Over the course of three seasons “black-ish” made a name for itself as a show that wasn’t afraid to tackle complicated issues often overlooked by TV comedies, and that’s one of the things Miles Brown enjoys most about starring on the ABC sitcom.
“black-ish” once again earned raves from critics with its Season 4 premiere episode, “Juneteenth.” Mimicking the style of “Hamilton,” the episode educates the audience about the holiday celebrating the end of slavery in Texas, a holiday frequently overlooked by TV shows, school curriculums and the American population in general.
“That’s a really special episode for all of us,” Brown said in an interview with TheWrap. “It was a really powerful episode for everyone to watch. That’s probably one of our favorites.”
But if when choosing his own favorite episode, Brown had to go a different way. “I mean, me personally, probably [going to] Disney World or the basketball episode,” he said. “Those are probably my favorites.”
Brown plays Jack Johnson on the family comedy, alongside Yara Shahidi, Marcus Scribner and Marsai Martin, as well as Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, who play their parents.
“[Anthony]’s like the cool uncle who lets you slide on everything,” Brown said. “Mom — Tracee, I call her mom — she feels like a real mom in real life. She takes care of us. She makes sure everything is okay with all the kids. But Anthony, he tries to make sure he roughs around with you and stuff like that. They’re both really cool and they feel like real parents.”
Shahidi recently began attending Harvard University, a journey that inspired her character’s Freeform spinoff “Grown-ish,” which sees the eldest Johnson sibling Zoey moving away from home to attend college at the fictional Southern California University.
“They’re still filming on our lot, so we get to go watch their set and watch the film and see what they’ve been doing,” Brown said. “She’s done really cool for our show and we’re just really excited for her.”
“black-ish” airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on ABC.