Episode Transcript
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(00:27):
Hey, one to Welcome to thisedition of stream On. I'm Jim Williams,
and today we're going to talk aboutseason two of the megahead on Bounce
and streaming on brown Sugar. It'scalled Johnson. The series creator is Daiji
Larrey. He stars in the showalong with his co creator Thomas Q.
(00:50):
Jones, Philip A. Smith Ley, and Derek S. Brady. Now
they also have a supporting cast that'sjust amazing, led by deal Ugali,
Rosa Costa, Chloe James James,Austin Kerr, and Jessica Luisa. It's
a dramedy. It's told from theblackmail perspective. The series shines a light,
(01:11):
a much needed one, we mightsay, on hot button stereotypes and
misconceptions. The program is filled filmedon location in Atlanta. It follows four
black men who met in grade schooland they've been best friends ever since.
The one thing they have in commonis their last name, Johnson. They're
not related though, but they mightas well be. Their Brothershood and friendship
(01:34):
has lasted twenty five years. Welltoday we are blessed. We do not
have just one we have two executiveproducers. Risha El Archibald and Eric Ron
and guys. One of the thingsthat jumps out about Johnson is the fact
there's plenty of chemistry. Let's talkabout the chemistry first. Awesome. You
(01:57):
know, that was the and onething I can say about Deji and Thomas
when they when they cast, youknow, when they cast for the four
main characters, Aiji and Thomas hadalready had relationships with Philip and Derek from
the pilot that they shot, andso that I feel like that time in
(02:21):
between when they shot the pilots whenwe actually sold, it was actually necessary
for them to really build the bondthat they created because, like you said,
it really does come across on thescreen because they literally are very close
friends. And so it was itwas like the perfect marriage for us,
you know, when we came acrossthe project, because you could could just
(02:42):
tell that they are their brothers,and it definitely feels organic and genuine.
Because it is the funny thing whenyou know, we're talking to Deji and
at the beginning when we were talkinglast year, I'd seen the trailer no
sorry, the screeners, and Isaid, Yo, you guys come off
as really solid, tight guys,but the women actually run the show.
(03:07):
And they last and they go youknow, it never it wasn't didn't started
out that way, but it certainlywent that way. And I think that's
part of the fun of the showis that you know, you can you
can feel comfortable in yourself, butyou know, at the end of the
day, myself included, we allhave strong women behind us, and without
(03:28):
those women, we don't succeed.Absolutely, So go ahead, I'm writing
meeting up. Put you ahead.Now, I was gonna I was gonna
say, Eric, did you wantto add to any of that? No,
I think I think you guys arenear it. Um. Like most
things, men kind of jump outthere and we get going the broad bokes,
(03:49):
and then women are able to reallycome in and solidify and help focus
and help bring details two matters thatmake it what it's supposed to be.
So I think Johnson was kind ofif you look at that, the character,
the women are kind of really ithappens in real life women to be
(04:10):
ortail more focused, more, youknow, really really just forensically right things,
and they intend to be tend tolive in broad strokes, and this
kind of theory in the moment,Yeah, right, exactly. It's one
of the things that struck me aboutthe show is that you know, you
(04:35):
do relate to them, and itdoesn't matter what color you are, what
ethnicity, from a background, whereyou came from. There is a little
bit for everybody in this friendship andthis this tapestry that you guys have weaved
together. Is that something you startoff doing or is that something that grew
(04:56):
as the show? Woll, That'ssomething that started off that way. Deij
is such an intuitive person. Heum, you know, he created the
entire thing. And I believe thatthat's one of the things that really drew
us to the project. That itdid really hit home. It felt very
relatable, and you know, it'sjust really humanizing black men and black women
(05:20):
in the relationships they have with eachother. And you're right, it it
hits home because these are just humanstories. Everybody deals with, you know,
divorce or you know, everybody dealswith trying to be good parents.
