Greg Mathis is American television royalty. The judge is the longest-running Black male host on TV. After winning a few Emmys, he earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Now, Mathis is sharing the spotlight with his family. On June 19, which is also Father’s Day, “Mathis Family Matters” will premiere. Ahead of the debut of the show, the cast of the family sat with rolling out to discuss the image they wished to portray through the first season’s episodes.
How conscious were you all of projecting a positive image of a Black family while filming the first season?
Greg Mathis Jr.: For me, the first desire was to make sure I was being myself. In reality, it is an amazing opportunity to showcase what I, in my biased opinion, believe is a very put-together Black family. I guess you could say [it is] an opportunity for us to show an example of a positive, loving Black family. We know they exist all over this country, but that’s not always the narrative that we’re shown.
Camara Mathis Webb: I agree with Greg. I think we were conscious of it, but we just were ourselves. We wanted to make sure we were authentic and showed who we are [individually] and who we are as a family. …We are all professionals, we are loving, and we are a positive Black family. So that would just show naturally.
Amir Mathis: I think that that’s something that we had spoken about one time, like, “Let’s try and show ourselves in a good light,” but after we started everything, we realized we didn’t have to have that conversation anymore because we are a loving family. There’s nothing [that] needed to be faked, or suppressed, that’s because a lot of the conversations we do have are conversations we want people to see.
Greg Mathis Jr.: I’m just going to call it out here, Amir tricked us. So we didn’t really have a lot of time to think [about it]. He asked us if we wanted to do this project. And I guess it was our fault because none of us really thought it was going to happen initially. So we were like, “sure we’ll do it.” He had us sign some paperwork, and the next thing we know, we got a phone call, like all right, cameras are showing up on this date.
Greg Mathis Sr.: Let’s cut to the chase through the chase! You want to know if [it’s] gonna be entertaining or not, or whether it’s going to be a church service. Now does it appear to be a church service on the “Judge Mathis Show” while I’m a total mess? Well, double down on that. What you see on my show, put [that] in real-life circumstances, and you’ll know what you’re going to get. How about that?
