'Fresh Off the Boat' to bid viewers a fond farewell Friday after six seasons

ABC

Behind the scenes of 'Fresh Off the Boat,' Hudson Yang and Randall Park go over their lines.

By Louis Chan

ASAM NEWS

The Asian American community is reacting with both sadness and appreciation in anticipation of the series finale of Fresh Off the Boat airing Friday night (February 21) at 8/7 Central on ABC.

Sixteen-year-old Hudson Yang who plays Eddie on the program debuted with the rest of the cast at the age of 11. The thought of life without the program is hitting him hard.

“It’s weird—it’s kind of like waking up and not knowing who you’re going to be next week! I know I’m going to miss it, I miss it already!” he told AsAmNews.

He isn’t the only one who will miss it.

“It’s really difficult knowing Fresh Off the Boat will leave the airwaves after Friday night,” said Guy Aoki, founding member of both the Media Action Network for Asian Americans and founding member of the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition.

Aoki told AsAmNews he saw the pilot script back in 2014, a year before the program premiered. The network wanted APAMC’s feedback.

“Was the title of the show offensive? One of the characters uses a racial slur. Is that OK? I gave two pages of notes and all of the scenes that I felt didn’t work, were excised. When I saw the filmed pilot months ahead of its broadcast, I knew this was something I could get behind,” Aoki said.

Asians Americans took over social media the night FOTB premiered in February 2015. They held Twitter parties quoting from the script, applauding the performances and even shedding happy tears over the story line. The show network executives likely debuted nervously was trending.

“Fresh Off The Boat was a truly groundbreaking television series in several ways,” said Daniel Mayeda Chair, Asian Pacific American Media Coalition. “FOTB told a very specific and authentic story of Taiwanese American immigrants. And it was told from the perspective of Asian Americans, as reflected in the pilot episode when Eddie Huang, trying to fit in, asked his mother to take him to the market so he could buy “White people lunch” to take to school. Asian Americans had never seen such an unapologetic portrayal of ourselves on network TV and we reveled in it.”

The show also proved a national audience would watch a show starring and centered around an Asian American family with a predominantly Asian American cast.

According to Aoki, FOTB indexed at 100 percent among White audiences. In other words, 60 percent of the nation is White. 60 percent of FOTB’s audience was also White. Blacks indexed at 105%. Asian Americans also over indexed.

ABC

Part of the final episode of FOTB is the graduation of Eddie Huang (Hudson Yang)

The show catapulted stars Constance Wu (Jessica Huang) and Randall Park (Louis Huang) into stardom. Wu went onto to star in Crazy Rich Asians and Hustlers. Park is seen frequently in both the Marvel and DC comic universe. Most recently he starred alongside Ali Wong in Always be My Maybe. He also made his directing debut for the series finale of Fresh Off the Boat.

Eight months after FOTB debut, ABC also premiered Dr. Ken starring Ken Jeong. Quantico, Andi Mack and Killing Eve would follow.

“I started at CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) in March 2015, right after Fresh off the Boat premiered, so the show has always been a clear demarcation for me,” Michelle K. Sugihara, CAPE Executive Director, said to AsAmNews. “It’s amazing how much has happened since then in terms of representation in media, but we still have further to go. I’m excited to see what this pilot season brings.”

The show will end Friday night with an hour-long double episode.

“I wish we were still going on because there are a lot more stories to tell, but the good thing is … it feels like we have a lot more of us telling them now, not just one show,” said Hudson Yang.

Five TV episodes celebrating Asian American Thanksgivings

The award-winning Thanksgiving episode of Master of None is a classic.

ThanksgivingThanksgiving is arguably the best holiday on television for Asian Americans. The big meal and all the traditions that revolve around it provide ample fodder for both comedy and drama.

Thanksgiving around my house and I'm sure -- most Asian American households -- always includes comfort dishes from the homeland to make the meal a true family celebration. I know its almost a cliche, but for our family, it means adding pancit and lumpia to the alrady laden table or adding bagoong to the string beans to give it that extra salty kick. Besides the roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce, the Thanksgiving table is often joined by pancit, lumpia and rice. You got to have rice.. In larger celebrations, the turkey would play second fiddle to the lechon (roast suckling pig).

RELATED: The truth about Thanksgiving

The aromas waft throughout the house all day for family and for any visitors who might pop in to be met at the door by that Filipino greeting, "Have you eaten yet?"

After stuffing yourself and everyone has moved to the living room to watch football or holiday movies.

Netflix is making the first three episodes available on its streaming network this holiday. The final two shows haven't been syndicated or picked up by anyi of the streaming networks but you can view them on YouTube for only $1.99.

