In Season 6 of CBS’s The Neighborhood, art is imitating life. The Monday premiere revealed that Marcel Spears’ character Marty, the son of Calvin and Tina, is about to become a parent.
The mother, played by Skye Townsend of A Black Lady Sketch Show, is modeled after Spears’ real-life partner Sarah Francis Jones. Jones gave birth to their first child, Nola Renai Spears, recently while she was at Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour.
We are informed that Courtney, an MIT alumna, collaborated with Marty at JPL. Before hiring his old coworker to work at the Fuse Box, the electric car repair shop that Marty and Calvin built in Season 5, Marty had a brief affair with Courtney. Shortly afterward, Marty finds out that Courtney is expecting his child.
Recap
“As we move forward, a lot of questions come up, one of which is, what do you call people? How do you refer to one another? To Courtney, what are Tina and Calvin? Mike Schiff, co-showrunner, gives a sneak peek. “The man who impregnated her is the parent of Calvin and Tina.
It’s difficult, if not impossible, to find terms in our language to convey that dynamic, and everyone is attempting to figure out how it’s going to work.
As fellow EP Bill Martin puts it to TVLine, “there are a lot of different ways to be a couple and to have a baby these days” for Courtney and Marty. But this isn’t the way Tina wants to become a grandmother—there are alternative options.
It really was… well, it was crazy. This pregnancy was completely unplanned. It was while I was opening a Broadway show called Fat Ham [in New York] that I learned Sarah was expecting. Since none of us had planned for pregnancy at this point, we spent the entire pregnancy trying to figure out how we would co-parent while I was in New York.
Now that this baby is on the way, I find myself quickly transitioning from a young, unmarried person to a [first-time] father. I mean, I’m old enough to be a father, but I didn’t think that would happen for me anytime soon. It required a lot of learning.
This baby is due to arrive in September. I had read every parenting book I could lay my hands on by this point. Everything related to fatherhood, babies, and childbirth was all consuming me.
I’m extra cautious because my girlfriend is Black, and Black women are more likely to die during pregnancy. As it’s my first child, I’m extremely careful and nervous about everything and Beyoncé will soon be in the area.
One of the biggest stars of our damn time, Beyoncé is Beyoncé, and it would be insulting for [us] to miss seeing her live. We visit the doctor, and after speaking with the physicians, they tell us that we can all go to the concert. Actually, it’s an excellent idea to get Sarah moving.
