Anthony Anderson and Lawrence Fishburne have sold the last slivers of their soul. The blackish season premier is nothing more than a 30 minute Disney commercial. ABC/Disney has just shown itself to be the real Lucifer, not that dude on Fox.
Meh. You’re surprised by this?
I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was threadshitting. If blackish were on NBC, they’d probably go to Universal Theme Park. ABC/Disney isn’t alone in promoting the hell out of themselves.
heh he never seen the first 10 years of the Disney channel ? they had almost every one who didn’t have a show hosted some sort of "look whats at Disney land/world this week "
We can go back before that. Walt Disney Presents, The Wonderful World of Color, and the Mickey Mouse club were nothing but network TV commercials for Disneyland and other Disney products.
Also, frankly, this has nothing to do with Anthony Anderson and Lawrence Fishburn. They’re just employed by the show/network. I highly doubt it was their idea.
But, yeah, it’s a show on ABC. They would be stupid not to promote Disney’s other properties.
I would say this is exactly the kind of episode this show would have anyway. If they weren’t on ABC they might have gone to Disney World anyway, or some thinly disguised fictional version of it. It’s a bit on the blatant side for product placement, but not surprising at all.
Hasn’t every one of ABC’s family comedies done a Disneypark episode? Okay, maybe not The Goldbergs yet, but they did do a big Star Wars episode a season or so back, so they’re cross-marketing another Disney property.
That’s what Disney does; they create a web of references to keep all other Disney brands in front of the public.
Modern Family did a Disneyland episode back in their second or third season. It was a pretty good episode too - one of the plots involved Jay (Ed O’Neill) having to buy new shoes for his wife and granddaughter.
Once Upon a Time quickly slipped from “what if fairy tales were real?” to full-on “What if Disney properties were real?” without a ripple.
The Middle also had a Disneyland / Disney World episode a few years ago. IIRC they won a trip to one, but went to the other one, but it all turned out OK anyway. (I’m sure Disney wouldn’t be so accommodating if I tried to pull something like that.)
*"When buying up Black People’s Lives,
Disney makes sure that it ‘jives’!
Any show Lucifer’s Heart Desires,
They… Must… Do…
When Profit Is Your Only Goal,
They’ll Shove It Up Your Tightest Hole!
Audio-Animatronics Will Wire
Up Where… You… Poo…!"*
“Hey, insert name of celebrity of color star
You’ve just done something that made the Press!
So that 10 or 20 of your distant cousins aren’t accidentally shot by police, where are you going to go right now?”
" sigh I’m going to… sigh …disney world…"
I like this show a lot and usually try to give it my full attention but I was kind of doing other things and was mostly just listening to it. I could not discern any semblance of a plot and it seemed all I kept hearing was the gramma admitting she was having fun but in her cynical, deadpan way. So yeah, I think the OP is spot on. Not that it’s necessarily a terrible thing. I love Disney Land and don’t mind seeing it, since I don’t know if I’ll ever be there again 
This is nothing new for the Disney/ABC machine. At least Blackish is a comedy. Around 15 years ago, Andy Sipowicz, the tough NYPD detective from NYPD Blue, spent several episodes planning his trip to Disneyworld. I found it truly nauseating.
“Nothing but network TV commercials” ???
Over the years, WD has made real money from film and network TV. Network TV is a profit centre, not just an expense.
The very first TV show from Walt Disney was called “Disneyland,” a year before the park was even built. It was entirely an advertisement to help him fund construction.
The Tanners went to Disney World on Full House, complete with the actor who did the speaking voice of Aladdin dressing up like Aladdin.
Blossom, Step By Step, Family Matters, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Boy Meets World, Rosanne, Modern Family all went to one Disney park or the other. It would actually be strange if Blackish didn’t.
I don’t mind episodes in Disney (or other corporate partner) but it was a bad episode. It could not hold my attention at all and I don’t think I laughed once.
Corporate shilling or not, it was still funnier than this weeks Big Bang Theory.