The Free Huey World Report: Michael Caesar | Part 2

This week's edition of The Free Huey World Report is gonna be abit more brief, because it's essentially just designed to explain why Michael Caesar, Huey's best friend, wasn't in the show. 

Let's start with the original idea. The original plan was to always have the first season of The Boondocks feature the main Boondocks cast. This is because Aaron's original plan, even back in the syndication days, was to introduce Caesar and a bunch of other characters later down the road.

This means that Caesar was always supposed to be a character introduced in Season 2 and not Season 1. His exclusion there was intentional.

Something Aaron seems to always stress is that the comic strip and the television how are different. Tonally, the types of jokes made and much more. Aaron actually wrote an episode for Caesar in Season 2, however, they struggled to find a voice for him. They considered using Regina King again, but she was already stretching herself trying to do Huey. So, he was removed.

Now, in Season 3 Aaron REALLY wanted to get Caesar in there. He cast Ms Kittie as Michael Caesar. She voiced "Sweetest Taboo" in "Tom, Sarah and Usher." 

Kinda wild~

This was confirmed by her in a DM and Maronzio Vance & Carl Jones confirm this in a podcast. They really did try to get Caesar into the show, but they genuinely couldn't find a place where he fit. And after Aaron declared this would be the final season, he decided against it.

Then, Season 4 happened, but I digress.

My guess? The problem is Caesar's purpose losing value, his characteristics bleeding into the main Freeman Trio and how radically different the show was. Carl kinda explains this in a tweet he made a few years ago when asked about this.

"Caesar was just someone for Huey to rant to." 

Huey can't just keep ranting to people who don't care. By nature, their characters don't allow for Huey's rantings to register or warrant a response that doesn't ultimately amount to "I don't care, nigga."

While this wasn't inherently Caesar's character, this is ultimately what Caesar's character became. A means for Huey to speak. A vehicle for his views to be heard in newspapers. And, that's cool for comic strips, but in terms of a television show? That's not gonna fly.

Caesar had an episode written for him.

Caesar had a voice chosen.

Just... by the time he would get introduced, the franchise had radically changed and he sadly wasn't able to make such a smooth transition into the medium of animation. Either due to the show changing medium, comedy styles or the decision to bring the focus of the show away from Huey.

Tis' a shame our Brooklyn Boy never quite caught a break. And, our final memory of him will be this panel. Shout out to Caesar and everything he brought to The Boondocks series.