“Fresh Off the Boat,” broadcast television’s first comedy about an Asian-American family since “All-American Girl” in the 1994- 95 season, premieres at 8:30 p.m. tonight on ABC, with a second episode airing at 9:31 p.m.
“Fresh Off the Boat” is inspired by food personality Eddie Huang’s memoir and deals with his 1995 move with his family from Washington, D.C.’s Chinatown to Orlando, Florida.
“Fresh Off the Boat” stars Hudson Yang as the hip-hop-loving 11-year- old Huang who initially struggles to make friends at school, Randall Park as his father Louis, who has moved the family to Orlando to open a Western-themed restaurant, and Constance Wu as his mother Jessica, who struggles to adapt to Orlando.
ABC Entertainment Group Paul Lee told City News Service he ordered “Fresh Off the Boat” as a series after finding the pilot “extraordinarily funny and touching at the same time.”
“We looked at this show about Asian-Americans — and I’m a Jewish Englishman — and I was moved by it, I related to it,” Lee said.
Nahnatchka Kahn, the series’ creator and writer of tonight’s first episode, called “Fresh Off the Boat” a “funny, relatable sitcom that’s not like anything on television right now.”
“There are so many access points for people to identify with these characters and find something to love about these people as they’re laughing along the way,” said Kahn, who created the 2012-13 ABC comedy “Don’t Trust the B—- In Apartment 23” and was an executive producer on the Fox animated comedy, “American Dad.”
“Fresh Off the Boat” will regularly air at 8 p.m. Tuesdays beginning next week, opposite the CBS drama “NCIS,” television’s most-watched scripted series for four of the past five seasons.
“We think it is going to find an audience because it’s a very, very special comedy,” Lee said. “I think when people sample it — and I think they will sample it because of the way we’re rolling it out — I think they’re going to fall in love with it.”
Kahn said she was “excited for the show to be on at 8 o’clock so parents and kids can watch together.”
“Fresh Off the Boat” is ABC’s second attempt this season in airing a new comedy against “NCIS.” The romantic comedy “Selfie” ran for seven episodes before being removed from the schedule in November.
