Fans of the hit ABC Series black-ish may remember a recent controversial decision to not air a season-four episode of the critically-acclaimed series. Today, it was announced the episode that never made it to air will now be made available on Hulu.
What’s Happening:
- Back in 2018, ABC decided not to air an episode of the hit series, black-ish, titled “Please, Baby, Please.”
- In it, Dre (Anthony Anderson) tells his young son an improvised bedtime story that comes to hit on a number of current political and cultural topics. Additionally, the episode is said to feature a discussion about NFL players’ right to kneel during the National Anthem.
- The episode was reportedly approved during several stages and even fully filmed before it was pulled by the network.
- According to Showrunner Kenya Barris, Then-Disney CEO Bob Iger called to talk about the political climate of running a network in 2018 and the company’s efforts to court viewers of all political stripes.
- While the two parties attempted to reach a resolution, Barris was ultimately unhappy with the network-approved cut and both sides agreed not to air it.
- Today, Kenya Barris and the official black-ish twitter account tweeted that that episode of the show will be made available on the Hulu streaming service.
- In the tweet, Barris says that after the network recently re-aired the episodes “Juneteenth” and “Hope,” he approached Walt Disney Television to revisit making the episode available, to which they agreed.
- Barris also explained that the episode was made one year after the election of President Donald Trump, at a time when many Americans “were grappling with the state of our country and anxious about its future.” Adding that “those feelings poured onto the page becoming 22 minutes of television that I was, and still am, incredibly proud of.”
- The fourth-season episode, “Please, Baby, Please” is now available on Hulu.