The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder is about to stream its second season on Disney+. To celebrate the milestone, executive producers Bruce W. Smith and Ralph Farquhar participated in a press conference where they discussed the evolution of the franchise from idea, to relaunch, to the current season.
While Smith was working for Disney Feature Animation, he had a desire to dabble in television due to his growing up on Hanna-Barbera shows like The Flintstones and The Jetsons. At the time, the TV animation space was dominated by Fox animated series such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, and King of the Hill. As Smith tells it, “I just knew that the only missing component to that landscape was an African American family.”
One day, he got a random call from a Disney executive who asked if he knew Ralph Farquhar. Smith replied that he did. However, he did not. So he went on a mission to meet the co-creator of shows such as The Parkers and Moesha. When Smith was able to get in touch with Farquhar, his response was, “This better be good because you pulled me off the golf course.”
Luckily for audiences, the pitch was good and the show became a Disney Channel classic. When Disney+ allowed the original creative team to return to the world of The Proud Family, it was now Louder and Prouder. During the presentation, Ralph Farquar addressed what made the revival different. Regarding being “louder” he said, “We can speak our truth in a more direct way because we were geared for the entire family viewing experience as opposed to just the children aspect of it the first time around. And even though we were always a show intended for family viewing, I think, at the time, Disney was only interested in the children's POV, but we snuck in the adult POV anyway.”
On being prouder, he continued, “One of the biggest differences from 2001 and today is the gender identification in terms of the LGBTQ community, in terms of portrayal of characters, specifically Michael, which before, we had to be speaking code about his gender identification. And then also we included new characters into our world, a voice by Zachary Quinto and Billy Porter, same-sex parents who are the parents to Maya and KG characters.”
Now that we are on to the second season, what can we expect? Smith says that, “[N]ow that we've got the characters introduced and laid into the landscape, we just are telling stories that we feel are just much more closer to the Black experience.” Farquhar added that you are going to see a focus on some of the other characters such as Maya, KG, and Zoe.
With the second season of the award winning show on the cusp of being released, the show’s success can inspire and illuminate audiences around the world. You can catch the second season on Disney+ when all episodes are released on February 1st.