It’s not that it’s a bad thing that there are South Asians on prime time television. It’s just that it seems that they are always playing the sidekick character. Fine, maybe not “sidekick” as much as “part of ensemble cast but definitely not lead actor” role. NBC Thursday night is a perfect example. You have Danny Pudi playing Abed on Community, Aziz Ansari as Tom on Parks and Recreation, Mindy Kaling as Kelly on The Office, and Maulik Pancholy as Jonathan on 30 Rock.
Not since Margaret Cho’s 1994 TV-series All-American Girl has there been an ensemble cast entirely of Asian Americans on prime time television. The show infamously imploded as cast and execs clashed and Cho has not been quiet about it. That was sixteen years ago.
Since then, we have seen the rise of Desi ensemble casting but…in other countries. You have the Kumars at No. 42 from the BBC network; Brazil’s Indian themed soap opera Caminho das India; and yes, I’m even counting Canada’s CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie. Well, it looks like network U.S. network execs are finally jumping on the bandwagon.
They are the two comeback stories of this pilot season, projects developed years ago that have been resurrected and have landed orders at the broadcast networks…The two comedies — “Nirvana” at Fox and “Outsourced” at NBC — have something else in common: They both are ensemble shows about Indians and Indian Americans.
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A third project, a U.S. version of popular British comedy “The Kumars at No. 42,” about an immigrant Indian family, also is poised for revival. Eight years after NBC took a stab at the format, the show’s British producers are shopping it to U.S. networks, including FX. [thr]I’m pretty excited by this turn of events. When Cho’s show first came out, I was a young teen and I remember totally being able to relate to her character. I don’t really remember much of the context, but I remember the feeling I had from watching her show. The pilots are still being filmed for Outsourced and Nirvana so I don’t really know how they are going to translate onto TV, but I would hope that the same empathy for the characters prevails in these shows.
Outsourced looks like it has the potential of being really funny…
NBC picked up “Outsourced,” written by Robert Borden (“The Drew Carey Show,” “The George Lopez Show”). Comedy tells the tale of a demoted novelty company manager who is sent to India to manage a motley crew of customer service reps.
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Based on the independent movie of the same name, “Outsourced” has been in development at NBC for more than two years (Daily Variety, Oct. 7, 2007), under the guidance of twice-Emmy-nommed director Ken Kwapis, who helmed the pilot of the American version of “The Office.” George Wing and John Jeffcoat wrote the film. Exec producers on the pilot are Tom Gorai and David Skinner. [variety]
Nirvana also has some pretty big names signed on to work on the pilot episode and is written by Ajay Sahgal.
Sakina Jaffrey (“Third Watch”) has scored a role on the comedy pilot, about two grown Indian-American brothers who clash with their controlling immigrant parents as they assimilate American culture. She’s believed to be playing Dr. Sarita Mattoo, the boys’ mother. Scott Ellis (“30 Rock”) has also signed on to direct the half-hour, which was penned by Ajay Sahgal. Harish Patel, Rachael Leigh Cook, Ravi Patel and Utkarsh Ambudkar also star in the project, which comes from 20th Century Fox Television. [futoncritic]
You never know with these pilots, what gets picked up and what doesn’t. It’ll be interesting to see how these two shows pan out over the next few months. I know I’ll be watching!
Maybe since I am not an aspiring actor, I don’t get too worked up over this. All the shows you listed where browns are the sidekick are funny shows, and the actors in them do a good job of fleshing out their characters and making them distinctive. OTOH, networks do not have a good track record in developing and then promoting shows that have a “majority-minority”cast. The last decent such show, “The Bernie Mac Show” had a solid first three seasons, but was moved around the schedule a lot, and had to deal with the lead’s health issues as the years went by.
BTW – Adhir Kalyan has been promoted from “recurring character” to regular cast member of the CBS comedy “Rules of Engagement”
Behind the scenes, ABC’s “The Middle” features Vijal Patel as a frequent writer for the show.
Is Russell Peters starring in any of these sitcoms? He was supposed to be involved in a sitcom project. His 2006 DVD was called Outsourced.
Indians are everywhere on tv and there are not even 3 million Indians in America. Desis should be thankful that south Asians are as highly represented as they are.
Hispanics on the other hand? They are the ones that should be mad about their representation on tv.
Should Abed count as a South asian on tv? He plays an Arab, not an Indian. It kind of plays into the hands of Americans, who think Arabs and Indians are the same people.
We can always appropriate when it works to our advantage and be up in arms when it doesn’t 🙂
The movie Outsourced was great. Despite a few flaws, that’s the sort of film more Americans should watch in order to get a more-than-cliche concept of modern Indian life.
There was an ITV series Mumbai Calling, which sounds suspiciously like this. NBC is quite the UK stylebiter this decade. But they appear to do it well, so here’s hoping.
Definitely living up to your handle, there.
I think you have to separate Aziz and Mindy Kaling from the other two. Kaling writes for the show and plays a substantial role in the development of the show. Similarly, Parks is written by many of Aziz’s close friends and Aziz is involved with the development of his character and the show. I think this is entirely separate from other bit roles for Indians in television.
I think Parks and Office pretty much realize what representation of Indians in American television should be. They aren’t tokens (they could be replaced with non-Desi actors). and their characters have identities separate from their ethnicity.
Which, in the case of P&R’s Tom Haverford, is Libyan. 🙂
Name a popular Hispanic or African American mainstream TV show.
george lopez? that show where chris rock is a little kid?
