Series creator Marc Cherry originally envisioned the Applewhites as a white family but turned to Woodard after two white film actresses declined the role due to financial and time commitments. Cherry famously stated that there was "nothing strategically black about her character" and that her "color is incidental" to the script.
The decision to make the show's first major Black family the focus of a "man in chains" storyline drew significant backlash. en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org
Cherry’s response was the Applewhite family. In a 2005 interview with The Advocate , Cherry explained that he wanted to subvert the "perfect neighbor" trope. "I thought it would be fascinating to introduce a woman who is, by all accounts, the ideal suburbanite—elegant, musical, polite—but who is hiding a monster in her house," Cherry said. "The twist? The monster is her son."