Scrapped ‘Black-ish’ Episode Served as a Breaking Point For Kenya Barris at ABC

Kenya Barris is finally sounding off on his massive Netflix deal — and the rift with ABC that ultimately pushed him away. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Barris revealed that the cancellation of a politically-minded Black-ish episode, “Please, Baby, Please,” proved to be the final straw in an already contentious relationship with the network. Barris and ABC mutually decided to cancel the episode, but the creator suggests that the way it was handled left him with a bad taste in his mouth and confirmed his feelings of restlessness. Not long after “Please, Baby, Please” was shelved, Barris began speaking to network execs about getting out of his contract, and just a few months later, he signed a $100 million deal with Netflix.

“Please, Baby, Please” was something of a passion project for Barris. The episode was unlike anything Black-ish had done before: with the help of a Spike Lee voiceover, an animated fairy tale, and real news footage, Dre (Anthony Anderson) tells his young son a bedtime story about America’s current political landscape. “We approached it with the network and the studio as, ‘This is different.’ We certainly knew people would talk about it,” said Barris.

ABC signed on, but they soon asked Barris to make some changes to avoid alienating right-leaning viewers. Many cuts later, the episode had morphed into something that “was not a true representation of what we intended to do,” said Barris, and they decided to scrap it. While Barris was careful to speak poorly of Disney CEO Bob Iger and other ABC execs, he told THR that the situation changed his attitude towards the network. “I don’t know that I would have been as useful to them as they’d need me to be after that,” Barris said. After facing a string of disappointments — including a scrapped comedy pilot titled Libby & Malcolm, and the push to move spin-off Grown-ish to the lesser-watched Freeform — the cancellation of “Please, Baby, Please” served as Barris’ breaking point. Soon after, Barris began discussing the possibility of getting out of his four-year ABC contract, which he’d signed only a year earlier.

As rumors spread about his departure, Barris was courted by TV heavyweights, including Warner Bros., which reportedly offered him an even larger deal that Netflix. However, worries about still having to do “network television” and “dancing to the same [song]” pushed Barris towards Netflix, where he believes he’ll have greater freedom to expand his narrative scope.

Barris is excited about the transition to Netflix, but he admitted that he’s also “fuckin’ terrified.” He already has a slew of projects in the works, including a Shaft reboot with Samuel L. Jackson and an animated film about Bob Marley. As an example of the kinds of things he’d like to do at Netflix, Barris brought up a moment he had with his daughter Kaleigh at Coachella. Kaleigh was high, but so was Barris, putting him in a difficult position to say anything. “That’s a thing I’d love to show but just by the nature of network television I could never do it,” he said. At Netflix, showing parents and kids smoking weed wouldn’t be a concern — in fact, it would probably be welcomed with open arms.

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