Black-ish's 2018 shelved political episode is now available on Hulu

Variety

The “Please, Baby, Please” episode that was originally scheduled to air in February 2018, but was reportedly scrapped over its President Trump storyline was made available on Hulu today at creator Kenya Barris' request. Barris said he requested Walt Disney Television release the episode following ABC's re-airing of the show’s “Juneteenth” and “Hope” episodes in June amid nationwide demonstrations for racial justice and against police brutality following the killing of George Floyd. “We were one year post-election and coming to the end of a year that left us, like many Americans, grappling with the state of our country and anxious about its future," Barris said today in a statement announcing the news. "Those feelings poured onto the page, becoming 22 minutes of television that I was, and still am, incredibly proud of. 'Please, Baby, Please’ didn’t make it to air that season and, while much has been speculated about its contents, the episode has never been seen publicly… until now...I cannot wait for everyone to finally see the episode for themselves and, as was the case nearly three years ago, we hope it inspires some much-needed conversation — not only about what we were grappling with then or how it led to where we are now, but conversations about where we want our country to go moving forward and, most importantly, how we get there together." The episode features Anthony Anderson's Dre improvising a bedtime story telling his infant son what the first year under Trump was like. In an interview with Variety, Tracee Ellis Ross says she's never seen the episode has little recollection of it. “What I do remember is we shot the episode and then when we found it was canned, all I kept thinking to myself was why? I don’t remember shooting anything that was bad, what did we do,” Ross said. “It’ll be interesting for me to see it back and remember, because I really have no memory.” TVLine's Kimberly Roots watched  “Please, Baby, Please," and says it's not even "controversial-ish." "Nothing in the newly released episode should come as a shock or surprise to anyone who’s seen black-ish before," says Roots. "In fact, after watching the ep Monday, the network’s hesitance to air Barris’ work the way he envisioned it seems ill-founded at best, and cowardly (with a noxious whiff of self-interest) at worst."