'Raven's Home': Raven-Symone and Issac Ryan Brown on Why the Show Remains a Mega Success (Exclusive)
Raven's Home is back for Season 5. A spinoff of the iconic Disney Channel series That's So Raven (2003-2007), the Disney+ reboot follows the adventures driven by Raven Baxter (Raven-Symone) and her son Booker (Issac Ryan Brown). Booker has inherited his mom's psychic gift to catch glimpses of the future. This season, viewers will meet three new characters. Raven and Booker are back in San Francisco to help take care of her dad (Rondell Sheridan) as he recovers from a mild heart attack. She finds herself in the same position as most 30-somethings are: parenting their parents and the challenges that come with it. Also having to settle back into her hometown isn't as seamless as she'd think. Booker is the new kid in town and also has some trouble adjusting as he tried his hardest to keep his psychic abilities under the radar from his new peers.
Raven-Symone didn't have to do a reboot of the show. She's had recurring roles on hit sitcoms like ABC's black-ish and had a coveted co-hosting gig on The View. But she left the roundtable behind to return to her Disney roots on the show she spearheaded. Season 5 premieres via Disney Channel and DisneyNOW on March 11. PopCulture.com spoke with Raven-Symone and Brown on what to expect this season, the impact of the series, and why they enjoy the show so much. Read the full interview below, and watch in video form above.
PC: Raven, I want to start with you. Obviously, this show is iconic for so many reasons, for so many of us. And what makes you continue to want to do this specific show? It went off the air, it came back, and now we're in its fifth season of this revitalization of sorts. So why That's So Raven and now, Raven's Home?
RS: I think that it is needed in our society right now. I think that we have created stories and a cast that can resonate with all types of people in our communities. I think that a family comedy, where your grandparents to your toddlers can sit down and there's something for everybody in one show is needed. And I personally need a job. So I think it works out for everybody, really. What about you? You think so?
IB: I think it's great. It's kept me employed for five years. As a kid growing up, I always used to love seeing Trevor Jackson or any of the dope Black Disney kids, watching them on television, do their thing, dance and sing. I was like, "Yeah, that's awesome." And I know for my sister, seeing an amazing African American lead, a wonderful Black female lead, running her own show, doing these crazy shenanigans, breaking the mold is great. In Raven's Home, we like to represent people, and we like to make sure everyone can see themself on screen. I feel like we're doing a pretty good job of that this season.
And Issac, you said what you said [about your sister looking up to Ravem], but you're a little bit younger. But obviously there's this whole resurgence of shows from the '90s and the early 2000s – that era and how they're all getting reboots and revitalizations Why do you think that time period has registered so much for, I guess this generation of people that we cannot get away from it?
IB: The comedy was just so authentic. Before, obviously, there was a method to the madness. But it's more like they were developing it, and you could see it every season. Every show, they're figuring it out. And now we have this kind of, beat, joke, joke, joke, beat. But it's the difference between now and the Renaissance when they were actually painting and making it. We have this now because of what they did then. And so, we can do our jobs better, not better than them, but we can do our jobs better, as best as we can do them because of the stuff that they showed us before. I mean, the comedy was just incredible.
What are you guys hoping that viewers get out of this upcoming season? What are you guys most excited for viewers to see?
RS: I'm most excited for viewers to be able to say we kind of shaped their childhood again. We have this new generation coming in, they're watching older characters that their mothers might have watched and then newer characters. And to be able to start new catchphrases and new ways of acting and these middle schoolers and elementary kids being comfortable enough to shenanigan around as best as you need to.
I'm excited to also say that family units can sit down and watch this. I think that's important, bringing the community together, where everyone isn't on their phone, doing their own type of self-soothing with whatever entertainment they're watching. But to be able to come together, watch a show and then hopefully have a conversation after. That's one thing that Raven's Home did the first season and that we're bringing into this season is really tackling issues that the entire family unit can have a conversation with because it's not farfetched. It's just how we deal with it that's farfetched, but it's a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.