Everybody deals with religion, everybody dealswith trying to find themselves and go to
(05:43):
the next level, and everybody dealswith friendships and family and just all those
things. And that's what we reallylove about this show. It doesn't matter
if you're black, white, Asian, Hispanic, whatever you can you know
somebody who is like who are likethese characters? I remember I was on
set one day first season, andare the police officer on duty that day.
(06:11):
I was talking to him outside andhe said, you know, this
is a really great show, likeand he was Hispanic. He said,
you know, just the little thingsI've seen, I can think of my
cousin who had been through that,you know. So it was just really
awesome just to see or talk tosomebody in real time who just got a
glimpse of it, to be ableto say, you know what this is
like my family and so, youknow, just little things like that remind
(06:34):
us that or how important it isto tell just real stories that can really
encourage people. Like you said earlier, it's entertainment. Like Daiji and Thomas
and our team are Burt and abear. We're very conscientious about doing meaningful
projects. We don't want to justput any old thing out there. We
(06:56):
want to do our best to makesure we're teaching as we go that it's
fun, but that it's it's makingpeople think, that it's driving conversations,
that it's uh you know, uhkind of smashing stereotypes and inviting people's horizons
on how black people live and whatthey look like and how they act and
how they relate to each other.So yeah, for me, the fun
(07:23):
part of watching the show, umis that you can we talked about the
relating aspect to it, but theother part is that you do get a
feel for how these guys really cametogether and decided. You know what,
(07:45):
Um, it's funny friendships, aswe all know, especially friendships going back
as far as some of these umthat takes. That's that's you have to
work at that. You know.Friendships are like any other relationship. If
you don't work at it, itdoesn't flourish. And I think part of
the charm of the show is theability for these guys too at times not
(08:11):
be happy with themselves, much likebrothers would under normal circumstances. Right,
you know, but I'm not goingto talk to you for an hour.
Okay, I'm good, We'll begood, but just give me some time
and space because what you just diddidn't didn't sit with me. Yeah,
so I think that series two,I'm excited. I did see the screeners
(08:35):
for it. Um, why don'tyou fill us in on what we're looking
forward series two. Really, Ithink that just kind of thinking about season
one real fast, you know,I think Dais did a great job and
the other writers did a great jobof really establishing these characters. So in
(08:56):
season two we just really do adeep dive into what really drives them,
what makes them tick? UM?What what what are the little nuances about
each of them that keeps them togetherand then drives them back together, because
as you saw in the first season, there were a couple of things that
kind of drove we left. Weleft the series wondering all these folks are
(09:18):
going to get back together? Andso in season two, we really see
how they are able to UM,you know, hold each other accountable,
how how they're able to UM pushthrough the adversity, whether it be UM
individually or collectively. UM. Wesee them really UM trying to bridge gaps
(09:43):
and UM. We see them dealingwith very hard UH situations UM, things
that they could or could or couldnot UM, or they that they did
or did not have control of.UM. They they deal with the body
shaming, UM, they deal withreligion in a huge way, They deal
(10:03):
with UM just a lot of heavytopics. But again it's it's a dramedy,
so there's a lot of comedy inthere. You know, you have
these brothers and so there's gonna bea lot of banter back and forth.
Um that that keeps you going.So it's a it's a good balance of
you know, um, just variousscenarios that will really um drive home the
(10:26):
various thoughts that that we wanted toreally touch on or the subjects that we
wanted to touch on. And soyou'll you'll see a lot of um,
a lot of situations where they're reallytrying to keep everything together and how to
go about that. Eric, doyou want to add anything to that?
