‘Black-ish’ Shelved Episode, “Please, Baby, Please” To Air On Hulu

Kenya Barris, Black-Ish cast

Shelved ‘Black-ish’ Episode, “Please, Baby, Please” to Air on Hulu

An episode of Black-ish that never aired on ABC will finally air on a streaming platform.

Kenya Barris

The series creator, Kenya Barris, announced the news on social media.

In November 2017, we made an episode of “black-ish” entitled “Please, Baby, Please.” 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. 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’m excited to share that “Please, Baby, Please” is now available on Hulu. 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.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.Thank you to ABC Entertainment for allowing this moment to happen. And thank you to the entire “black-ish” family for never shying away from tough conversations, making telling stories like this possible.-Kenya Barris

The controversial 2018 episode was supposed to air during season 4. It was titled “Please, Baby Please” and featured Dre (played by Anthony Anderson) telling his infant son, Devante, a bedtime story that reflected on the events of his first year on the planet. According to reports, days before its scheduled Feb. 27 air date, it was indefinitely shelved.

The incident is said to have fractured Kenya Barris’ relationship with The Walt Disney Co. Not. In fact, shortly thereafter he moved his business from ABC Studios to Netflix.

In 2018, Tracee Ellis Ross (who co-stars on the series) called the decision “frightening,” while Anthony Anderson, told The Hollywood Reporter,

“He’d given his blood, sweat and tears to [the episode], which they had signed off on every step of the way — from the outline, to the script, to the table read, to the point where they actually spent the money and made the episode. And I don’t know what those conversations were, but we entered into this partnership with the understanding that we would be able to tell the stories that we wanted to tell.”

That the infamous episode will now be widely available.