Black-ish spinoff gets trial run
No need to feel blue, Blackish fans. While the family comedy will air its Season 3 finale this week, a spinoff series centred around eldest daughter Zoey (Yara Shahidi), will likely land at ABC in the 2017-18 television season.
Viewers got a feel for the potential upcoming show with last Wednesday’s episode of Black-ish, titled Liberal Arts. It was a backdoor pilot — an initial episode for a spinoff disguised as an episode of the original series.
In it, weepy dad Dre (Anthony Anderson), drops Zoey off at the fictional California University of Liberal Arts, where she makes some new friends. Namely Aaron (Trevor Jackson), a guy meant to be as soothing to the eyes as a bottle of Visine. He asks the until-now socially ambivalent freshman to join the Black Student Union.
Mallory Sparks plays Zoey’s new polar-opposite friend Miriam. Matt Walsh of Veep is college president Schock, while former Saturday Night Live star Chris Parnell is Dean Parker.
The creator and executive producer of Black-ish, Kenya Barris, was quick to note the comparisons to 1990s comedy A Different World. That series was a spinoff from The Cosby Show initially starring Lisa Bonet as freethinking Cosby daughter Denise, who enrolled in Hillman College.
“For me growing up, A Different World had a lot to do with me going off to school,” Barris told TVGuide.com. “I would love for this to have a tenth of the effect that that show had on my generation.”
Barris and former Blackish showrunner Larry Wilmore are the masterminds behind Zoey’s spinoff. Fan-favourite Deon Cole, who plays Dre’s colleague on Black-ish, popped up in the Zoey-centric episode — though it’s not clear if he will have a role in the spinoff.
“If Kenya thinks it, then I’m down for it. Whatever he wants to do, I’m there. I’ve always supported him. I call him my sensei and whatever he sees fit, man, if it’s doable, I’m all down for it,” Cole recently told BuzzFeed News.
“Maybe you’ll see more of him … But the way that it’s been has been amazing, so if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
Of late, ABC has been in full spinoff mode — the network also has an offshoot of The Goldbergs in the running for a spot in the 2017-18 season. That series would be set in the 1990s, building on The Goldbergs’ 1980s time frame, and would star Bryan Callen and Tim Meadows.
In the meantime, the season finale of Black-ish airs Wednesday on ABC and City. In the episode titled Sprinkles, Bow (Tracee Ellis Ross), discovers she’s having complications in her pregnancy, which in turn creates complications for Dre and the baby shower he’s planning.