Fresh Off the Boat is an American sitcom created by Nahnatchka Khan which was debuted from ABC on February 4, 2015 and concluded on February 21, 2020 with the additional six seasons and 116 episodes. It loosely inspired based on chef/restaurateur/food personality Eddie Huang's memoir Fresh Off The Boat, depicting the life of a Taiwanese-American family in Florida in the 1990s. It is the first US television sitcom starring an Asian-American family to air on network prime-time since Margaret Cho's All-American Girl, which aired for one season in 1994.
Plot[]
Based on Eddie Huang's memoir, it is set in the 1990s and revolves around a Chinese family that moves to suburban Orlando. After moving to Orlando from DC’s Chinatown, 11 year old, hip-hop loving Eddie and his immigrant family experience culture shock in this comedy about pursuing the American Dream.
Cast[]
Main Characters[]
- Hudson Yang as Eddie Huang
- Randall Park as Louis Huang
- Constance Wu as Jessica Huang
- Ian Chen as Evan Huang
- Forrest Wheeler as Emery Huang
- Lucille Soong as Grandma Jenny Huang (Main: season 2-6, Recurring: season 1)
- Chelsey Crisp as Honey (Main: season 2-6, Recurring: season 1)
- Ray Wise as Marvin Ellis (Main: season 3-6, Recurring: season 1-2)
Recurring Characters[]
- Brady Tutton as Brock
- Paul Scheer as Mitch
- Jillian Armenante as Nancy
- Amanda Lund as Vanessa
- Dash Williams as Brian
- Luna Blaise as Nicole Ellis
- Evan Hannemann as Dave
- Trevor Larcom as Trent
- Connor Rosen as Doug
- Prophet Bolden as Walter
- David Goldman as Principal Hunter
- Noel Gugliemi as Hector
- Rachel Cannon as Deidre
- Albert Tsai as Phillip Goldstein
Episodes[]
- Main article: Episode Guide
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired (U.S. dates) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season premiere | Season finale | |||
| 1 | 13 | February 4, 2015 | April 21, 2015 | |
| 2 | 24 | September 22, 2015 | May 24, 2016 | |
| 3 | 23 | October 11, 2016 | May 16, 2017 | |
| 4 | 19 | October 3, 2017 | March 20, 2018 | |
| 5 | 22 | October 5, 2018 | April 12, 2019 | |
| 6 | 22 | September 27, 2019 | February 21, 2020 | |
Development and production[]
Eddie Huang's 2013 Fresh Off the Boat caught the attention of TV networks upon release, with ABC and 20th Century Fox Television signing in late that year. Huang, the show's creator and one of the producers of the series, led a Twitter campaign to change the original show name, Far East Orlando, when it was in development.
On May 13, 2014, ABC ordered the first season of the show during the May 2014 upfront to air in 2015 as a mid-season replacement.
The real-life Eddie Huang narrates the first season only. Eleven episodes into the first season, Huang expressed frustration over ABC's approach, saying it presents an "ambiguous, cornstarch story about Asian-Americans" that perpetuates "an artificial representation of Asian American lives". The sitcom was adapted to suit a broader American audience. He also Tweeted in April 2015, "I understand this is a comedy but the great comics speak from pain: Pryor, Rock, Louis...This show had that opportunity but it fails." Huang said that the all-comedy TV show contrasted with his real family where his grandfather killed himself, his grandmother had bound feet, and state family services tried to remove the children from the home.
Despite his concern for authenticity, Huang finds the show a "milestone" for Asian-Americans as they are at the forefront of this television series. Huang further explained in an interview on National Public Radio, "The studio and network are not on a mission to not represent us. They just don't know how to."
Huang described the exchange between his team and ABC as brief. In an article in Vulture Huang expressed concern over the studio's decision that Nahnatchka Khan, an Iranian-American writer, would represent his memoir for the TV scripts, believing that she would present the story as less than realistic and authentic. "I would be excited, but you attached a Persian writer, and I'm kinda worried it's going to be The Shahs of Cul-de-Sac Holando."
In a 2015 interview, Constance Wu stated that after the first season, she had become more comfortable asking the show's staff to change particular details, for example changing "generic Asian food [in a scene] ... to a 1,000-year-old black egg with tofu and scallions, [which] will be a little more specific, and specificity is just better for character, and it's more interesting than, say, tofu and rice."
Wu received backlash in May 2019 when she tweeted profane tweets in regards to the show being renewed for a sixth season. Wu later apologized, stating that she was excited about potentially working on new projects and disappointed she wouldn't have the time to work on them. She said she loved her cast mates and that her tweets had nothing to do with animosity towards them.
Season two changes[]
Fresh Off the Boat made many changes for the second season, including:
- Eddie Huang reduced his involvement with the series, including no longer being the narrator, due to creative differences with ABC, as well as time constraints with other projects. He is still credited as a producer, and the show's credits continue to note that the series is based on his memoir.
- With Huang's departure, ABC decided not to recast the narrator role, dropping it from the series altogether.
- The writing from season two onward is focused on the entire Huang family instead of centering on Eddie. In particular, more Louis- and Jessica-centered episodes were shot.