Master of None, “Thanksgiving” (Season 2, Episode 8)

If you want to split hairs, this is technically not an Asian American Thanksgiving, but it features Aziz Ansari, which is good enough for us. If nothing else, holidays are opportunities to reflect on how you and your loved ones have changed from year to year. Riffing on the idea of holidays as markers of time, this Season 2 episode of Master of None tells the coming-out story of Denise (Lena Waithe), over seven holiday meals. “Being gay isn’t something black people love to talk about, Denise tells her friend, Dev (Aziz Ansari), during the 1998 holiday. “Some black people think being gay is a choice, and when they find out that their kid is gay, they try to figure out what they did wrong.” You see all of Denise’s big life changes during these meals, as well as the big shifts that her mother, played by Angela Bassett, goes through. 

Lena Waithe and Aziz Ansari won the Emmy Award for best comedy writing for this episode. 

Fresh Off The Boat, “Huangsgiving” (Season 2, Episode 8)

This episode begins with a classic Thanksgiving showdown scenario: grown-up sisters engaging in hostilities as they each attempt to prove to their mother that they can host a better version of the holiday. Jessica and Louis have a good game plan, with homemade cranberry sauce and Cornish hens replacing a big turkey, but, as is often the case during big family events, things go awry. 

And to add that extra Asian touch, Jessica's mother declares the turkey to be “dry but edible.” The ultimate compliment.

Gilmore Girls, “A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving” (Season 3, Episode 9)

The episode gets to the heart of what Thanksgiving is all about — this idea of celebrating with family and friends, and obligations. That’s why Lorelai and Rory get roped into not one, not two, but four Thanksgiving dinners, and each one offers a different vignette. They know to expect religious music and tofurkey at the Kim household with Keiko Agena playing Rory's best friend Lane. They experience Sookie’s first married Thanksgiving with Jackson, who, because of a compromise, cooks up a deep-fried turkey feast, much to her dismay. They essentially double-date at Luke’s Diner. Lorelai gets into an argument with her mother during dinner. There are two passionate kisses. It’s the unpredictable nature of Thanksgiving in a nutshell.

Dr. Ken, “Thanksgiving Culture Clash” (Season 1, Episode 8): 

Molly gets a Japanese tattoo, which sparks a culture clash between Allison and Ken over their Japanese and Korean heritages, respectively, and makes for a memorable Thanksgiving dinner experience, all of which is documented by Dave for a school project. Meanwhile, Julie invites the staff over to her place to avoid being alone, but Damona and Clark try to get out of it due to other plans.

This episode is available for purchase here.

The Filipino American family, the Chans, made their debut on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's Thanksgiving episode.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, "My First Thanksgiving with Josh," (Season 1, Episode 6)

The first-ever depiction of a Filipino American family occurred on this musical rom-com Thanksgiving episode written by FilAm writer Rene Gube (who also plays the cool priest, Father Brah, in the series) The menally-off Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom) tries to impress her boyfriend Josh Chan's (played by Vincent Rodriguez III) extended family of aunts, uncles and cousins  by cooking a bowl of dinaguan, a Filipino dish best described as a pork stew cooked in vinegar and pig blood. Complications ensue because Rebecca's rival for Josh's affections is also invited to the family fesat. They compete with each other for the Chan family's affections. Rebecca gets to do a rap  called "I Do Good Parent" featuring Amy Hill and Alberto Isaac as the parents, Lourdes and Joseph Chan.

This episode can be bought for only $1.99 here.

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ABC is not about to fire Constance Wu from FOtB

ABC

Constance Wu has received praise for her ortrayal of Jessica Huang in Fresh Off the Boat.

ABC Entertainment executive Karey Burke said that there are no plans to replace Fresh Off The Boat star Constance Wu following her recent rant on social media after it was  announced the show would be renewed for a sixth season.

Burke, speaking at the Disney press upfronts event last week, said: “There’s been no thought to recasting Constance. We love what she does on the show. I did actually know that Constance had another opportunity had Fresh Off The Boat not gone forward she would have pursued. But we never really considered not bringing back Fresh Off The Boat, it was just too strong. I’m going to choose to believe Constance’s most recent communication about the show that she’s happy to return and the cast and crew is happy to have her back.”

In no uncertain terms, on May 10, Wu tweeted her disappointment of the return of the ABC sitcom that follows the acculturation of a Taiwanese American family in a Florida suburb. 

"So upset right now that I'm literally crying. Ugh. F---." After a fan responded to Wu, writing the renewal was good news, the actress added, "No it's not." (That tweet has since been deleted, as did a comment, "dislike," Wu left on the ABC sitcom's Instagram account after it posted a photo heralding the sitcom's renewal.)

After her remarks went viral, the actress posted a pair of clarifications. The first said, in part, that the tweets came "on the heels" of a rough day and that she was "grateful" for the renewal. 

