Leave it to Disney Channel to launch a groundbreaking series revolving around one of our favorite days of the week — Saturday.
Later tonight (March 24), the network will premiere its new coming-of-age sitcom Saturdays, which revolves around 14-year-old Paris Johnson (Danielle Jalade) and her best friends Simone (Daria Johns) and Ari (Peyton Basnight) who perform their rollerskating skills at Saturdays, a neighborhood rink in South-Side Chicago. Together, they make up the We-B-Girlz skate group, and they’re eager to prove that they have the world’s hottest skate moves.
For Paris, whose parents Deb (Golden Brooks) and Cal (Omar Gooding) earned the rink’s golden prize, every aspect of Saturdays is a family affair. London (Jermaine Harris) who is the rink’s new DJ is assisted by his best friend D-Rok (Tim Johnson Jr.) for better or worse.
Evidently, Disney Channel advances beyond the standard slapstick sitcom with Saturdays and in many ways resembles sister network ABC’s Black-ish. It’s no surprise that Saturdays is similar to the award-winning series, as Marsai Martin, who played Diane on the hit show, is one of its executive producers.
“I wanted to create something that was timeless and something that was nostalgic and I knew Disney Channel was probably exactly the right place to do it. I always want to look for the missing puzzling piece and what I love to do which is creating and I felt like this was something we haven’t seen in a long time,” Martin told Celeb Secrets on the purple carpet at the series premiere in Los Angeles. “I wanted to create a team and build something that was beautiful, real, and felt different than what we’ve seen recently and I am very proud of that.”
Last Saturday (March 18), Disney Channel rolled out the purple carpet for the cast and creative team at the Walt Disney Studios Lot in Burbank to chat with Celeb Secrets and a ton of other outlets about their exciting new series that’s also available for streaming on Disney+ beginning tomorrow (March 25).
After getting the media hyped for the series while posing for photographers in their weekend best, Disney continued the celebration with a special screening of the first two episodes followed by a carnival-themed skating rink and food stands which paid homage to the Windy City’s culture. It was the absolute perfect way to spend a Saturday!
For more information on Saturdays, check out our interviews with the cast below and don’t forget to catch its big premiere tonight, March 24th @ 9PM ET/PT on Disney Channel with streaming available beginning tomorrow, March 25th on Disney+.
You can watch more exclusive interviews with the cast of Saturdays on Celeb Secrets right here.
