Posted by | Ray Cornelius
Deadline is reporting that BET’s popular Tuesday night series “Being Mary Jane” has added Will Packer and Erica Shelton Kodish to its creative team. Packer will serve as one of the show’s executive producers through his Will Packer Productions while Kodish will serve as an executive producer and showrunner for this upcoming season.
If you recall, the series creator, showrunner and executive producer, Mara Brock Akil and her director husband Salim Akil, signed a new deal with Warner Bros. TV last August and bowed out of their partnership with BET. Since their departure, the Akils have served only as consultants for the show.
Last month, Akil expressed her concerns about BET and their direction to ESSENCE: “Although they’ve announced that Being Mary Jane is coming back, I haven’t heard anything that’s made it seem real, and I don’t know who’s running it,” said Akil. “All this time went by that I could’ve helped figure it out, but now I’m in a position where I don’t know what BET’s gonna do.”
When asked if she thought “Being Mary Jane” could go on without her, she said:
“It’s not to say that BET couldn’t make it work, it’s just that I know what it takes to be a producer and there’s so much that goes into making any show. It really would depend on that person: how do they see and view Mary Jane and Black women? If they pick someone that I don’t like, I’m gonna go, ‘Oh sh*t. I can’t watch.’ [Laughs] I hope there’s another Mara out there who’s like, “Bring it on. Give me the ball.”
Hopefully the addition of Packer and Kodish will calm any fears Akil has about this new season. I guess we’ll see when production starts later on this year in Atlanta.
“Being Mary Jane” follows the fictitious life of news anchor Mary Jane Paul (played by Gabrielle Union) as she tries to juggle family, career and romance as a single Black woman living in Atlanta. It also stars Richard Roundtree, Margaret Avery, Richard Brooks, Lisa Vidal, B.J. Britt, Aaron Spears, Latarsha Rose and Stephen Bishop.
Stay tuned…
Photo Credit: LoveBScott.com