The following day, she posted a longer explanation making it clear that she appreciates and enjoys the cast and crew of Fresh Off the Boat and was looking forward to the next season. In that post she said she was extremely upset because she had looked forward to another project that she passionately wanted to do. With the series renewal, plans for that project would have to be rescheduled.

Fresh Off the Boat recently celebrated the taping of its 100th episode and will be starting its sixth season, an unprecedented accomplishment for a show featuring Asian American leads.

Wu's breakout performance as Jessica Huang, the mother of the Huang family, has been universally praised and led to her role in Crazy Rich Asians, the successful film with an all-Asian cast. The critically acclaimed movie proved to be launching pads for a number of its cast members, including Wu.

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Fresh Off the Boat renewed but the big news centered on Constance Wu's reaction

ASAM NEWS

While it might be good news that Fresh off the Boat has been renewed for a sixth season, tweets from one of the shows stars, Constance Wu, confused some fans about her reaction.

After news of the renewal broke Friday, Wu tweeted this, according to USA Today.

Which was also followed by this.

Fans of FOtB believed that she no longer appreciates the breakout show that boosted her career and made her one of the most in-demand Asian American actors at this particular time when Asian American actors are breaking new ground in pop culture. Wu then clarified her previous tweets for fans.

With the success of Crazy Rich Asians and its two expected sequels, some speculated the actress wanted out of her contract. She is also in production with Jennifer Lopez and Cardi B on Hustlers. Wu, however, said those assumptions were wrong.

Her tweets drew some criticism, reminding her to be grateful for FOtB renewal and to consider all of the unemployed actors and production crews from the shows that were cancelled.

Saturday (May 11) morning, she posted this statement on her Twitter account that her disappointment was related to a project that challenges her as an artist. Her earlier tweets, she says, was not meant to express any dislike with Fresh Off the Boat, its cast or its crew:

It is in the nature of an artist to seek new challenges. Wu was lucky to be part of a groundbreaking television show. Entering its sixth season, Fresh Off the Boat is the longest-running TV serires with an Asian American theme. In laugh-inducing manner, it . has introduced to a majority of non-Asian viewers an Asian American family with themes and issues that confront immigrants in a gentle non-threatening manner.

As one of the stars of Crazy Rich Asians, another groundbreaking project with its all-Asian and Asian American cast, breaking stereotypes left and right, Wu was able to reach a worldwide audience and influence the way Hollywood and the American public view  Asians.

In continuing to seek new projects that changes the way Asians and Asian Americans are perceived, Wu continues to challenge the status quo. 

 "People can hold conflicting feelings in their hearts -- that conflict is a part of being human," she wrote in her latest social media post. Wu has earned the right to challenge herself.

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Will 'Fresh Off the Boat' be renewed for another season?

ABC

The cast of Fresh Off the Boat marked the show's 100th episode.

ASAM NEWS

The cast of Fresh Off the Boat celebrated the taping of its 100th episode Wednesday at Fox Studios in Los Angeles, reports Just Jared.

They toasted each other and had a special cake cutting. The show is now in its fifth season, another milestone not often reached in today’s “quick to cancel” TV industry culture.

The Daily Mail reports that joining in the celebration were Randall Park, Constance Wu, Hudson Yang, Ian Chen, Forest Wheeler, Lucille Soong, Chelsey Crisp and Ray Wise.

Even though the show celebrated the important milestone, which ensures profitable syndication, its future is still uncertain.

At the end of season four, star Randall Park taped a plea published by USA Today which urged fans to write the network to save the show. It worked.

Unfortunately, ABC moved FOTB's time slot to  8 p.m. Friday nights, a night traditionally with low viewership. Ratings have continued to drop. 

FOTB follows the travails of a Taiwanese American family as they adapt to life in Florida. It is based on the memoirs of restaurateur, chef and author Eddie Huang. It was the first show featuring Asian American leads in over two decades

Huang left the show after the first season over creative differences. He is the host of Huang's World, a travel and food series which will start its fourth season in June.

Views From the Edge contributed to this report.

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A host of AAPI actors will be losing their jobs as their shows are cancelled or ended

'Quantico's' Priyanaa Chopra and 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's'' Vincent Rodriguez III

WHILE Asian/Americans were celebrating the renewal of Fresh Off the Boat, networks were cancelling other shows with AAPI starring roles.

Here are the shows that we won't see next year and the AAPI actors we bid a fond farewell (for now):

•Quantico, which starred Priyanka Chopra as the lead character, made it through three seasons. In her short stint in Hollywood, the former Miss World has made quite an impression. Quantico is merely a launching pad for her.

•Designated Survivor. with Kal Penn and Maggie Q couldn't get pass the second season. Both Asian/American actors played multi-layered complicated characters.

