No Need To Read Between These Lines: Tracee Ellis-Ross Out At ‘Reed’

August 18th, 2012 - By Drenna Armstrong
"Reed"

olivecoco.com

The rumors had been swirling for months and now it’s official: Tracee Ellis-Ross will not return to BET’s “Reed Between the Lines.”

In a very brief statement released on Friday, Tracee stated that “Reed” is a show that she cares about and believes in and there’s a chance she might return at some point.  Loretta Jones, president of BET’s originally programming and news, sung her praises, wished her the best and said she hopes they can work with her again in the future.  Tracee signed on a few months ago for an NBC pilot but the show didn’t get picked up.

The statement was released almost immediately after it was announced that  Tony Rock, Michole White and Charlie Robinson would be joining the cast as Alex Reed’s (played by Malcolm-Jamal Warner) friends when season two starts. The storyline will pick up with Alex in the midst of an unexpected separation from Carla (Tracee’s now former character) and finds himself as a single father to three children.

This news is a little unfortunate to hear because ‘Reed’ showed really great promise within its first season. During promotion of the show, the focus was always on how it was to be a modern day version of “The Cosby Show” and show that there are Black family units out there who love each other and love spending time together.  Although the divorce rate in America steadily climbs, this is television and it is okay to keep a family together.  The entire purpose of the show has sort of been defeated.

I have to wonder why Ellis Ross’ role wasn’t just recast? The show is still very young and I’m sure there are plenty of actresses out there who would be quite an easy fit.  I can think of at least five women right now who could at least try out for the role.  I wonder if executive producers Mara Brock-Akil and Salim Akil have even considered this.

There are also questions of how they’ll explain how “Carla” left her children behind with Alex when he’s not the biological father of two of them. How that will work out is a mystery to me because it is pretty unrealistic.

So many questions, so many months to wait to get answers (the show isn’t due to come back until July 2013).  I guess we’ll have to just see how it all unfolds.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/eartha.montgomery Eartha PrettyYoungthang Montgo

    Wait. The Akils produced this show???? That’s news to me…..

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  • Grew up in the 80′s/90′s

    The Akils’ body of work seems to be plummeting down the toilet. The Game was the s!it on the CW, also Girlfriends. But now, their stuff is crap. I mean no kind of quality what so ever! Reed bt the Lines sucked big time and The Game now is HORRIBLE! I even heard that Sparkle sucks. I think they need to do something fast before they loose their audience/fans bc their work is ridiculous.

  • lateshia

    I watched one episode that is because I was at a friend house and I couldn’t tell her what to change her TV to. We watched an episode of “Reed” show and I got bored with it after 5 minutes. I can’t stand BET anyways its not like how it used to be back in the 90′s. When they created shows in the 90′s like Thea, Out All Night, and etc those shows was funny. I appreciate BET for trying but Tyler Perry shows aren’t the best but I’m sure he could have did a lot more with “Reed Between the Lines”.

    • noneya

      LMAO Thea & Out all night were NOT BET SHOWS, they were shown on BET ’cause of syndication!!! Just like the Parkers and My Wife n kids….the only shows BET created were Lets stay together n Reed!!

  • Cha Cha

    I think the problem was the chemistry between the characters… I mean, I’m a HUGE fan of the Cosby show… the chemistry between those characters seemed real. It felt like they were really a family. The dialogue seemed real… In “Reed Between the Lines”… it just felt so fake. I tried to get into the show, I really did, but it was terrible. It really did seem like they were just “acting”…

  • Hello_Kitty81

    I’m sorry but I don’t find this show interesting. I watched a couple of episodes of this show and I was bored. I’m better off with reruns of black sitcoms.

  • WhoMe

    Im sorry but the akils are always messing up their shows with their scripts and storylines. Im glad they create black shows but their writers must be on that stuff.

  • La-Di-Da

    A for effort for this show, but I agree it wasn’t good. I really didn’t feel any chemistry between any of the characters and I could barely hear them even with my volume extra high!

  • Shani

    They tried too hard with the entire concept. The whole thing felt like a high priced knockoff. Plus, there was zero chemistry between Tracee and Malcolm. He was as charasmatic as a dead fish. And those kids…ugh!!

  • stillJUICYbaby!

    I don’t know what BET is thinking. I guess its not interesting if black couples aren’t having babies outside of relationships, getting divorced or just looking totally discombobulated.

    Hope they get it together. And Tracy could have been replaced with another actress…I know there is someone out there that who needs a job….like Tamera Mowry

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