Black-ish
Four episodes of network TV
2020-2022 · Lenses: Words, Television, Narrative, Collaboration · Roles: Writing
Between 2019 and 2022, I co-wrote four episodes of ABC's Black-ish with my writing partner, Graham Towers:
- Season 6, Episode 15: The Gauntlet
- Season 7, Episode 2: Election Special Pt 2
- Season 7, Episode 21: Urban Legend
- Season 8, Episode 9: And the Winner Is...
We were on set to help produce The Gauntlet and And the Winner Is..., but had to watch the shoot of Urban Legend remotely due to Covid restrictions. Which meant we didn't get to meet Boyz 2 Men in person, which was a real bummer. The pandemic took something different from all of us.
The Election Special we wrote was the series' only fully animated episode (also due to Covid restrictions). After we turned in our writers' draft, we got a frantic email from the prop master, Randy. He had just read the part of the script that featured an eagle snorting a line of cocaine and said if we wanted him to rig up a taxidermy eagle or hire someone to train an endangered bird to do blow, we needed to let him know ASAP. This is how we learned that nobody told Randy that the episode was animated.
The whole cocaine eagle thing ended up getting cut from the shooting draft anyway, but I’ll never forget Randy’s dedication to bringing a script to life. What a pro.