Fresh off the Boat, the first family sitcom featuring predominantly Asian characters in 20 years, made its premiere on ABC last night.  Told in a narration format (think The Wonder Years) and set in 1990s, it follows Eddie Huang, an 11 year old obsessed with hip hop and the “black sheep” of the family, his two younger brothers and his parents.  The family just moved to the Orlando area from D.C. so the father won’t have to be apart from the family while operating his new western-themed restaurant.  It’s loosely based on the real-life Eddie Huang’s childhood.

Extended trailer for Fresh off the Boat

I was a teenager (making me a few years older than Eddie) in the 1995, so Fresh Off the Boat crosses two boxes for me, along with being of East Asian descent.  The two episodes that aired had a lot of 90s references (celebrities and music, for the most part, but also 90s fashion, like sneakers with pumps.  I am sure we will hear about dial-up internet soon.  And though the Huangs are Taiwanese and my family is from Hong Kong, the culture clashes I had with my parents were somewhat similar – I guess that’s one of the reasons why the show is called Fresh off the Boat (FOB), a slur that western-born (East) Asians use when they refer to immigrants.  However, so far, I’ve found that some of the differences are exaggerated, probably for television’s sake.

Take for example, Eddie’s school lunch.  The Tupperware container looked like plain Shanghai noodles or udon (what the non-Asian kids at his school called “worms”).  The Asian kids I went to school with (and I’m from Toronto, so there was always a few in the class), took sandwiches for the most part.  Sure, we sometimes had Chinese filling in our sandwiches (think char siu (barbecued pork) or soy sauce roast chicken), but it wasn’t actual Chinese food, and definitely NOT cold/room temperature noodles (which seems gross to me, anyway).  Most of us were, like Eddie, first generation.  Another example occurred in the second episode where the kids received their report cards.  Despite Eddie’s straight A success, the mother still forced him to get extra tutoring and went to the principal to declare that school was “too easy.”  On the other hand, it showed the (white) families’ lax attitudes towards academics (which, of course, isn’t true).  What IS true, though, is that Asian families rarely say “I love you” to one another.  Instead, love is shown through actions, which can be odd to outsiders (such as worrying about academics).

Still, though, it’s nice to see a bit more diversity on television, even if the parents are restaurant owners (at least it wasn’t a Chinese restaurant).  The fact that they lived in a middle class, probably bordering on upper middle class, neighbourhood and are, for the most part, not “old school stereotypical” is a plus.  Would I have liked to see a teacher dad and accountant mother?  Or a finance dad and IT mom (wait, that would be…me…)?  Sure.  But baby steps.

Fresh Off the Boat airs on ABC Wednesday evenings at 8 PM ET.

NOTE: Does anyone find it funny that a show called FRESH OFF THE BOAT airs on a network called ABC???!!!