Inside Markham Roller Rink, amid flashing neon lights, a sense of gravity and urgency is unfolding. Fifteen-year-old Danielle Jalade and her friends Daria Johns and Peyton Basnight are trying to nail down a complex roller-skating flip. After, the girls let out a piercing cheer and a hug.
The trio make up the We-B-Girlz skate crew that practices and performs on the best day of the week — Saturdays! When the director yells cut, the teenagers giggle to each other between scenes, their change in demeanor almost imperceptible.
The young actresses are the core of Disney Channel’s new comedy series “Saturdays,” set on the South Side of Chicago.
Jalade plays 14-year-old Paris Johnson, the leader of the group, with Johns and Basnight as Simone and Ari, her best friends. Together the teens are determined to prove they are the top skating team at the rink, despite their age.
The rest of the cast is rounded out by a host of Black actors with long resumes — among them Golden Brooks as Jalade’s mom, Deb; Omar Gooding as Jalade’s dad, Cal, and rapper Yo-Yo Whitaker as the legendary leader of the roller skating rink.
Roller skating has long been a staple of the Black community. Civil rights protests were often held at skating rinks, where music blared and kids and adults alike could let loose. Now, roller-skating rinks are an endangered locale. “Saturdays” was able to rent the Markham Roller Rink from the city because it’s been closed for years.
The team behind “Saturdays” includes 18-year-old former “black-ish” actress Marsai Martin, in her first television executive producer credit. “Black-ish” finished airing in 2022 after eight seasons and was a predominantly Black-led show, an anomaly for ABC at the time. It’s also where Martin spent the formative years of her childhood.
“Even though this family is also named the Johnsons we weren’t trying to replicate it,” Martin laughed. “But there was something that I left with from the set, which was a beautiful, welcoming, feeling that you get on and off set. It was something that I knew I wanted to bring to all of my projects.”
Norman Vance Jr. is the showrunner and creator; he previously wrote 2005’s “Roll Bounce” (yes, another roller-skating comedy set in Chicago) and co-wrote the Queen Latifah-led movie “Beauty Shop.”
“Disney came to us and was like, ‘We want a roller-skating show,’ ” Martin told the Sun-Times. “It was also like, ‘OK, so we’re putting their thoughts into consideration,’ but also too it just makes sense because it’s not only a big deal in our Black community, but also Chicago in general.”
The cast’s wardrobe, jewelry, hair and even nails have been carefully crafted as a hallmark of current Black culture.
“My favorite part of the show was the fashion of it all, and the hair and the makeup,” Johns, a Hyde Park native, told the Sun-Times. “Fun fact: The hair, makeup and wardrobe department were all Black. So it was really, like ‘OK, cool. We’re gonna rock it out. This is our culture.’ ”
Although the show will premiere on the kid-oriented Disney Channel at 8 p.m. Friday (and Disney+ the next day), plots are dedicated to showcasing the adult talent in the cast. Brooks and Gooding get a fair amount to do, and rapper Yo-Yo is booked for the older crowd as the mysterious Duchess.
But at the heart of the show may be female friendship. The trio of Jalade, Johns and Basnight act as the visual representation of young Black girls who are ride-or-die for one another, a dynamic that has been lacking on the small screen for young women.
“For me I always watched Disney Channel and all different other type of networks growing up and there weren’t a whole lot of shows showing Black friendship dynamics and Black family and Black culture,” Jalade said.
Added Johns, “I feel like this show is really going to have a large impact on the Black community. Not just for skating, not just for its hair and makeup and what it brings to the culture, but the people in it. We have Mr. Omar Gooding, we have Miss Golden Brooks, we have Yo-Yo … like come on now, this is for the culture.”
Mariah Rush is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South and West sides.
