Deep thoughts with Anthony Anderson: ‘How does Lawry’s penetrate’ tilapia?

The “black-ish” tribute to Norman Lear’s 1970s comedy “Good Times” felt like the perfect ending to an Emmy-nominated season that found the ABC comedy examining controversial issues in the same manner that Lear’s vintage shows (“All in the Family,” “Maude,” “The Jeffersons”) did back in the day.

“Black-ish” star Anthony Anderson, who was nominated for his second consecutive acting Emmy for the series, told The Envelope that the show’s approach was deliberate.

“We pride ourselves in dealing with divisive topics, hoping that we spark that conversation,” Anderson said in a video interview. “When [“black-ish” creator] Kenya [Barris] and I sat down and looked at the landscape of television, we saw what was missing for us. We both are huge Norman Lear fans. These are the shows that we grew up on. These are the shows that said something about the time in which those shows were made and were unapologetic about it.”

Anderson spoke at length on the “black-ish” episode “Hope,” which found the show’s family talking about police brutality and institutional racism.

We also discussed his recent foray to Comic-Con and how, if he were to organize his own fan event, it would center around food. Simply going by Anderson’s views on tilapia, we’d endorse that experience.

“It’s a farm-raised trash fish. Tilapia people: Help us out,” Anderson pleaded. “How do we season this rubberized fish? How does some Lawry’s penetrate this rubberized skin?”

You can watch the full interview below. And be sure to contact us if you have any tilapia tips.

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Anthony Anderson, who plays Dre Johnson on the ABC hit “black-ish,” describes to L.A. Times’ reporter Glenn Whipp, among other topics, the joy of announcing his own name as a nominee for an Emmy this year, and discusses the groundbreaking “Hope” epi

glenn.whipp@latimes.com