<\/p>\n
Marcel Spears is filled with immense gratitude as he bids farewell to The Neighborhood<\/a><\/em> on CBS<\/a>.<\/p>\n Eight seasons in the sitcom television landscape is no easy feat, especially for a show centered on the Black community and connection. For nearly a decade, Spears\u2019 personal journey has intertwined with that of his character Marty.<\/p>\n \u201cMarty\u2019s journey into fatherhood is a direct mirror for my own journey into fatherhood,\u201d he recalled in recent interview with us. \u201cIt\u2019s really sentimental to talk about it and think about it, because they\u2019ve sort of been happening parallel to each other, because our show is like a family. So once everybody found out that I was having a baby, the writers were inspired; they thought it was so funny the way that it happened. My girlfriend, who was not my wife at the time, went to labor while we were at a Beyonc\u00e9 concert, so the writers were like, \u2018Oh man, this is so good, please. Let\u2019s use this.\u2019 And so Marty\u2019s journey into fatherhood has been really something that\u2019s close to my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n Spears notes that his character has grown more confident over the years, though he still feels he is navigating the unknown in some ways.<\/p>\n \u201cHe feels so much more sure of himself. I think the arc of Marty has been sort of this awkward, nerdy, sort of little bit insecure, as far as his social and romantic life, because he\u2019s book smart, but not really street or emotionally smart. He had a lot to learn in that regard,\u201d Spears said.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the time we end this series, Marty is a father and a husband. I think he has confidence in himself based on being raised by Calvin and watching his dad and his mom, their relationship, and the life that they\u2019ve been able to create for their family. He feels confident that he is able to do that for his family. We get to see him sort of step into that. I wish you guys could see more of that journey \u2014 that sort of spinoff, if it ever happened.\u201d<\/p>\n For Spears, becoming a parent \u2014 especially as a millennial portraying a father of that same generation on television \u2014 has made him reflect on the way he was parented and how that shapes the expectations he has for himself as a father.<\/p>\n \u201cI think for myself, and for Marty, having good parents \u2014 Marty\u2019s a mama\u2019s boy, but also Marty\u2019s dad is such a dad. Calvin is really up there in the pantheon of great TV dads,\u201d he expressed.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s funny. He\u2019s a little gruff. He\u2019s a little dated, behind on the times, but he leads with love. He leads with protection. He leads with care. I think Marty, in reflecting on the dad that he had, there was a time he was nervous about being that good of a dad and uncertain that he could sort of step up to that plate. But I think where we leave him in the show is him being fully confident in the understanding that part of a legacy is, you\u2019re not alone. Part of Marty\u2019s legacy, and the gift that he\u2019s been given from his parents, is understanding that it does take a village.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet me tell you something. The thing that I\u2019ve learned as a parent \u2014 this is just myself speaking \u2014 I thought, and this is one of the lessons that my parents gave me that I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to take,\u201d Spears said.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought being a parent, like, you had to do it on your own, you\u2019ve got to do it solo. And once I had my first kid, I realized that there was so much I didn\u2019t know and so much I\u2019m learning on the fly,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd even when you have help, even when your parents are jumping in, they don\u2019t know how to raise this kid; they knew how to raise the kids that they raised. They don\u2019t know how to raise this child. And they might not have the same tactics as you, so you might want to do something a little different. As a millennial, I\u2019m like, \u2018I don\u2019t know if you spank. Do I not spank? Like, what\u2019s a little pop on the hand?\u2019 Like, I don\u2019t know, you\u2019re trying to figure it out on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cI realized really quickly, you don\u2019t have to do this by yourself. I\u2019m calling my brother. My brother\u2019s gonna come and take this baby, because I need a second to breathe and focus.\u201d<\/p>\n Spears also reflected on how his workplace became part of that support system.<\/p>\n \u201cI would bring my daughter to work. She\u2019s a set baby. I bring my kid to work, and because I have a baby in the show, when the character Daphne was in a stroller in rehearsal, Nola was in that stroller. She sleeps on set, Nola will be playing on set, Nola will be in my arms on set.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I realized it does take a village. So, I would have my friends on set, the cast and crew members, my baby would be in Tichina\u2019s [Arnold] room playing, they\u2019re having a blast. And I realized we did, as a culture, get away from community.\u201d<\/p>\n When it is all said and done and the finale airs, Spears said he is proud that The Neighborhood<\/em> set out to remind people about the importance of community and redefining it for themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a time where the country is super divided, which is crazy because eight years ago, we kind of felt like we\u2019re back in that time again, but the country is very divided,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n \u201cI think so many people have gotten so used to these sorts of faceless neighbors. You see videos and stuff only where people are like, \u2018My neighbor put this in my yard,\u2019 and you sort of got away from the old school, when I was growing up as a millennial, where if my neighbor saw me doing something I wasn\u2019t supposed to do, not only was that neighbor probably gonna tell my mom, but my mom had given the neighbor permission to spank me if I was doing something I wasn\u2019t supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe sort of moved away from that as the world became more connected. As the internet connects people miles away, states across, worlds away, countries across, we lost the immediate connections we used to have.\u201d<\/p>\n Spears concluded, \u201cOur show tried to encourage people to reinvest in those relationships, and we look at those relationships because that\u2019s where community starts. Community starts right there with your neighbor, right there on your block, right there in your town, in your city, in your neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI hope that when it\u2019s all said and done, and people watch our farewell episode, they can take some of that with them, because we\u2019re going to need it as a country.\u201d<\/p>\n The final episode of The Neighborhood<\/em> airs May 11 on CBS.<\/p>\n The post Marcel Spears Reflects On Fatherhood, Legacy And \u2018The Neighborhood\u2019 Final Season \u2013 \u2018It Does Take A Village\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Blavity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Marcel Spears is filled with immense gratitude as he bids farewell to The Neighborhood on CBS. Eight seasons in the sitcom television landscape is no easy feat, especially for a show centered on the Black community and connection. For nearly a decade, Spears\u2019 personal journey has intertwined with that of his character Marty. \u201cMarty\u2019s journey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2412050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[339565,471942],"class_list":["post-2412049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-black-community","tag-marcel-spears"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Marcel-Spears-Reflects-On-Fatherhood-Legacy-And-\u2018The-Neighborhood-Final.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2412049"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2412051,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412049\/revisions\/2412051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2412050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2412049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2412049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2412049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On the emotional state of Marty in the final episode<\/h2>\n
How fatherhood frames legacy<\/h2>\n
\u2018It really does take a village\u2019<\/h2>\n
His key takeaway from \u2018The Neighborhood\u2019<\/h2>\n