Ahead of its official seventh season premiere on Oct. 21, “Black-ish” returns to ABC Oct. 4 with a special election-themed episode that mixes live action and animation. Star and producer Tracee Ellis Ross came up with the idea.
“The animation idea actually came out of my desire to stay safe from COVID,” she explained during an ABC webinar. “What are some of the ways that we can get back to work quickly? And I thought, we do such wonderful animation on our show already. Would there be a way for us to do an episode that was animated? Because I was not ready and terrified to go back to work and be on a set. And then it kind of moved right into what we as a show always do so beautifully with the animation.”
Ross, who took her mother Diana’s surname professionally, was named Tracee Joy Silberstein at birth—she uses her father Robert’s middle name as her own, and says that his sense of humor influenced hers.
“My dad is just a huge part of how I navigate the world. He has a real ability to make fun of himself,” she said. “And I don’t know if it’s necessarily a Jewish sense of humor, but it definitely sounds like it to me. When I was on ‘Girlfriends,’ I actually remember they had to ask me to stop saying ‘Oy vey,’ because it didn’t go with my character. And according to my mother, I sound like my dad whenever I’m around him. It’s seamlessly a part of who I am,” she added. “I’m proud of that part my heritage. Proud of my mixedness.”
Toon fan Ross will voice the title character in the animated comedy series “Jodie,” a spinoff of the ‘90s MTV series “Daria” for Comedy Central.
