight or obese. tavis: when you instituted the program and got some pushback initially, people finally came onboard, give me some sense of how successful the program was ultimately in your school. >> what i can share with you, six months after we had implemented the program, the sugar-free zone, which is now healthy kids, smart kids, we certainly saw the referrals drop by at least 23%, counseling referrals dropped as well, and the first year, the first school year of standardized test scores, our reading scores increased by 15%, and in 2005 and 2008, round meal was a successful school of excellence, and in 2005 we were a national blue ribbon school. so we fostered a healthy environment at browns-mill and we've continued to show success. also last year, the program was

implemented, healthy kids, smart kids, and 17 fulton county schools. and it is impacting over 20,000 children in the creek side, westlake cluster. tavis: i take it, then, looking -- back to your point, the opportunity, the second chance that god gave you, i assume you feel pretty good now, looking back on it, even though you got some pushback about what you've been able to do, pushing these kids to get rid of the sugar in their lives. >> i'm very excited about that. and what i want to share with you is that childhood obesity is preventable. and it must be a critical component of health care reform, the discussion we're having today, whe we talk about the national agenda, we have 55 million children that are school aged that are with us from 8-12 hours each day. in the national agenda, we need policy, tavis. this doesn't just have to

happen at browns mill or 17 other schools in georgia, if we have effective policy, it can facilitate collaboration across agencies like usda, h.h.s., also the department of education, but also insurance companies who are receiving, i'm sure, an onslaught with obesity, also policy would encourage and support schools that implemented wellness policies. and we need policies, we need schools to show us that you have implemented a policy that is working, but we also need funding. but more importantly than that, school principals have a lot of clout in communities, especially in elementary schools. we need to train leaders in schools to implement, to plan, and to ensure that wellness

programs are going well. if this is done and it's done right, i believe within five years we will see the same success we are having at browns mill. we also will see some of the same trends that we're seeing in fulton. this will drastically reduce childhood obesity in all communities but especially in the african-american and hispanic communities and the diseases that come with it. what i'm saying is it we put money in health and we have healthy kids, no matter where they are, they're going to be ready to do their best work. so we have to work across government agencies. it's just not left up to h.h.s., usda has the only governmental policy, the school wellness policy, but the department of education -- if you have sick children, you have kids with diabetes, you have kids with hypertension, i can promise you they're not going to function.

tavis: well, you are a living example of that old adage that it's not about the skill, it's about the will. do we have the will to do it? clearly you've shown we have the skill to do it. dr. yvonne sanders-butler, thank you for coming on and thank you for the work you have done and continue to do and thank you for sharing your story with us. >> thank you for having me. tavis: my pleasure. next actor daryl "chill" mitchell and michael strahan on their new series on fox, "brothers." stay with us. tavis: daryl "chill" mitchell is a talented actor whose tv credits include "ver onic a -- "veronica's closet" and he's teaming up with michael strahan -- >> he teamed up with me. tavis: for a new comedy called "brothers" and premieres friday night at 8:00 on fox. right now a sneak preview of

"brothers." >> hey, mike. >> don't love on me like that. >> the baseball cardinal folks saw you coming, man. hey, mama, you remember my big opening at the restaurant, right? >> oh, now here we go. >> mike doesn't remember because mike doesn't remember anything that doesn't start with the word "mike." >> stop whining. you've been whining since we were kids. >> can't help it you've been jealous and find ways to mess things up for me. >> yell just? >> growing up i was a better athlete and i'm better looking. all my teeth are next to each other. >> ouch. tavis: how do you say that, strahan, and he doesn't get slapped, how does he say that without getting slapped? >> you better hold my hand down. >> look, this is the "tavis smiley" show, let's do this show with some dignity. >> we came up here and first thing i asked, are you going to behave today? >> yo, it ain't on me, man. >> it's his teeth. >> look, man, he started that.

he's going to come in the writer's room and start cracking these jokes. oh, yeah, they say all these gap teeth jokes when i was on the football field. if you got one, you be able to catch that receiver running. >> they said it if your gap wasn't so wide you'd have more sacks because they can hear a whistling sound and the quarterback knows you're going to get him and he moves out of the way. but i'm in there telling stories and they take these stories and throw it into the show and i tell you what, on the show you can't have ego, you can't -- if you have imperfection, it's what it is because we're brothers on the show and that's how we are off the show. we get on each other. tavis: that must be hard about the cars and the wheels. >> that's nothing. on the show he gets the girls, you know. he gets all of the love, mama loves him more. i mean, come on? that's not realistic. >> you do go on dates. >> yeah, i go on dates but get no love. i get the assumed love.

