Sheryl Lee Ralph accidentally started a running joke that Quinta Brunson extended into a full episode of "Abbott Elementary."
The two stars of the ABC show were on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" with Lisa Ann Walter (Melissa Schemmenti) discussing Episode Two of Season Two, in which Ralph's character, Barbara Howard, repeatedly name drops actors thinking they are Black, when actually they are white, or vice versa.
Turns out, that storyline was not organically derived from Brunson's writing chops, for which she won an Emmy. But Ralph says on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" that she made similar mixups in real life and Brunson put it in the show.
"I made one mistake," Ralph said, defending herself. "When you hear the name 'Darren Star,' tell me you don't think of a six-foot basketball player," she asked the audience, who erupted in laughter.
"Now you know Darren Star sounds like a Black man," she said, pleading her case.
Darren Star is actually a white TV producer who created and wrote for “Beverly Hills, 90210,” and “Sex and the City.”
Her second mixup was of Orlando Bloom, a white actor famous for starring in “The Lord of the Rings” films.
"Now you know Orlando Bloom, tell me you don't think of a nice, bruising football player, Black man," she said to laughter.
"Okay so I got it wrong. It was the wrong Orlando," Ralph said.
Ralph said including it in the show was to pick on her but Brunson said "it was funny," so of course she had to include it in the comedy.
A new episode of Abbott Elementary airs Oct. 26 on ABC.