- Lucille Soong and Chelsey Crisp were both promoted from recurring cast to main cast.
Renewals[]
On May 7, 2015, ABC renewed Fresh off the Boat for a second season of 13 episodes. ABC ordered 9 additional episodes on October 13 and two more on November 17, leading to a total of 24 episodes for the second season. On March 3, 2016, ABC announced that the series has been renewed for a third season, which premiered on October 11, 2016. On May 12, 2017, ABC renewed the series for a fourth season, which premiered on October 3, 2017. On May 11, 2018, ABC renewed the series for a fifth season, which premiered on October 5. On May 10, 2019, ABC renewed the series for a sixth season, which is set to premiere on September 27, 2019. On November 8, 2019, the series was announced to be ending after its sixth season in February 2020.
Broadcasting[]
On November 8, 2014, the world premiere of the pilot episode was hosted by the San Diego Asian Film Festival. The show debuted on ABC with two preview episodes on February 4, 2015. The second episode, which aired after Modern Family, was promoted as a bonus episode, and formally premiered in its primetime slot on February 10, 2015. The first of the two preview episodes garnered 7.94 million viewers, becoming the second-highest rated comedy premiere that season.
Fresh Off the Boat premiered on FOX8 in Australia starting May 10, 2015; It was also picked up by Network Ten, and started airing on March 7, 2016 on its sister channel, Elevenuntil October 2017. It debuted on March 12, 2015 in South Africa on Fox Crime. In South Asia, Fresh Off The Boat, airs 12 hours after the U.S. broadcast on Star World PremiereHD.
In the UK, the first season originally premiered on Amazon Video on February 4, 2015. The second season premiered on September 22, 2015. On November 1, 2017 Fresh Off the Boat received its television premiere on Channel 5's sister channel 5Star starting with the pilot episode.
On July 23, 2018, it was announced that Fresh Off the Boat will be joining Freeform and UPtv later in the year, with local syndication yet to be determined. The series officially joined Freeform on October 1, 2018, airing in the morning/afternoon hours.
Reception[]
Critical reception[]
Fresh Off the Boat has received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has a 91% certified fresh approval rating, with the critical consensus "Once the cliched gags of Fresh off the Boat are superseded by a grounded truthfulness, the series evolves into a humorously charming family sitcom." It also has earned a 75 out of 100 score on Metacritic, indicating 'generally favorable reviews'. Particularly, Constance Wu's performance has been acclaimed, earning nominations for both the TCA Awards and the EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Comedy, as well as an "Individual Achievement in Comedy" nomination at the Critics' Choice Television Awards.
Reviews cited the show's potential to increase the visibility and accuracy of Asian Americans in arts and entertainment. For writer and poet Jenny Zhang (who interviewed Constance Wu for Lenny Letter), Fresh Off the Boat was a welcome change from the representation of Asian Americans on the TV series she had seen as a child at age 11, where the few people who looked like her were either the subjects of crude jokes or had only minor cameos.
Ester Suh, writing for the Huffington Post, stated that the sitcom had caused "real conversations being had about Asian American identity in addition to acknowledging the lack of inclusivity Asian Americans have had in the nation's cultural and entertainment dialogue." While Suh felt that many characterizations in the show misrepresented the Asian-American experience, she acknowledged that "our experience as Americans, like everyone else’s, is varied, and to say that a single show can exemplify all our experiences, would be a disfavor. I see Fresh as a sound board for future shows with Asian American casts, helping make television a more diverse and inclusive cultural platform."
The Harvard Political Review commented that "Fresh Off the Boat captures the essence of why diversity in media matters—we, like young Eddie, all want to see ourselves as worthy of being protagonists, whether in stories or in real life. However, lost in translation are the stories of parents and grandparents, who also have claim to labels like the Asian-American experience."
Television critic Emily Nussbaum, in her review for The New Yorker, compares the memoir and television version of Huang's relationship with his father and with black culture, "Without a cruel bully for a father, Eddie's taste for hip-hop feels more superficial—in the book, it's an abused kid's catharsis and an identification with black history."
Fresh Off The Boat is covered in Chinese-language news media, where the title is simplified Chinese: 菜鸟新移民; traditional Chinese: 菜鳥新移民; pinyin: càiniǎo xīn yímín; literally: 'Beginner New Immigrants'.
Home media[]
On September 29, 2015, the first season of Fresh Off the Boat was released on DVD. The DVD had two discs with all 13 episodes of season-one and special features such as a gag reel, as well a "Fresh Facts Trivia Track". On May 22, 2018, the second and third seasons of Fresh Off the Boat were released on DVD. The fourth season was released on June 12, 2018.
| Season | No. of episodes |
DVD Release dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||
| 1 | 13 | September 29, 2015 | TBA | TBA |
| 2 | 24 | May 22, 2018 | TBA | TBA |
| 2 | 23 | May 22, 2018 | TBA | TBA |
| 4 | 19 | June 12, 2018 | TBA | TBA |
Media[]
Promotional Images[]
External links[]
- Fresh Off the Boat on ABC Database (Fandom)
- Fresh Off the Boat on Television Fandom
- Fresh Off the Boat on Wikipedia