Scrapped "black-ish" Season 4 Ep. Criticizing Pres. Trump is Now on Hulu

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Scrapped "black-ish" Season 4 Episode Criticizing President Donald Trump Finally Available on Hulu
by Kimberly Roots
August 10 2020


The "black-ish" episode ABC originally didn’t want you to see is now available for viewing on Hulu. The network shelved the Season 4 installment, titled “Please, Baby, Please,” in 2018.

The episode features Anthony Anderson’s Dre improvising a bedtime story to his then-infant son Devante during a sleepless night in the Johnson household. During the tale, Dre expresses many of his concerns about the state of the union one year after Donald Trump — whom he calls “the Shady King” — was elected president.

Another scene finds Dre and eldest son Junior arguing over the rights of athletes to take a knee during the national anthem at football games.

https://tvline.com/2020/08/10/blacki...y-please-hulu/

[TMC]

Hulu's release of Black-ish's "Please, Baby, Please" episode not only validates Kenya Barris, but also ABC

"Given the nebulous nature of the whispering about 'Please, Baby, Please,' it probably isn't surprising that the actual episode is less a landmark piece of television and more a perfectly so-so and serviceable illustration of the Streisand Effect, by which attempt to censor something only results in generating more publicity around the thing," Daniel Fienberg says of the political episode that ABC shelved in February 2018, which was released on Hulu Monday at creator Barris' request. "After watching the 22-minute episode, I find two things immediately clear: First, there was absolutely no reason for ABC to raise a stink about the episode much less not to air it," adds Fienberg. "And second, that doesn't mean that (then-ABC Entertainment president Channing) Dungey's assessment of the episode's quality was in any way incorrect. 'Please, Baby, Please' is not a very good episode of Black-ish, nor is it a horrible episode. It feels like exactly what it is, namely the product of a smart and talented writer being frustrated about the state of the world, without knowing exactly what to say on the subject, or how to say it (but still arriving at a point of uncertain optimism that's not without resonance). Maybe viewers turn to shows like Black-ish to help process chaos. Barris has certainly succeeded in offering a prism through which to engage with disheartening bedlam in the past; maybe in this episode, he just wanted to capture the enduring necessity of simple hopefulness amid societal unease...Unlike Very Special Episodes like 'Hope' and 'Juneteenth,' Please, Baby, Please' makes little effort to utilize humor. There are punchlines about how Clippers fans understand oppression and about how Pops used to slip whiskey into Dre's milk when he wouldn't sleep, but generally it's a straightforward, fairly serious-minded bottle episode dedicated mostly to news footage and some tremendous needle-drops starting with 'Change Is Gonna Come.' If 'Hope' distilled Barris' quandary explaining police violence to older children, this episode is intentionally simple and reductive, leading to a conclusive statement — 'Nobody knows exactly what the future will bring, but what we do know is there are more of us who help than those of us who hurt' — that I'm not sure Barris or Dre even believe."

ALSO:

• ABC pulling the Black-ish episode gave it more power: "As an episode of television, 'Please, Baby, Please' is a perfectly fine, if cluttered, attempt to contextualize a particularly fraught moment in our country’s history," says Caroline Framke. "But as a moment in recent TV history, 'Please, Baby, Please' is absolutely fascinating, sitting at a unique intersection of creative control, political upheaval, and the entertainment industry’s continuing inability to read the room. If ABC wanted to avoid a lasting controversy, it probably could’ve just let the episode air and waited out whatever noise ensued until it became the more palatable murmur it was chasing in the first place."
• “Please, Baby, Please” offers a wide sweep over the anger, racism and fear that underpinned the rise of Donald Trump: "Black-ish masterfully deconstructs something that most network comedies wouldn’t dare go near: the idea that Trump, the rise of white nationalist movements and the deep divisions among many Americans are a form of backlash — against the fact that a Black man won the presidency for two terms — led by enraged citizens whose political zeal is in fact an attempt to turn back the clock," says Lorraine Ali. "Another potential worry for ABC and its corporate parent, Disney (which also owns Hulu), may have been grandpa Earl 'Pops' Johnson’s (Laurence Fishburne) spot-on commentary about why Black pride is positive and white pride is dangerous when contrasted with America’s troubled racial history."
• Watching "Please, Baby Please" in 2020, it's hard to see how the points raised in the episode could ruffle the feathers of ABC executives so much that they'd shelve the episode: "But if the societal changes during Trump's first year in office caused Dre and his family anxiety, it's hard to imagine how he'd explain impeachment hearings, COVID-19, and the current tense social climate to baby Devante now," says Megan Vick. "The public landscape has shifted so much, it's nearly impossible to get back into a 2018 mindset when kneeling at a football game seemed truly sensational. The most controversial part of the episode in this jaded 2020 light is a slight dig at Ellen DeGeneres getting the Medal of Freedom, which only raises eyebrows due to the talk show host's most recent public debacle."

