One of the reported reasons why black-ish creator Kenya Barris signed a deal with Netflix, besides the $100 million payday, was the “creative differences” he had with the Disney-owned ABC over a shelved episode of his Emmy-nominated sitcom. The episode, about Dre (Anthony Anderson) telling his infant son a bedroom story that “conveys many of Dre’s concerns about the current state of the country,” was shot in November 2017 and was scheduled to air on February 22, 2018, until it was removed from the schedule. But it will finally be released on Hulu, owned by… Disney.
“We were one year post-election and coming to the end of a year that left us, like many Americans, grappling with the state of our country and anxious about its future. Those feelings poured onto the page, becoming 22 minutes of television that I was, and still am, incredibly proud of. ‘Please, Baby, Please’ didn’t make it to air that season and, while much has been speculated about its contents, the episode has never been seen publicly… until now,” Barris wrote in a statement. The episode is available on Hulu now.
“I cannot wait for everyone to finally see the episode for themselves and, 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 where we are now, but conversations about where we want our country to go moving forward and, most importantly, how we get there together.”
On top of black-ish, which continues to air on ABC, Barris’ lineup of shows includes Freeform’s grown-ish, ABC’s mixed-ish, and Netflix’s #blackAF; he is also writing the screenplays for the Comedy to America sequel Coming 2 America (I’d be furious if that weren’t the title) and The Witches, based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name.
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)