Two years ago, “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris broke his silence around a cancelled episode that focused on racial justice including kneeling football players; the nixed episode has finally gotten its day on-screen, via Hulu, Barris announced on Instagram August 10.
“I’m excited to share that ‘Please, Baby, Please’ is now available on Hulu,” Barris wrote. “Following the re-airing of ‘Juneteenth’ and ‘Hope,’ I asked Walt Disney Television to revisit making the episode available. Recognizing the importance of this moment, they listened and agreed.”
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The shelved episode, "Please, Baby, Please," was canceled before its scheduled February 27 air date and featured the father Dre Johnson (Anthony Anderson) in storytelling mode with his infant son where he recounted events from the year that included anti-racist kneeling protests and the Unite the Right white supremacist violence, as Colorlines previously reported. The decision to pull the episode resulted in Barris leaving ABC Studios for Netflix. During the time, Barris appeared on THR’s cover where he explained some of what was going on behind the scenes.
"I know there was some concern about partisanship," Barris told THR in 2018. “And the way the episode was angled and the balance in terms of some of the stories. On network TV, one of the things I’ve learned is that you have to talk about things from both sides." But, Barris said, after the show was edited, he was beyond disappointed. "What it ended up being, and I think the network would agree, was not a true representation of what we intended to do," Barris said. "Because if it was, we would’ve shown it."
“Please, Baby, Please” can be seen on Hulu in Season 4 of “Black-ish.”