Black-ish's lost 2018 episode feels even more powerful in 2020

"It's easy to wonder which moment ABC found so objectionable about the episode that it was unceremoniously yanked from the schedule," Kelly Lawler says of the shelved February 2018 "Please, Baby, Please" episode that was finally released on Hulu Monday at creator Kenya Barris' request. "Was it the image of the Shady King throwing paper towels down at his Black and brown subjects, as Trump did when distributing rolls in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria? Was it Dre drawing direct parallels from a racist backlash to President Barack Obama's election to Trump's ascendancy? Was it just that, back in 2018, corporations weren't posting Instagram graphics declaring that Black lives actually do matter?" Lawler adds: "'Please Baby' is Black-ish at its best. No current TV series so succinctly – and with so much nuance – deconstructs hot-button issues like (Colin) Kaepernick's protests or explains why Black pride is OK and white pride isn't, in the historical context of slavery and racism. And while the episode is meant to teach, it never lectures or scolds. It has a point of view, certainly, but it also lays out facts and asks the viewer to pick them up, learn from them and grow into someone better. There is fear here, but also comfort, and a reminder that family offers hope." Lawler says "Please, Baby, Please" is especially resonant 2-and-1/2 years later: "This cultural moment feels disturbingly apt for the episode," says Lawler. There is also something achingly sad watching it during the coronavirus pandemic, and after the nationwide protests against police brutality and racism became larger than ever after the death of George Floyd. 'Please Baby' takes on the collective anxieties of many Americans in 2018, and two years later, amid a global crisis none of us saw coming, they are not even close to being solved. We may be no closer to solving our issues in 2020, but if 'Please, Baby, Please' offers anything, it's a reminder that hiding our problems won't make them go away."

ALSO:

• "Please, Baby, Please" looks like lost innocence because it's a snapshot of a comparatively “better” time: There's a heartbreak in watching Black-ish's shelved February 2018 episode in August 2020. "It captures a sense of anxiety that was profound and an America that looked like a disaster to many in 2018," says Jen Chaney. "But it’s also a snapshot of a comparatively 'better' time when we could not imagine how much worse things would get. That makes the conclusion of this episode, which expresses the sort of optimism that we tend to expect from family-oriented, broadcast-network sitcoms, register as the sounding of an alarm. If, in 2020, we look back at a politically panicked half-hour of television as a mark of lost innocence, imagine how 2020 could seem in 2022."
• A reminder that "Please, Baby, Please" was benched during a time when ABC was trying to appeal to Trump voters: "I wondered briefly if 'Please, Baby, Pleas' got booted because it violated an old network TV rule of never establishing main characters’ preferred political party," says Darren Franich. "But ABC was also just weeks away from relaunching Roseanne, a megahit revival whose premiere clearly delineated which characters voted for Trump and who voted for Jill Stein. Roseanne, of course, got killed into The Conners after Roseanne Barr’s racist-tweet scandal. That all happened while 'Please, Baby, Please' languished in purgatory: You blew it, ABC. Worth noting that the black-ish kerfuffle occurred as the network was developing The Kids Are Alright and Schooled, two sitcoms set in the ‘70s and the ‘90s. Take a trip to glorious Pastville, with no possibility of people addressing current events! One season and two seasons, respectively: You blew it, ABC."
• “Please, Baby, Please" is about as polite and reasonable a case against Trump as possible: "Now that I’ve seen 'Please, Baby, Please,' it’s obvious why the creator departed," Joe Berkowitz says of Kenya Barris. "The lost episode is an elegant depiction of a successful suburban Black family’s concerns in late 2017, and it’s about as polite and reasonable a case against Trump as possible. By 2020 standards, it comes across as utterly tame. If this wasn’t sufficiently defanged and both-sidesy enough for ABC, perhaps nothing would be."
• Ultimately, “Please, Baby, Please” centers on Dre grappling with how to explain complicated issues to his children: "In that way, the episode follows the tradition of 'Hope,' the sitcom’s groundbreaking episode about police brutality, and 'Juneteenth,' which made the case for celebrating the day enslaved Black people in Texas finally learned they were free — years before the holiday became a national talking point," says Bethonie Butler. "And like those episodes, 'Please, Baby, Please' ends on a hopeful note."
• Watching "Please, Baby, Please," reflects more on the misguided timidity of ABC that balked at airing it than the episode itself