ABC's Fresh Off the Boat

Wednesday night (February 4) ABC premieres a comedy about a newly arrived Asian family called Fresh Off the Boat, but in this case the title is a little misleading because they are only moving from Washington, DC to Orlando, Florida for this fresh start.  

From the trailer, it appears the show will play on many Asian and "white" stereotypes, which may not go over too well with some viewers.  Then again, Blackish is one of the latest break-out hit comedies with plenty of commentary on stereotypes.  It all depends on whether we have a funny-bone and, if not, whether we can change the channel to one of hundreds of other shows.  

Of course, some fireworks already started when the network tweeted the image below stating "We're All A Little #FreshOffTheBoat," including various images such as a cowboy (I'm thinking more of a wagon train, but whatever), an apparent Mexican wearing a sombrero (no boat required), and an Asian wearing a bamboo hat.

Celebrity chef Eddie Huang, upon whose memoirs the sitcom is based, was not too happy as he tweeted, "Someone please reverse this... at least they didn't do the Native American with chicken pox blankie lol."

This is not necessarily the way you want to roll out a new series.