WARP PARTY!

Through eight seasons, black-ish changed the way we watched family television. The stars and executive producers celebrate the journey from start to finish

- JIM HALTERMAN

“IT JUST FEELS like a lifetime ago,” says Anthony Anderson when looking back on eight seasons and 175 episodes of his ABC comedy black-ish. Since 2014, the sitcom set the TV bar to Norman Lear heights, bringing laughs plus social commentary via the tight-knit Johnsons, led by Anderson as high-strung father Andre and Tracee Ellis Ross as his grounded M.D. wife, Rainbow. Viewers related to Dre and Bow as they raised their five kids—trendy eldest Zoey (Yara Shahidi), clueless Junior (Marcus Scribner), curious twins Jack (Miles Brown) and Diane (Marsai Martin), and joyful baby Devante (August and Berlin Gross). Adding a third-generation perspective were Dre’s parents, stoic Pops (Laurence Fishburne), and free spirit Ruby (Jenifer Lewis).

As the Johnsons pack up (the series wraps on April 19), we spoke to the cast and exec producers to get the full-ish story.

THE SPARK

Like most sitcoms, black-ish’s inspiration was based in reality, particularly the family of series creator Kenya Barris.

Anthony Anderson: Kenya and I sat down at a place called Laurel Hardware [in West Hollywood], in a chance meeting, and talked about what was missing from the landscape of television for us as viewers. We’re huge Norman Lear fans and grew up watching All in the Family, Good Times, and The Jeffersons. We just started talking about our own families. Both of us were the only African American families in our neighborhoods.

Kenya Barris: Really, I just stole my family’s life. My wife’s a doctor, and my kids started going to private schools.