ABC picks up new comedy about being Black-ish

By Sean O'Neal | January 17, 2014 | 7:07pm

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Having failed to capture much audience interest for Guys With Kids, Anthony Anderson is moving on to a different show about a guy with kids—this time kids who grapple with their racial identity, which is certainly a hot topic this development season. And seeing as Guys With Kids Whose Appreciation Of Their Cultural Roots Is A Constant Concern To Them would be an unwieldy (albeit grabby) title, ABC is instead calling it Black-ish, which we assume is how Anderson’s “upper middle class black man” character identifies himself and his family on the racial spectrum. Either that, or it’s a subtle hint that Anderson’s character will kill three of his trainers, raising painful questions about whether it’s wise to keep him in captivity.

The Laurence Fishburne-produced sitcom will follow Anderson as he “struggles to raise his children with a sense of cultural identity despite constant contradictions and obstacles coming from his liberal wife, old-school father, and his own assimilated, color-blind kids”—which, we assume The Hollywood Reporter means “race-blind,” unless the series is also about his kids’ struggles to find a red ball in the grass. Thought that might also be entertaining.