The 39th annual PaleyFest LA in Hollywood was a particularly joyous occasion for the TV and film industry insiders and fans in attendance because it was the first live one in three years.
But there were some clouds looming over the event as the cast of two of broadcast TV's most-beloved shows were there to talk about their final seasons.
The cast of “This Is Us” reflected on their imminent final few episodes during a panel discussion. Then Entertainment Tonight caught up with members of the “Black-ish” cast on the red carpet to get their thoughts on their last time attending the event as a unit, as the ABC hit will soon air its final episode.
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Tracce Ellis Ross, who played the matriarch of the Johnson family for all eight seasons of the sitcom, admitted she was in an emotional mood. "I was saying as I was coming down in the elevator, I am having flashbacks to our first PaleyFest as a cast, and we did a photo shoot with the L.A. Times," she said.
While Covid kept PaleyFest on hold for a while, for Ross, it also put a damper on the last two seasons of “Black-ish” and the fun of making the show with her TV family.
"I mean, in all honesty,” Ross explained,” the last two years in COVID we didn't really get a chance to do my favorite thing on the show, which is hair and makeup in the morning. We were all in the trailer together and it was mayhem at 5:30 a.m. in the morning -- music, lines being run, and just like the whole thing. So, very, very exciting to be able to do that, and now sad to miss that."
The bonds that are formed while playing a family on TV can, after eight years, make it feel like a real family.
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"I'm gonna miss the kids," said Jenifer Lewis, who played grandmother Ruby Johnson. "I was just telling Marcus [Scribner] how I swung them around that first week I came in, and now they've got mustaches and everything that goes with it."
"And they are beautiful,” Lewis added, sounding like a true grandmother, “all of them are beautiful. They're talented, they're good people -- that's what I'm proud of, they're good kids.”
Despite being one of the youngest cast members, Miles Brown, who played son Jack Johnson and joined the show when he was just turning nine-years-old, got emotional when doing the table read for the last episode.
"That was the first time it hit me and it was crazy,” said Brown, “because we did our table read in a big theater. Normally we do it in a small room, but we did it in a big theater. And it was towards the last scene and I was the first one to start breaking down crying. I was the first one, and no one expected that because I'm always the happy-go-lucky type. And then everyone came up to me after and was like, 'Once I saw you do that, it made the whole room just follow my lead.' So that was probably when it first hit me."
"It was my childhood literally,” said Marsai Martin, who plays Diane Johnson, adding, “from the age of eight/nine to now [when] we're almost 18. It's so insane and it's amazing. I can't imagine how it's been for the families that have been watching for so long to watch all the kids grow up."
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Asked how it was all hitting her, Ross focused on the satisfaction of such a successful TV run. “I was present the whole time," she offered, "I enjoyed my eight years, I grew, I watched others grow. And I feel like I end with so much joy and pride that I’m able to end joyfully.”
The ending of the show itself doesn’t mean the relationships between actors will similarly cease, however.
"You can't spend eight years with the people I just spent eight years with and not have a lasting relationship afterwards, and that's what I'm looking forward to," said “Black-ish” dad, Anthony Anderson.
The final episode of “Black-ish” will air Tuesday, April 19, on ABC.
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