ABC developing a Chinese American family sitcom

YOUTUBE

Jessica Gao will help develop a sit-com about a Chinese American family for ABC.

THE IMPACT of Crazy Rich Asians' box office and critical success is having representation repercussions in the entertainment industry. Hollywood decision makers can no longer say that audiences won't accept the old belief that Asian Americans can't be lead actors. 

ABC has given the go-ahead for a script written by Emmy winner Jessica Gao, a Chinese American writer that will have feature a Chinese American family.

According to Deadline, the untitled series is about "Janet Zhao, a first generation Chinese American woman who struggles to set healthy boundaries with her crazy, exhausting family. When her wealthy grandmother dies and names Janet the sole inheritor, she suddenly finds herself the unwilling new matriarch of the family she’s spent her life trying to keep at arm’s length."

The potential series will be part of Kim Falvey’s first broadcast pitch season since joining Imagine as President of Television last October. Falvey, who is of Korean descent, shepherded Fresh Off the Boat, the first series about an Asian American family in over two decades.

It was an episode of the animated series Rick & Marty written by Gao, "Pickle Rick," which landed the show's first Emmy as Best Animated Program this past weekend. Winning the Emmy was the best response to some of the show's fans over the past year who were apparently didn't like that a woman -- a woman! -- was writing for their alpha male hero.

Gao—who also co-hosts the podcast Whiting Wongs with Rick & Morty’s Dan Harmon, which pulls no punches when discussing the problem of race and racism in Hollywood—also has TV credits for Silicon Valley, Robot Chicken, and more. 
_______________________________________________________________________________