Check out a few images of “Mixed-ish” from ABC’s Fall TV Preview at Paleyfest over the weekend in Beverly Hills.
In Kenya Barris’ new series “Mixed-is, show runner Karin Gist and fellow executive producer Peter Saji shine a light on “Black-ish” Johnson family matriarch Rainbow’s (played by Tracee Ellis Ross in “Black-ish” and Arica Himmel in “Mixed-ish”) origin story. The pilot begins when the hippie commune in which she was raised gets raided and her family has to move to the suburbs. The young Rainbow and her siblings (Mykal-Michelle Harris, Ethan William Childress) are left to navigate race and capitalism in the “real world.”
In Variety, Himmel is quoted as saying, “I feel like this is what America needs on television. This is something that is going to keep growing and I’m excited for people to see all of this.” Industry veteran Mari-Paul Gosselear, who plays “Mixed-ish” patriarch Paul Johnson, acknowledged that he didn’t have to go through many of the things the kids experienced on the show, but also shared that the show itself has taught him a lot about himself.
“My mother was Asian, my father was European, and because of how I look, I never had to deal — fortunately and unfortunately — with a lot of things that we’re going through on our show. The highlight is honestly the lessons that I’m learning through our show. The ‘ish’ world does such a good job to talk about these things. It’s really a highlight for me to be apart of this and tell a story that hasn’t been told before,” Gosselaar said.
Tika Sumpter, who plays matriarch Alicia Johnson, added that her casting on the show will open the door on the colorism conversation.
“I think for Black women, we never get to see our identity played out fully and what does that mean, and all of the relevancy of the issues that we deal with every day of just being in this world and taking up space,” she explained. “I think it’s relevant and I think people will tune in for that. I think it’s important — it’s always important to talk about identity.”
MIXED-ISH premieres Tuesday, September 24 at ppm ET/PT on ABC.