ABC Orders Full Season Episodes Of New Comedy Series 'Black-Ish'

ABC's new comedy series "Black-ish" has been making waves in the small screen, and the studio has just announced that more episodes for a full season have been ordered to be released. Coming from the same studio that created the multiple Emmy Award-winning series "Modern Family," "Black-ish" is another family-oriented show that deals lightly with the trappings of living in a multi-racial family.

The series stars the Johnson family, which is composed of the patriarch Andre and his multi-racial wife Rainbow, their four kids and Andre's father whom they affectionately call Pops. Andre and Rainbow grew up during a time when being black meant something a lot less appealing than it does now. After striving to work hard to give their kids a better life than they ever had, the couple find out it's not so easy to assimilate into a modern and tolerant society. The world they live in now is markedly different from the lives of coloured families from just a generation ago.

Andre has just been promoted as the first black Senior Vice President in the advertisiing firm he works for. While initially excited, he was appalled to know he had been made in charge of the new "Urban Division." To him, the term "urban" is the new term used to refer to black culture that he doesn't particularly like.

Ande's wife Rainbow is a doctor and is more open-minded about the whole thing. She is only pleased her husband is moving up in the world. She is happy about his promotion as well as the salary increase that comes with it. Speaking of salary increase, the couple's four kids have grown up in a fairly privileged upper-middle class household in American suburbia.

To Andre's dismay, their children Zoey, 15, Andre Jr., 13, and twins Diane and Jack, 6, are growing up in a society that sees less and less colour. He is struggling to preserve his children's ethnic identity by instilling the traits, values and traditions he grew up with. At the same time, he is trying to raise them in an environment he knows is better than what he had while growing up. The new society his children are growing up in is one where there is a lot more equality and very little ethinic identity.

Andre's father, Pops, is the voice of the older generation, who is also sometimes the voice of reason in the household. Pops acts as the referee between Andre and Rainbow when they have opposing opinions on how to raise their kids. Andre grew up in the old school way under Pops, and now he's being pushed in a new direction by his wife and the changing world around him.

"Black-ish" airs every Wednesdays on ABC right after "Modern Family" and has, so far, held its own against the highly successful series. ABC revealed the show opened up as the number 1 comedy series on its debut.