‘Black-ish’ actors reflect on the end of the game-changing series

nypost.com:

Tracee Ellis Ross were the Emmy-nominated stars of ABC’s “Black-ish” for eight culture-changing seasons, Jenifer Lewis and Deon Cole were the sitcom’s secret weapons.And as they say goodbye to their characters Ruby Johnson and Charlie Telphy — the mother and co-worker, respectively, of Andre Johnson (Anderson) — when the “Black-ish” series finale airs Tuesday (April 19) at 9 p.m., Lewis and Cole are more than proud-ish of the show’s legacy in representing the African-American experience.“We made history — and I’m extremely proud of it,” Lewis, 65, told The Post. “We did an excellent job entertaining people — and we did an excellent job educating people.

We made them think, dance, sing and hope. That’s what the f–k we did … We touched the souls of the people with our show.”“Nobody else was telling those stories,” added Cole, 50. “It opened the door for a lot of black shows to happen … We started seeing more black shows showing different perspectives of black people.”Indeed, the “movement” that Cole describes includes “Black-ish” spinoffs “Grown-ish” — which has been renewed for a fifth season on Freeform — as well as the now-canceled “Mixed-ish.”Lewis credits “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris for his “unafraid” vision as well as the show’s writers. “I’ve always said that the writers were the stars of ‘Black-ish,’ ” she said, “with them being able to combine the comedy and drama of issues like the N-word, police brutality, postpartum depression.

I mean, they hit on all of it [with] the multi-generational aspect of the show.”Cole points to the show’s Juneteenth episode in 2017 as a real game-changer. “I remember shooting that episode … going over the facts and the history of it,” said Cole.