Raindow (Tracee Ellis Ross), walks in on  Andre's (Anthony Anderson) lesson on tribal ritual with his son Andre Jr.
Raindow (Tracee Ellis Ross), walks in on Andre’s (Anthony Anderson) tribal ritual with his son Andre Jr on Black-ish. (ABC)

Andre Johnson (Anthony Anderson) is a proud man. A proud black man. A proud black man who doesn’t want his success to be defined by the color of his skin. But he doesn’t want his skin tone to be ignored either. He is a very successful business man with a great family. He is proud of his success but at times is afraid that he has ignored his heritage. He wants to honor his family’s past, while also embracing its future. He fears that this great melting pot that we call America is beginning to turn his black family into a “black-ish” family

Andre’s children don’t understand that that Barack Obama is the first black president. His son wants to have a bar mitzvah, change his name from Andre Jr. to Andy and play field hockey. His daughter Zoey has a sense of entitlement and 100,000 Instagram followers. What’s a dad to do?

His bi-racial wife, Raindow (Tracee Ellis Ross), doesn’t see what the problem is. She is thrilled that their children are “colorblind” and healthy, but she understands that her children have more than she ever had when she was a child as well. “Pops” (Laurence Fishburne) is no help. He tries to stay far away from family conflict as possible.

Over the last few years, ABC has understood the formula for making the family sitcom popular again. Part All in the Family and part Home Improvement, Black-ish is a welcome addition to TV family sitcoms. The Johnsons appear to live by traditional family values and they love each other. The one area that I disagreed with in the pilot is the fact that Andre Jr. stresses that he is “just trying to touch his first boob.” While it is certainly not unusual for a teen boy to want sexual relations with a girl, even if he is just 13 years old, I find it odd the dad and grandpa Johnson just think these comments are cute and then quickly ignore them. The same thing came up last year in the premiere of The Goldbergs, another funny family comedy. There, the youngest son has an infatuation with women’s breasts and he grandpa takes him to Hooters restaurant.

So, while I believe ABC should be applauded for trying to bring more wholesome (and funny) fare for the family, I also believe that these shows would do better if they focused on these subjects in a better way.

Black-ish airs on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. on ABC.

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