‘Is it just racism?’: Tracee Ellis Ross still feels irked by late-night TV snubs when ‘Girlfriends’ was thriving
Despite its acclaim as one of the best Black sitcoms of its era, Ross and others feel that ‘Girlfriends’ never truly got its due, even though it helped launch her career into new heights.
For eight seasons and nearly 200 episodes, “Girlfriends” helped redefine what sisterhood meant on television. More than 25 years after its debut, star Tracee Ellis Ross can look back fondly on what the show meant, and why she still feels it didn’t get its flowers while it was still on the air.
Ross was a recent guest on Trevor Noah’s “What Now?” podcast. While the two opened up on Ross’ labeling herself “the chooser” and how she focused her life to create an identity not tied to her famous mother and establishing a strong foothold in fashion and beauty, the conversation shifted to “Girlfriends” and how Ross and her co-stars, Persha White, Jill Marie Jones and Golden Brooks, weren’t given the same opportunities as other actors and actresses on lesser rated shows.
When Noah revealed that “Girlfriends” was one of the biggest comedies in South Africa, Ross was shocked. “I grew up with ‘Friends’ and ‘Girlfriends’ coming on back-to-back-to-back,” he said around the 1-hour mark.
Ross admitted that over time, the show has received its credit for comedic timing, situational moments and more, but in the moment? The cast was shunned by greater Hollywood, especially when it came to late-night TV promotion.
“No talk shows, no ‘Tonight Show,’ no ‘David Letterman,’ no Emmys,” Ross revealed to Noah, who couldn’t believe it. “As a matter of fact, I have a story. It was Jay Leno. And I had ‘Girlfriends,’ and the comment was, ‘We love Tracee. Call us when she gets something.’”
The response from the ‘Tonight Show’ left Ross perplexed. She had a well-received TV show, one of the few of the era to earn syndication status. What exactly did she and her co-stars have to “get?”
“I remember thinking, ‘Get what? What else do you have to get?” she asked aloud, before pointing to ‘Monk,” a USA sitcom led by actor Tony Shaloub. The show had “a quarter of the viewership,” according to the Pattern founder. Yet, Shaloub routinely found himself on late-night shows. It left Ross with one lone answer for what she felt was a racial bias.
“And the only thing you can boil it down to, you’re like, ‘Is it just racism?’ I’m not sure how to—how do you categorize it? I don’t know what it is.”
It wouldn’t be until her star turn on “Black-ish” as Dr. Rainbow Johnson that she finally attended the Emmys. By then, she was already a veteran of TV with “Girlfriends.” Now with two shows in syndication, Ross looks back on the 16 years she dedicated to network TV, but still has questions about why certain doors were barred to her or her co-stars.
Ross’ “Girlfriends” family was on hand earlier this year when she made her Broadway debut in “Every Brilliant Thing.” For fans, it was a balm and once again brought up the need for a reunion or even a “Girlfriends” movie. In that small moment, the brilliance of the show was once again front and center, even if certain people in Hollywood didn’t get it at first.