‘mixed-ish’ star Mark Paul Gosselaar says the series gets real about race
ABC/Richard Cartwright(NEW YORK) — The black-ish franchise expands tonight, with the highly anticipated new comedy mixed-ish. The new spinoff series focuses on Tracee Ellis Ross’ black-ish character, Rainbow, growing up as a teen in the 80s.
The series explores the obstacles Bow overcame as the child of a mixed race couple. Mark Paul Gosselaar and Tika Sumpter play Bow’s parents on mixed-ish. Gosselaar tells ABC Audio the show gets real about race.
“We need to work on some things and some things we need to work extra hard on,” He explains, “It’s a comedy and we don’t hit you over the head with things, we kinda teach you a lesson and you don’t even know it.”
The series begins with Bow’s parents raising their family on a commune, where the children grow up oblivious that the outside world deems them neither white or black. In fact, Bow and her siblings start off the series not knowing they’re different.
Gosselaar gushed about how much he loved pretending to live on a commune and, especially, enjoyed the wardrobe.
“[The clothes] are comfortable, they are comfortable,” He explains, “I get more compliments for those type of clothes than any other character I’ve ever played. I’ve played well dressed lawyers, I get more compliments for these clothes.”
mixed-ish premieres tonight on ABC at 9 p.m. ET.
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