ABC Tones Down Author's 'Fresh Off The Boat' For Sitcom Audience
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
ABC will break an important boundary in television tonight with the debut of "Fresh Off The Boat." It's the first network sitcom in two decades to star an Asian-American family. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans says the program faces a host of challenges, including ambivalence from the man whose life inspired the show.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: When they build a sitcom around a hip-hop loving child of Taiwanese immigrants in Orlando, producers of "Fresh Off The Boat" probably knew they would face some uncomfortable questions about culture and race. But they may not have expected what they heard in the very first, very awkward question at a recent press conference with TV critics in LA.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: I was just talking about the chopsticks. And I just love all that. Will I get to see that, or will it be more Americanized?
DEGGANS: The response from cast and producers was to laugh it off.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
EDDIE HUANG: It's more about the chopsticks.
(Laughter)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: All about the chopsticks.
HUANG: The original title was "Chopsticks."
DEGGANS: But the question, however clumsy, has an important point. When you're building the first sitcom to star an Asian family in 20 years, how culturally real can the stories be? ABC says the series is inspired by bad boy celebrity chef Eddie Huang's memoir "Fresh Off The Boat." That book in part is Huang's story of moving to Florida from Washington, D.C., with his immigrant parents. Huang even narrates the pilot episode.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FRESH OFF THE BOAT")
HUANG: Moms was always hard on me, way before all that tiger mom stuff. She thought I was trying to cause trouble, wearing that Nas shirt. But she didn't understand. If you were an outsider, hip-hop was your anthem.
DEGGANS: The book talks about how tough Huang's parents were when they tried to curb his teenage rebellion. But the pilot mostly shows Eddie's mother criticizing his taste in T-shirts.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FRESH OFF THE BOAT")
CONSTANCE WU: (As Jessica Huang) Why do all your shirts have black men on them?
HUDSON YANG: (As Eddie Huang) It's Notorious B.I.G. Me and him are both dudes with mad dreams, just trying to get a little bit of respect in the game.
DEGGANS: Huang told journalists he understands why the show tones down his parents for a sitcom audience.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
HUANG: You come out with a strong Asian character on network television - people may not understand. And I think the show is strategic and smart in how it's easing the viewer into that.
DEGGANS: But in an essay for "New York Magazine" that came out the day before the press conference, Huang complained that the actor who played his dad was neutered and the actress who played his mom was exoticized. At the press conference, Huang shrugged off the comments.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
HUANG: When you do something that's historic that has to do with race relations, there has to be conflict. There has to be debate.
DEGGANS: Still, Huang also put his finger on a problem for people of color on TV. Archie Bunker can be racist because there's lots of other white people on television. But when you're the only network TV show with a cast that's mostly Asian-American, every character becomes a symbol, whether you like it or not. That's what helped kill the last sitcom to star an Asian-American family, Margaret Cho's 1994 ABC comedy "All American Girl." Cho said in a PBS documentary she was pressured into damaging her health with a crash diet to fit a stereotypical vision of Asian beauty.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY)
MARGARET CHO: When you're the first person to kind of crossover this racial barrier, then you are scrutinized for all these other things that have nothing to do with race. But they have everything to do with race. It's a very strange thing.
DEGGANS: Attacked by critics for being too bland and by Asian groups for being too inauthentic, "All American Girl" was canceled after 19 episodes. In his column on "Fresh Off The Boat," Huang eventually praised a scene in which Eddie fights with a black classmate who calls him a racial slur. For someone trying to challenge the safe stereotypes of Asians on TV, it's a start. Huang expects a lot from a show with a fairly bland pilot that struggles to be edgy without giving offense. But if "Fresh Off The Boat" can subvert stereotypes and stay funny, it could evolve into one of the best comedies on network television. I'm Eric Deggans.
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