Black•ish Episode on Racial Injustice That ABC Initially Refused to Air Will Now Be Shown on Hulu
Kenya Barris, creator of “black•ish”, appears at AT&T Revolt Summit. Photo credit: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for REVOLT.
An 2017 episode of black•ish, which ABC refused to air during the show’s fourth season, will finally be aired on Hulu after the network relented to a request from the series creator, Kenya Barris.
On Twitter, Barris said that he had appealed to ABC’s corporate parent, Disney, to allow that 22-minute episode to finally be aired on the streaming service, Hulu. “Recognizing the importance of this moment, they listened and agreed,” Barris said.
“I cannot wait for everyone to finally see the episode for themselves,” Barris added. “As was the case nearly three years ago, we hope it inspires some much-needed conversation — not only about what we were grappling with then or how it led to were we are now, but conversations about where we want our country to go moving forward and, most importantly, how we get there together.”
— kenya barris (@funnyblackdude) August 10, 2020
Originally taped in November 2017, the episode entitled “Please, Baby, Please,” has never been seen by the public. It reportedly focuses on the family patriarch, played by actor Anthony Anderson, improvising a bedtime story during a frightening thunderstorm that wove in African-Americans’ struggles and fears in a country that had just elected Donald Trump as president.
At the time it was pulled, reports suggested that the network, citing “creative differences,” didn’t like how it addressed National Anthem kneeling protests by athletes like Colin Kaepernick. But Barris, who was the series’ show-runner as well, dismissed that as the stumbling block in a statement at the end of his fourth season, which leaned heavily into addressing racial injustice.