>> dates don't ask. >> you get the actual love. >> you know, be nice. be nice. tavis: in real life you are one of 12 kids? >> my mother has five and my father has 13. the soul train line, it was serious at my house. it was a serious soul train line. tavis: i can see that. and strahan, you are the baby. >> of six. tavis: i'm going to lean back because i want to ask this question but don't want to be slapped when i ask this. what was your nickname when you were a kid? >> they called me bob. >> his name is mike. >> had nothing to do with the gap. >> what's bob? >> i was a little heavy, a little chunky. bob. booty on back. my booty is so big i can reach

for my wallet like that. i want him to say it. tavis: i asked the question. >> you know, by admitting these things and just living my life with a three-inch space in my mouth, i'm inspiring people. >> yeah. tavis: let me ask you, seriously, i want to move off of this, why did -- because there are people who -- my brother, my father, there are gaps in my family. you have been -- you lived long enough to have the capacity to fix that if you wanted to, why haven't you, seriously? >> i could have got it fixed but my parents was too cheap and i'm too cheap. >> you know what it i -- i was about to concur. >> my dad is going to show up. >> you know what i think it is, i'm comfortable with who i am. so it's a part of my identity. so to fix it, i felt like i would be like everyone else and i don't think i could look in

the mirror and not see it and be comfortable. i decided, i made a conscious decision, hey, it's me. i gone through all the steps to possibly get it done and decided not to do it. tavis: a lot of folks in this town had gaps and became actors and said this ain't going to work. >> then they got pretty. nothing wrong with that if that's the way you feel but i'm comfortable, you know. they say you want to put a cap in it or something, i'll put a cap in it but every day i walk around like this. tavis: tell me about the show. obviously you're brothers but how did it come to be? >> i met chill at a basketball game, nets-knicks game years ago and i went up and introduced myself and we had a nice conversation and he stride to -- i said i know who you are, i read your story. i asked him that night, you need anything, let me know. >> here we go. >> years later somebody put us in touch and it was like that, like chemistry like that. >> it would be cool to work together. >> this was fate. >> it would be very cool to work together and he's an

actor, you know, man, i'm selling snicker bars and vaseline and subway sandwiches. i haven't been on a show like this. but working with him has made it so much easier for me and just developing this whole thing with him, this is our personality and who we are, make something around it and it worked. tavis: how seriously are you taking this, mike, because if you approach this with the same dedication you did football, you'll be ok at this. but this is kind of fallen in your lap to some degree, how serious are you taking it? >> you got to ask me that. >> chill, chill. >> seriously. >> it's the worst. it's so funny, i tell people all the time, whenever you forget your line, ask mike. it's scary. how do you know my line and your line and karl's line but it's like, you know, you talk about i study those playbooks and my memory is sharp but that's one of the main things. but it's about feeling comfortable.

the key to acting is not acting. when we first started the pilot, i've got to get home and start working in the mirror. i said mike, don't mess with nothing. let the world see you. >> i w looking at myself. >> no, don't do that.don't do t >> the karl you have referenced two or three times in this conversation would be who? >> karl weathers. >> who plays the father. >> yes. i tell people all the time, how many times can you brag about apollo being your dad. >> in school my dad could beat your dad. i'll be right back. i'll be right back. >> to this day, karl looks even -- is in incredible shape. i'm extremely -- i'm into it. i don't do anything halfway. i didn't play halfway with football, i don't do nfl commentary halfway and i don't do this show halfway because i realize it's me, it's daryl, karl and the c.c.h. pounder.

