Black-ish was creator Kenya Barris’ 19th attempt at a sitcom pilot

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http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...-family-sitcom

Barris recalls the long road to getting Black-ish on air, including resisting ABC’s attempts to call it Urban Family or The Johnsons, in a New Yorker profile from Emily Nussbaum (who won a Pulitzer Prize today). In it, Barris expresses worry over the Hope episode before its airing, discusses ABC’s deep bench of minority show creators and says timeslot competitor Empire just isn’t a good show. “Just because someone’s handicapped, doesn’t mean he’s not an a**hole,” he says of Empire. “I can’t call this dude a d*ck because he’s in a wheelchair? Same thing—just because someone is black and they do something, doesn’t mean it’s dope.”