'Black-ish' creator explains why controversial episode was shelved

On “The Daily Show” Thursday night, Kenya Barris, the creator of “Black-ish,” discussed the controversial episode about racism in America that, until now, had not been allowed to air, as it was shelved by ABC in 2018. The episode, titled “Please, Baby, Please,” which is now available to stream on Hulu, tackles racial injustice including the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., and NFL players kneeling in protest against police violence. On why the episode was shelved in the first place, Barris said, “I guess there were creative differences in why it was shelved. I think that it was a really interesting time in Disney’s, sort of, growth, and at the same time, it was an interesting time in our country’s growth, and it was the most blatantly partisan episode of ‘Black-ish’ we had ever done.” Barris said that at the time, he was unwilling to put out the episode if it were changed, and ABC was unwilling to put it out if it was not changed. However, after the network re-aired two episodes surrounding racial injustice in June, Barris had a very “honest” conversation with the chairman of Disney, Bob Iger, and they decided that now is the right time for the shelved episode to see the light of day. Barris could not be more thrilled to “start a conversation.”