Trump-focused black-ish episode, once pulled from TV, finally available to stream on Hulu

A never-before-seen episode of black-ish that dealt with President Donald Trump and his response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville is finally available to stream on Hulu after ABC infamously pulled it from its schedule in 2017.

Black-ish creator Kenya Barris, who left his ABC deal for Netflix in part due to frustration over the incident, shared the news on Twitter. "In November 2017, we made an episode of black-ish entitled 'Please, Baby, Please.' We were one-year post-election and coming to the end of a year that left us, like many Americans, grappling with the state of our country and anxious about its future," Barris wrote. "Those feelings poured onto the page, becoming 22 minutes of television that I was, and still am, incredibly proud of. 'Please, Baby, Please' didn't make it to air that season and, while much has been speculated about its contents, the episode has never been seen publicly ... until now."

Barris noted that he "asked Walt Disney Television to revisit making the episode available," urging the company to recognize "the importance of this moment." He added, "They listened and agreed."

"I cannot wait for everyone to finally see the episode for themselves and, as was the case nearly three years ago, we hope it inspires some much-needed conversation — not only about what we were grappling with then or how it led to where we are now, but conversations about where we want our country to go moving forward and, most importantly, how we get there together," Barris added. "Thank you to ABC Entertainment for allowing this moment to happen. And thank you to the entire black-ish family for never shying away from tough conversations, making telling stories like this possible."

The season 4 episode featured Anthony Anderson's character Dre telling his son a bedtime story incorporating his feelings about Trump one year after the election. Another scene sees Dre and his oldest son debating athletes taking a knee during the national anthem. Despite the episode's intended air date three years ago, the themes in the story are still powerful and prevalent.

EW recently spoke with Barris about why he wanted to bring black-ish back onto the fall schedule after ABC pushed it to midseason — a decision that was promptly walked back. "We got to be really blessed to be one of the shows that actually was talking about things that sometimes were hard to talk about, but were important to talk about," he said. "In a time right now when we're seeing so many things where people have questions, having a comedy show is one of the things that has the ability to let you take a spoonful of medicine while you're laughing."

That sentiment has never been more important "during an election year," Barris added. "There's so many questions and so many things about Black Lives Matter and things that really are important that we talked about for most of the run, [so] to not have that show on the schedule during this time would have not been something that I think anyone wanted. When it was taken off the schedule, to [ABC President] Karey Burke's credit, it was taken off before the world changed and we're watching the world change and she immediately was like, 'This is something that we need to address.' And we want to make sure that we have a show that can talk about things that other shows won't or can't... This is what the show has been doing its entire run."

The show, loosely based on Barris' own life, is returning for season 7 this fall, and with its history of tackling social justice issues like racism and police brutality, it's perfectly positioned to address current issues facing Americans.

"I really applaud [Burke] and the rest of her team for allowing us that opportunity to ... voice different things," Barris says. "We can talk about voting and voter suppression and including dealing with fear and anxiety amongst policing and things like that. We could be around at a time when people are going back to sitcoms and trying to return to normality, that voice could be there for people to hear."

Reporting by Marcus Jones

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