you put those names out there who is the one person they'll look at and go it's me. i don't want to look bad or hold them back. every day i sit and watch them do things, when i'm with them or i'm not, i study them and i can learn to try to soak inasmuch as possible because i'm fortunate to be in this situation, i realize that. tavis: to your point earlier you can sell snicker bars and subway sandwiches and vaseline, etc., but this is not your forte. this is not your first gift, first skill, first love for that matter. why take the risk? because you know people are going to say strahan should have done this or -- why take the risk? >> if i listened to that i never would have played football or never been a commentator and never do this show. why listen to somebody else who is not with me every day. they don't know my ambitions. my ambitions is work hard and do stuff that's challenging. and make myself proud. >> when you say that people think because you're a football

player you only do one thing. and you're like yo, i'm not. you're out to prove them wrong. >> everybody thinks he's a football player and that's all you can do. you get put in a box and people don't want to let you out. they're like they sprinkled the good juice on him in football, don't sprinkle anymore. >> if there was an actor who could play football, come on, man. i welcome you to do it. tavis: i could have started our conversation but since you were cracking up so tough i couldn't get to it. but here we are about out of time and i ain't got the story line. what's the back story, the premise of the series? >> the story is this me and mike are brothers, he's a football player, retired. i was a brother who had an accident. believe it or not i was the one that was supposed to go pro but he wound up going pro and i taught him how to play football. so now i'm hanging over his head to make him feel guilty to help him out. i run a sports bar i started in my name. it was mine. he think i built it off of him

but i didn't. nah, i made it off of me. so it's my show. it's my restaurant. >> so long story short, i come home because mom summoned me home to check on dad but really i really don't want to be there. i feel guilty i'm successful and my brother's not. i bought a big house, a bentley, but at the end of the day that's all i have because i had a business manager that loved my money more than i did so now i'm stuck at home trying to help, my brother and i are trying to help each other out. >> why do you have to be stuck? >> i don't want to be there. >> i'm used to being on my own, i'm a star in new york. >> tell the story. >> i'm stuck at home with a brother who i obviously love him but can't get along with him. tavis: i see this. >> karl played my father who basically wants to stay out of mom's way and c.c.h. is amazing and plays our mother who basically runs everybody. >> it's funny because karl's character walk this is tightrope because he can't fall out of the fellowship with the boys but he can't fall out of love with mom so any time he

agrees with us up to a point and then he goes, like dude. >> that's bad you leave us hanging all the time. it's fun. >> it's a family show. tavis: speaking of family, every time i see you, i am always amazed, and i suspect since you're human like all the rest of us you have good days and bad days but every time i see you on the other side of this accident, you're laughing, cracking jokes, you are -- how you do this every day? >> i tell people all the time, man, laughter is the best medicine in the world. i tell people if you don't feel like crying, start laughing first and then cry and end the cry with a laugh. laughter is the best medicine and what got me through all this. because the funniest person out of all of this is me. i laugh at myself every day because something will happen and i'm like i cannot believe i did this. now i can't believe, i went to lean over to get this can of soda and you will i had to move was two more inches and i'd be on this floor. i'm cracking up myself.

i get the soda drink and then laugh because you've got to laugh, man. that made it through the whole -- my whole rehab. i just was in there cracking jokes and then i'd find people that was supposed to be helping me out, i'm like girl, i'm trying to get help, you're funny, make you laugh. you just came in. because i need to laugh. you know, that's the key. laughter is the best medicine. >> that's how the set is. the set is funny. you come down, we get on each other. >> tavis, i'm telling you, once you leave the stage and come knocking. tavis: i'll take off a couple days. >> you're in trouble. i'll let you sign the discloser. he grew up pee wee in the locker room, junior high locker room, high school locker room, college locker room, nfl locker room. so you know he got joked and they don't know when to stop. >> taking it easy on him. >> i had to learn to defend myself, i only get two jokes

in. >> the best gap tooth joke was a sign on my right and a sign that points to the left tooth said next tooth, one mile. that right there, if you can't laugh at that one -- tavis: i'm going to leave it right there. this show is always unscripted. if you think this is funny, check out "brothers" on fox, starring daryl "chill" mitchell and michael strahan. >> there you go. he said my name first. you heard that, right? >> he's just being polite. tavis: that's our show for tonight. catch me on the weekends on public radio. thanks for watching. good night. keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavissmiley@pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time with author and pollster frank luntz on his

next book and writer and comedian louis c.k. next time, see you then. >> there are so many things that wal-mart is looking forward to doing, like helping people live better but mostly we're looking forward to building stronger communities and relationships because with your help, the best is yet to come. >> nationwide insurance proudly supports tavis smiley. tavis and nationwide insurance, working to improve financial literacy and the economic empowerment that comes with it. >> "nationwide is on your side ♪ >> and by contributions from viewers like you. thank you. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

>> we are pbs.