Tracee Ellis Ross and Malcom-Jamal Warner had a chance to ponder what’s missing in black TV when they spoke about their new BET series Reed Between the Lines in a recent chat with The Hollywood Reporter.

In the series, Ross and Warner star as a happily married couple living an upper middle-class life in suburban New York City with their three children. She’s a successful psychologist with two older children from a pervious relationship. And he’s an NYU English professor who becomes an online lecturer so that she can go to work and he can home school their youngest child.

“There is so much negativity on television and in life,” said Warner. “One of my missions in life is to show that being positive does not have to be corny. You can be positive and still be hip.”

Ross said of the series, “This is one of those shows that whether I were on it or not, I’d want to see back on television. It really celebrates the joy of marriage with all of its trials and tribulations.”

For BET, Reed represents an investment in original scripted programming at a time when there is a dearth of black-headlined series and virtually none on broadcast TV. It is an attempt to fill a void on television at a time when the population at large is becoming more multi-cultural.

Last night, the first episode of the show bowed to 3.3 million viewers. Did you tune in, and if so, what did you think?