"The Boondocks" To End after Fourth and Final Season
Mar 21, 2014
by Natalie Abrams


"The Boondocks'" fourth season will be its last, Adult Swim announced Friday. The final season, which was produced without original creator Aaron McGruder, will kick off Monday, April 21 at 10:30/9:30c.

The new season finds Huey, Riley and Granddad encountering a roster of characters, including Granddad dating a long lost Kardashian sister. The voice cast for the final season includes Donald Faison, Aisha Tyler, Terry Crews, Snoop Dogg and CeeLo Green.

This isn't the end of McGruder's partnership with Adult Swim. The network recently announced that it had ordered the live-action comedy "Black Jesus" from him.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Boondocks-Final-Season4-1079570.aspx

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/03/it_s_official_aaron_mcgruder_out_at_boondocks.html?

McGruder won’t have any involvement in Season 4, Adult Swim announced days after the cartoonist posted that his “Boondocks” Facebook page had been “hijacked."
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#T0KlCm3vpJFMkHGo.99

http://www.avclub.com/review/without-its-creator-gratifyingly-tasteless-boondoc-203597

It’s been 3 1/2 years since the last season, but that time off won’t make you forget what’s missing in Season 4. As Phil Dyess-Nugent notes, “based on a small sampling of upcoming episodes, the new season is a copy of McGruder’s baby made from a printer that needs a fresh ink cartridge. The clear, hard lines of McGruder’s vision and sensibility aren’t the only things that are a little faded.
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#jRqssvv8DIgRF2Gv.99

http://www.lipstickalley.com/showpost.php?p=20382389&postcount=219

When it came time to announce that Season 4 of The Boondocks would premiere on Adult Swim, executives at Sony, which produced the show, had a stand-off with creator Aaron McGruder’s representative over how to present McGruder’s involvement in the new and final season. And afterward, Sony executives trashed the Boondocks creator, calling him slow and incompetent.

In an email exchange between McGruder’s agent, Norm Aladjem, and executives at Turner Broadcasting (which owns Cartoon Network and its late-night block, Adult Swim) and Sony in March of this year, Aladjem insisted that the release say that McGruder was not at all involved in the new season. Saying he had any involvement, Aladjem wrote, “would have only one purpose: to palm off Aaron’s good name and reputation regarding his life’s work by implying that he is associated with or endorses this season of the Boondocks.”

The Boondocks was based on a cartoon strip McGruder started writing while at the University of Maryland, it follows brothers Huey and Riley — the former a pint-sized political radical named after Black Panthers founder Huey Newton, the latter a gangsta rap-obsessed kid — after they move from Chicago to the suburbs to live with their grandfather.

Aladjem wrote that if the press release did not go out as they had agreed upon, “we will have no choice but to protect Aaron and his reputation by putting out a separate, contemporaneous release that separates and distances Aaron from this season. I do not think that’s good for Aaron, or for Sony, or for the show”

ladjem and McGruder’s demands, saying, “This season was produced without the involvement of Aaron McGruder, when a mutually agreeable production schedule could not be determined.”

But other emails suggest that might not be the case. Sheraton Kalouria, the chief marketing officer at Sony Pictures Marketing, after being forwarded the message from Aladjem, wrote that it would be “untrue” to say that McGruder had “no involvement” in the show, “as he was partially involved.”

In response, Zack Van Amburg, the head of U.S. programming and production at Sony, wrote that Aladjem “doesn’t want our version of the story out there” and that “they’re wasting everyone’s time and holding us hostage over Aaron’s incompetence.”

Steve Mosko, the head of Sony Pictures Television, wrote “**** em (http://www.buzzfeed.com/matthewzeitlin/sony-tv-boss-on-boondocks-creator-aaron-mcgruder-f-em). He’s going to tweet **** anyway. The fight w create good press. Send it all my way. I wish he wrote this fast on show.”

Aladjem and Sony Pictures Television spokesperson Paula Askanas did not respond to BuzzFeed News’ requests to comment.

http://www.avclub.com/review/without-its-creator-gratifyingly-tasteless-boondoc-203597

It’s been 3 1/2 years since the last season, but that time off won’t make you forget what’s missing in Season 4. As Phil Dyess-Nugent notes, “based on a small sampling of upcoming episodes, the new season is a copy of McGruder’s baby made from a printer that needs a fresh ink cartridge. The clear, hard lines of McGruder’s vision and sensibility aren’t the only things that are a little faded.
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#jRqssvv8DIgRF2Gv.99

It was painfully noticeable that it wasn't written by Aaron McGruder and the writers just didn't get what made the show work. A large portion of the season is inexplicably dedicated to a storyline about Robert having money problems, which takes the focus with the satire playing second fiddle, only for the storyline to be unceremoniously dropped halfway through, the payoff apparently being a frankly weak episode about slavery, because why talk about current issues when you can talk about how awful the past was instead? In general, it felt less like it was a show "about Black people, by Black people for Black people" (that other people are welcome to watch, of course;) ) and more like a generic sitcom with occasional bouts of commentary on life for African-American people.

It doesn't help that it relied far too heavily on recycled content (such as the first episode, which is basically a remake of "Tom, Sarah and Usher" of all things), running gags ("Hey, Uncle Ruckus said something racist again! And boy we sure needed yet another Stinkmeaner episode!":rolleyes:) and meta jokes. The meta humor itself gave the impression that it tries to compensate for weak writing by mocking said weak writing itself.

CkbC-VK-Dyw

So, we've finally reached the end of the Boondocks retrospective series. Bitter sweet ending that matches the bitter sweet ending of the Boondocks. I Hope you enjoyed the series as much as I enjoyed making the videos.