It didn’t take Mark-Paul Gosselaar long to find another gig. After the cancellation of The Passage back in May, the actor has joined the Black-ish spinoff Mixed-ish, in a recasting of the male lead on the ABC comedy series.
Gosselaar replaces Anders Holm who played the role of Rainbow Johnson’s father in the original backdoor pilot episode of Black-ish. Reportedly, ABC had an issue with the chemistry between Holm and its female lead, Tika Sumpter. It’s very common for roles to be recast before they go to series and Gosselaar became available when his most recent series, Fox’s vampire drama The Passage, was canceled after one season.
In Mixed-ish, Rainbow Johnson (Tracee Ellis Ross) recounts her experience growing up in a mixed-race family in the ‘80s and the constant dilemmas they had to face over whether to assimilate or stay true to themselves. Bow’s parents Paul (Gosselaar) and Alicia (Sumpter) decide to move from a hippie commune to the suburbs to better provide for their family. As her parents struggle with the challenges of their new life, Bow and her siblings navigate a mainstream school in which they’re perceived as neither black nor white. Arica Himmel stars as young Bow Johnson. Co-starring in the series is Christina Anthony as Denise; Mykal-Michelle Harris as Santamonica Johnson; and Ethan Childress as Johan Johnson.
Mixed-ish originated as a planted spinoff, which was intended to air as a “Becoming Bow” episode of Black-ish this past spring. In light of the Mixed-ish series order, that episode ended up being held for next season and will feature Gosselaar as Paul. Mixed-ish was one of several newly picked up broadcast series to undergo recastings this year.