(10:48):
Yeah, no, I think that. I think overall, what we strive
to do is what Johnson is.You know, take the artists, um
parts is work. You really takewhat Daiji wrote, take the gifts that
the actors are bringing to the project, bringing to this and when we try
(11:11):
to do it, barbaris really justyou know, take down as many filters
or any barrier as we can tomake sure that what Daiji and Thomas and
everyone really intended is what you seeon screen, right, you know,
(11:33):
one of the beauties of the timewe live in with of courses with streaming
video. Of course, Bounce isavailable on traditional linear as well as you
know, as well as streaming.Um is that a show like this can
get made mhm uh and and andpeople can see it, and people can
see it, not just you know, in certain parts of the count people
(11:56):
can see it all over the world. And I think in many ways,
as someone who's been in a televisionproducer director for forty five years, I
can say this to me, it'sthe golden age because now programming from Australia,
from Canada, from the UK,from all the English speaking part of
(12:18):
the world, there's a place toput things and you can niche program and
you can get to an audience andyou don't need to have seven eight ten
million people watch the show. Youcan flourish with a show like this,
because this is a show. Tome, that's like we used to say
in the old old time in thebusiness. Um As I said, I'm
(12:39):
old in this business. Is itwas a watercold show. It's a show
that you watch and the next dayyou want to talk about it. And
there aren't that many shows that arelike that anymore. Yeah, yeah,
And that was that was really thegoal. You know, UM, when
when Daiji and Tim has brought thisto us, we recognize is that this
(13:00):
was gonna be the type of showthat would really drive conversations for our community
because they're touching on topics in scenariosthat UM, we don't usually talk about
and so M or and or havea hub for it, you know what
I mean, Like you might talkabout it in silos, but UM,
I've talked to so many people,friends and family and just random people on
(13:24):
the you know that I bump intorecognize that you know, I'm a part
of the show, and they're like, you know, this show has really
touched me, or did saved mylife, or it's really caused me and
my fiance to have these conversations.So it's doing what we sought for it
to do, and that's extremely exciting. And honestly, we couldn't have asked
(13:48):
for a better partner. And BounceM David Hudson and his team over there,
they've they've been just UM, reallyblessings to work with UM and really
feel like Bounce was the perfect groupto work with on this project, in
particular because they they allowed us tospeak authentically. UM, you know with
(14:09):
a show like this, um,it can't be watered down. You know,
you have to be you have tobe in a situation that allows you
to be true to the narrative andBounce has done that and so we're extremely
appreciative and grateful to to have partnerwith them on this project. That's great
(14:31):
because you know, the last thingyou want to see is a bunch of
network executive sending you notes about thescript, right, yeah, And they
do, they do give notes,but they're great notes, you know what
I'm saying. They're thoughtful, they'rethey're considerate, and you know, in
spaces where they might not understand it, we have conversation and we you know,
(14:54):
we come to a happy medium.So um it where it just works
out, it works and we're reallygrateful for that. So when does series
two begin? So it actually starteda few weeks ago. We uh we
aired Episto carbum That's okay, it'sit's started. It started airing um July
(15:16):
tenth. Okay, So we justhad our third episode air of this past
Sunday, So it airs every Sunday, um um through is it September?
Eric? I believe it is.I'm looking at the schedule, and yeah,
it looks that way. M hmm. And the other thing too,
(15:37):
is it's available the following day onthe on the streaming app, right,
yes, the brown Sugar app.So we want to get that plug in
for the grub brown Sugar folks aswell. Um, thank you because you
know the streaming aspect of it isalways good because you know, we're a
time in our lives where prime timeis when we're where you want it to
(16:00):
be. Yeah. Absolutely, that'sthe fun part, right is. Yeah,
if I can't if I miss theJohnson's on a Sunday night, I
can see him on a Monday orTuesday, or I can watch him at
lunch right, or you can watchthem all together. Yeah you can mention.
Yeah. Thanks to Risha el Archibaldand Eric Rone, two of the
(16:22):
executive producers and powerhouse behind the Johnson's, you can see it every Sunday night
on Bounce and also stream it thenext day on brown Sugar. We'll be
back with more of stream on rightafter this from BMW. At BMW,
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(17:11):
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