All About the Washingtons

All About the Washingtons is an American comedy streaming television series created by Jeremy Bronson that premiered on August 10, 2018, on Netflix. The series is executive produced by Bronson alongside showrunner Andrew Reich and stars Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons, Justine Simmons, and Kiana Ledé. In October 2018, it was announced that Netflix had canceled the series after one season.
Premise.
"All About the Washingtons" follows husband and wife Joey and Justine Washington as they raise their family. The series begins "after Joey decides to retire from a long career as legendary hip-hop royalty, his wife Justine, takes advantage of the opportunity to pursue a career of her own now that Joey is available to focus on raising the kids and keeping the house in order."
Production.
Development.
On October 24, 2016, it was announced that ABC had given the production a put pilot commitment with a financial penalty attached if the network failed to produce a pilot. The pilot episode was written by Jeremy Bronson with veteran comedy writer-producer Jhoni Marchinko supervising. Executive producers were set to include Bronson and Marchinko alongside Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons, Justine Simmons, Michael Lehman, Darryl Frank, and Justin Falvey. Production companies involved with the project were expected to include Amblin Television and ABC Studios. On March 17, 2017, following ABC's decision not to move forward with a pilot, it was reported that Amblin Television and ABC Studios had decided to use the penalty money received from ABC to finance a pilot presentation of the production. A truncated version of the pilot script was expected to be used and the episode was set to be filmed at the beginning of April 2017, on the set of ABC Studios' "Black-ish", with Don Scardino directing.
On November 17, 2017, it was announced that Netflix had given the production a straight-to-series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. It was further reported that the series would be produced by ABC Studios' cable/digital division ABC Signature. On June 14, 2018, it was reported that the series, now titled "All About The Washingtons", would premiere on August 10, 2018. Additionally, it was announced that Andrew Reich serve as showrunner and an executive producer for the series. On October 18, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had canceled the series after one season.
Casting.
Alongside the announcement of the put pilot commitment, it was confirmed that the series would star Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons and Justine Simmons. Alongside the announcement of the series' premiere, it was reported that the children in the show would be portrayed by Kiana Ledé, Nathan Anderson, Leah Rose Randall, and Maceo Smedley.
Filming.
Principal photography for the series was expected to begin in January 2018.
Release.
Marketing.
On July 18, 2018, the official trailer for the series was released.
Premiere.
On August 8, 2018, a screening of the series was held at Madera Kitchen & Bar in Los Angeles, California.
Reception.
The series was met with a negative response from critics upon its premiere. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 40% approval rating, with an average rating of 4.07 out of 10 based on 5 reviews.
In an unfavorable review, "The Hollywood Reporter"s Daniel Fienberg commented that the series proves that reality stars do not necessarily possess the talent necessary to act saying, "the show is built exclusively on the idea that people who are funny in reality can be made to be fictionally funny. In this case, they cannot." In another adverse critique, "Now"s Rachna Raj Kaur compared the series unfavorably to the Simmons' real-life personas saying, "Rev Run's bold presence in pop-culture has spanned four decades, but his new family sitcom, "All About The Washingtons" falls flat. What is arguably one of hip-hop's longest standing royal families, has been compressed to one shallow dimension in this autobiographical sitcom." In a further unfriendly assessment, "Paste"s Jacob Oller gave the series a grade of 4.2 out of 10 and commented, ""All About the Washingtons" is simply too facile to be funny and too invested in testing the Simmons with scripted material to be charming. The leads are dull and the lines they shout are either monotonous dad jokes, simple plot points, or loving reconciliations (after no major drama has occurred)."