Black-ish episode airs two years after being pulled for ‘partisan’

An episode of the hit American sitcom Black-ish, which was pulled by ABC over concerns that it was too anti-Trump, has become available to watch for the first time.

The network dropped Please, Baby, Please in 2018 because it was concerned about ‘partisanship’ of the script, creator Kenya Barris said at the time.

Barris has now said he went back to ABC in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests to ask it to reconsider.

“We hope it inspires some need for conversation,” Barris said.

“[Conversation] not just about what we were then dealing with or how it led to where we are now, but conversations about where we want our country to move forward, and, most importantly, how we get there together. “

The Golden Globe-winning Black-is follows the life of an upper-middle-class African-American family led by Andre “Dre” Johnson, played by Anthony Anderson, and Rainbow Johnson, played by Tracee Ellis Ross.

It is known to address social issues in addition to personal ones. However, Please, Baby, Please please contained more anti-Trump material than the show had previously addressed, at a time when ABC was reaching out to more conservative viewers.

The episode sees Dre improvise a bedtime story to his young son, in which he expresses many of his concerns about the US state a year after Donald Trump – whom he calls “the Shady King” – was elected.

Another scene finds Dre and his eldest son arguing over the rights of NFL players to take a knee during the national anthem.

At the time, Barris and ABC said they were in agreement that the episode was not ready for viewing.

“One of the things that has always made Black-ish so special is how it delicately investigates decent social issues in a way that is both entertaining and educational,” ABC said in a statement at the time.

“On this episode, however, there were creative differences that we could not resolve.”

In a statement on Instagram on Monday, Barris gave his own statement about the story and the reversal of the decision.

‘Struggle with the state of our country’

“We were one year after the election and came to the end of a year that left us, like many Americans, with the state of our country and afraid of its future,” he wrote.

“Those feelings ran on the page, became 22 minutes of television of which I was, and still am, incredibly proud. Please, dear, please do not air that season, and although much has been speculated about the content, the episode has never been seen in public … until now. “

The episode is available on streaming service Hulu, which, like ABC, is owned by Disney.

Barris said Disney TV has complied with his request to make the episode available after re-airing episodes titled Juneteenth and Hope in the wake of renewed protests from Black Lives Matter.

The dispute over Please, Baby, Please led Barris to leave ABC Studios and sign a new deal with Netflix.

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