•The Crossing didn't even last a full season so we couldn't get fully involved in its premise or its characters. Somebody please give Sandrine Holt a series worthy of her talent.

•Marvel's Inhumans' cancellation was a big loss. Kenny Leung, Mike Moh and Sonya Balmores deserve a better fate, and a better vehicle.

•Rise never rose to the pre-season expectations, but expect to see the talented Aull'i Cravalho (Moana) in future projects if not on TV, perhaps the Broadway stage where she has the mentorship of award-winning Lin-Manuel Miranda.

•Scorpion. Too bad. I felt pretty sure that "geniuses" Jadyn Wong and Elyes Gabel would be back for a fifth season in the engaging nerds-save-the-world storyline.

•The Exorcist. Even the addition of John Cho in its second season couldn't save this one.

In addition, this year saw - or, will see - the demise of shows that had previously scheduled their own end.

•Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. One of the most original shows on television for the past three years and the show that introduced the AAPI bro and romantic lead in the character played by Vincent Rodriguez III.

•New Girl. After seven seasons, the show is currently in its final season. It had a good run marked by likeable characters and good writing. Hannah Simone was part of the repertory team that delivered the comedic goods week-in and week-out.

•The Mindy Project. While there was much ado about the debut of Fresh Off the Boat, it might be easy to forget that Mindy Kaling has had her own show for seven (more or less) seasons. In her own way, the evolution of Mindy, paralleled the evolution of the Indian American community.

That's a lot of shows leaving us and a lot of out-of-work AAPI artists. Let's hope that this is not the beginning of a trend. After two seasons we've seen a spate of television shows featuring AAPI actors in prominent roles. While two seasons won't undo the decades of neglect and being invisible, it demonstrated what the industry could do if it wanted to and not just spurred by shame from the brouhaha surrounding the #OscarsSoWhite debacle.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Keep an eye out for Views From the Edge's annual roundup of all the new fall shows featuring AAPI actors.)
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'Fresh Off the Boat' barely avoids cancellation

The Huang family in the sitcom 'Fresh Off the Boat' is one of the few Asian American families on network TV.

ASAM NEWS

IT'S OFFICIAL. Fresh off the Boat will be coming back next year for its fifth season on ABC.

The show made the announcement on social media.

Anxiety was high that ABC would cancel the series. Randall Park who plays the dad, Louis Huang, half jokingly made a video for USA Today “begging” fans to lobby the network to bring the series back.

TV analysts had listed the show as “on the bubble,” meaning it was likely being eyed by the network for cancellation.

Fresh Off the Boat is produced by 20th Century Fox. Back in December, Disney which owns ABC announced it was buying assets from 20th Century Fox, including TV and film, for $52.4 billion. Assuming the sales goes through, that would mean Disney would have direct ownership of Fresh Off the Boat and would benefit from syndication rights. The fifth season is considered essential if a show is to be syndicated.

Whatever the reason, today’s announcement is good news for fans and one of the few Asian American families on network television right now. It stars Constance Wu, Randall Park, Hundson Yang, Ian Chen, Forest Wheeler, and Lucille Soong as the Huang family, loosely based on the memoir of restaurateur Eddie Huang.

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"Fresh Off the Boat" producer will develop series 'Model Minorities'

I SENSE a touch of irony in the title of a prospective TV series called Model Minorities.

Sanjay Shah

Deadline reported yesterday (November 8) that Fox ordered a series pilot for a show that centers on a highly eduated but struggling Indian/American who moves in with his uneduated, but rich, immigrant cousin.

The culture-clash series will be developed by Fresh Off the Boat executive producer and writer Sanjay Shah. He will be working with Portlandia creator Jonathan Krisell. 

No casting decisions have been made yet.

If Model Minorities is as successful as that other culture-clash sitcom, Fresh Off the Boat, the show has the potential to debunk and disarm the term often to describe a stereotypical image for Asian Americans. 

The "model minority" term, born in the late 1960s, has been harmful to Asian/Americans by raising expectations of all Asian/Americans and often used against other minority groups, ie. "if Asians can succeed, why can't African/American, or Latinos, or other Asians.

If you can't beat them in the use of "model minorities" as a stereotype, maybe by laughing it off, no one will take it seriously anymore.

The success of shows featuring non-white casts, such as Fresh Off the Boat, Master of None, Blackish, Jane the Virgin and Empire, have proven to Hollywood decision-makers that there these shows can attract good ratings and successfully challenged the old Hollywood belief that white audiences wouldn't watch a bunch of minorities.

Shah is a stand-up comedian, who has written for the animated series King of the Hill for 20th Century Fox TV and was a co-executive producer for their series Enlisted, before joining ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat with creator and showrunner Nahnatchka Khan.

Shah has written for Comedy Central’s South Park and ABC’s Cougar Town as well, and also writes for Vice.com.

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