Marcel Spears expanded his family earlier this year, and the upcoming season of The Neighborhood is dedicated to his partner’s birth story.
“This whole season was based upon Marcel Spears’ real life because he really had a baby at a Beyoncé concert,” Tichina Arnold, who plays Tina Butler, told Us Weekly exclusively at the CBS Fall Schedule Celebration earlier this month while previewing the show’s forthcoming seventh season.”
“She went into labor [at the concert]. So, we have a whole episode dedicated to that,” Arnold continued. “So, this whole season is going to be around getting a brand new baby.”
Spears, 35, and Sarah Francis Jones welcomed daughter Nola in September 2023, one day after Beyoncé’s Los Angeles birthday show on the Renaissance Tour.
“This has been a year of ups downs and all-arounds. But this little baby rests comfortably in her new place at the center of my focus,” Spears wrote on Instagram when announcing his daughter’s birth. “Nola, I will do my very best to guide you on your journey through life for as long as God allows, which I truly hope is a very long time. I loved you before I met you, and I love you even more now.”
Spears told Us that Nola’s birth was “intense” and “kind of a blur” because of everything that happened.
“We went from enjoying the musical stylings of one Beyoncé Knowles, and then suddenly, I was a dad,” he recalled. “It all kind of blurred together. I wasn’t really expecting it. But I’m so glad she’s here.”
Instead of a Beyoncé concert, Arnold teased that the onscreen concert birth will take place at a Toni Braxton show.
“Beyonce was busy. She was booked and busy, so it made sense for Toni — beautiful Toni Braxton — to do it because now [she and] Cedric the Entertainer have a show together,” Arnold added. “They have a show together in Vegas at the Cosmopolitan, Love and Laughter, and it’s so good. We all just went to see it.”
Arnold and Cedric, 60, play husband and wife on The Neighborhood, and a new baby won’t be the only new part of the onscreen couple’s lives. The actress gushed over how “real-life situations” end up as storylines.
“Our audience can identify with these everyday stories with these two families,” she added. “We got some funny s–t. Really funny s–t.”
Aside from Arnold, Cedric and Spears, The Neighborhood stars Max Greenfield, Beth Behrs and Sheaun McKinney. The series premiered in October 2018 and has continued its reign as a fan-favorite CBS sitcom.
Reporting by Kevin Zelman
