Bet You Didn’t Know: Secrets Behind The Making Of Black-ish
Now headed into its third season, Black-ish, the ABC hit comedy series about the Johnson family, is a ratings hit and clear fan favorite. With a brilliant cast, namely Tracee Ellis Ross, Anthony Anderson, Yara Shahidi, Miles Brown, Marsai Martin, Laurence Fishburne, Jenifer Lewis and Deon Cole, it’s easy to see why. And though the actors and the entire creative team make everything look easy, producing much talked about, engaging, intelligent and highly entertaining material week after week is anything but. That’s why we can’t stop watching! Here are but a few secrets behind the making of Black-ish.
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Real-Life Inspiration
Tracee Ellis Ross’s character Bow, short for Rainbow, gets her name from creator and showrunner Kenya Barris’s wife, who, like the character on the show, is both biracial and an anesthesiologist.
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Other Show Titles
Wanting to stray from the show’s controversial title, ABC suggested other names for Black-ish, including Urban Family and The Johnsons. Not nearly as interesting or telling.
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“Hope”
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between The World and Me, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, was quoted and displayed in “Hope,” arguably Black-ish’s most talked about episode that grappled with police brutality.
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The Talk
A conversation that Kenya Barris had with his 5-year-old son Beau inspired the “Hope” episode. Knowing the heaviness of the episode’s subject matter, Barris expected to get tons of notes from the network about the script. As it turned out, he got fewer notes on that episode than any other episode.
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Lucky Number 19
Black-ish was the 19th original pilot script that Barris wrote. Prior to Black-ish, three of his pilots were produced, but none of them were picked up by their respective networks. Barris says that Black-ish is not only his best but most honest pilot turned show to date.
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Diversity Hire
Dre works at an advertising agency, but initially, Barris conceived him as a diversity hire writing for a network comedy show. Barris was asked by the network to change Dre’s job so that products could be integrated into the show.
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Larry Wilmore
Writer and comedian Larry Wilmore worked on the Black-ish pilot with Barris. He was also suggested as a showrunner, but went on to do The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore instead.
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Here a Script, There a Script
If you were to visit the set of Black-ish, you’d find Tracee Ellis Ross’s scripts. She leaves copies of them in drawers and other strategic locations in the event that she forgets a line or two.
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Deon Cole
When he was writing Charlie, Deon Cole’s character, Barris envisioned Cole and Cole alone. Said Barris in an interview with The New York Times, “I’m a huge fan of writing for people rather than writing and then trying to wedge people in. I’d love to know who the people are before I can write for them. For me, it’s a much more organic way to create characters.”
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The White House
What connection does Kenya Barris and the Black-ish team have to the White House? A rather big one, seeing as Black-ish is the Obamas’ favorite show.
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Special Guests
The producers were trying to get the first family to appear on an episode. Fingers crossed that Barack and Michelle grace the small screen!
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Honesty Is the Best Policy
What lesson has Black-ish taught Kenya Barris? Here’s what he had to say in an interview with Complex: “As crazy as you may think your story is, if you tell the most honest version of it, it will probably resonate with more people than you think. That was the lesson I learned for the show: Stop trying to appeal to everyone and just tell the most honest version of what this family is going through.”
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Dance-Offs
Lots of shenanigans take place on and off the set, but according to actress Yara Shahidi, someone is always dancing on the Black-ish set. She even referred to her TV father Anthony Anderson as a master of dance, who can salsa and even do a little ballet, plus a mean worm.