Naveen Andrews also plays an Iraqi (with a not bad Arab accent to my, admittedly poorly tuned, ears.) But I think the point is seeing Desi actors, not necessarily characters.
Wait, your list of supporting roles on TV doesn’t include Navi Rawat as Amita Ramanujan on Numb3rs? Pitchforks!! 🙂 Well, also that’s 1 of only 3 fictional TV shows that I watch (delayed by several seasons at that, so I don’t even know what channel or night it’s on ) 🙂 Plus I like math and think Charlie Eppes is kind of cute. I think this is probably its last season. If they decide to make a spin-off science series called something like At0ms starring some cute desi guy, I probably wouldn’t complain.
Ahh…! That would have been helpful last night when I was racking my brain creating that collage. I was racking my brain! I realize my TV watching is limited to NBC, CW, and ABC. On certain nights, only.
As for writers – there are ton of behind the scene folks that are Desis working on TV – Sanjay Shah, (good friend of SM and former bad boy at Badmash.com) now writers and produces at Cougar Town.
Say what you will about these sidekicks, but they still are not on a show like Kumar at No 42. I’m still wondering why that pilot hasn’t been made after so much talk about it.
the more brown shows, the more criticism of how it doesn’t represent brownz authentically. like the old biggie single.
it’s a bit of a turn-off, though, when the actor can’t pronounce the character’s name properly (or other desi words)
Also, how could you forget Kunal Nayyar?
15: I’m only on season 2, and I haven’t noticed this. But like a lot of people I mispronounce my own last name to guide everyone else towards the mangling I’m most comfortable with, so I can’t hate on that re: the name.
also, reshma shetty in royal pains
@ saheli – i suppose i agree with that to some extent (although i don’t mispronounce my own name, in part because it’s inevitable that it will end up being mispronounced anyway). but she mispronounces exactly one letter in ramanujan – the ‘j’, which she pronounces as a french ‘j’, just how many westerner mispronounce the name raj. it’s the exoticization of this pronunciation that annoys me, esp. when it’s quite obvious that most americans would be able to pronounce the ‘j’ as originally intended but she also mispronounces other indian words. i understand that in our everyday lives its may be easier to mispronounce your name for the ease for other people, but on a tv show, many of those reasons don;t exist.
I went to a taping of Nevermind Nirvana years ago in LA. At the time the writer (Sahgal) was playing the lead role and it kind of made me think of Everybody Loves Raymond. It’ll be interesting to see the latest incarnation of Nirvana.
I believe he used some of the experiences he went through in his marriage to Kelli Williams, currently on Fox’s “Lie to Me.”
Who is the woman in the upper left hand of the collage? I recognize her but can’t pin point from where.
You mentioned Adhir Kalyan, but I don’t think anyone pointed out his starring role on the short-lived but hilarious ‘Aliens in America’ on the CW. He was definitely the star (or at least co-star) of the show.
Why?
Both those shows were canceled.
Because if I can see a desi on every show I watch, that is a little bit of an exaggeration of the desi population in America(not that I am complaining).
The Cosby Show, The Jeffersons, Good Times, 227, The Bernie Mac Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Sanford and Son, In Living Color, Living Single, What’s Happening, Roc, Martin, Girlfriends …
Besides George Lopez, there is Ugly Betty, Luis (Fox TV), Greetings from Tuscon (WB TV) (the latter two did not do as well)
This has more Latino shows:
Hispanics finally break the TV barrier
One that is currently on would be nice.
Interesting…”
“Fox is chasing those numbers with Luis and The Ortegas. (The latter is based on a British show, The Kumars, in which a 30-something guy living at home presents a TV talk show from his back yard with his East Indian family’s help.)”
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/07/28/Floridian/The_struggle_between_.shtml
The South Asian population is minuscule in comparison to the Latino and Black populations. So in some ways I think it’s cool that we’ve got so many folks already in the entertainment industry, considering we are a small minority. And in that respect, b/c our population is so much smaller than other minorities in the US, and in comparison to the large South Asian population in UK, I’m surprised that there would actually be an entertainment show around a S.Asian family.
the silliness continues. it’s one thing to complain about stereotyping as terrorists and call center workers, but desis have broken out of that in a major, major way. to whine about the fact that desis don’t have a mainstream show is thoroughly ridiculous given the miniscule proportion of the popn they rep. it will take time before desis enter the popular consciousness in a comparable manner.
2 of these 4 are pretty important parts of the ensemble, a third (mindy) is also prominent, and it is only maulik that is a relatively minor character. i bet that if maulik had been portrayed similar to kenneth the page, there would have been a big round of angst and bellyaching about the mockery of indians.
First it was asked to name a popular Latino or African American show – did not specify a time period. Not all the shows are old, and this list is not comprehensive. This current moment in time is not the be all end all. Tyler Perry has his “House of Payne,” and “Meet the Browns” currently. Ugly Betty is still on though this is its last season.
Because if I can see a desi on every show I watch, that is a little bit of an exaggeration of the desi population in America(not that I am complaining). Lol we aren’t on every show. On every show, there’s usually (not always) a black/asian/hispanic person. Is that an exaggeration too?
I think the appearances of s. asians on tv might be because we were recently “discovered”. Except Kelly from the office, I’ve never seen an Indian person on tv before slumdog came out.
Then you left off I Love Lucy – Ricky Ricardo was The Man in the 1950s. That will be little consolation to all the aspiring Latino actors in 2010.
Man, you’re young. I guess you don’t remember Vijay Amritraj on the short-lived The Last Precinct from 1986.
KXB – My comment was to Shallow Thinker asking to name such popular shows. Like I said, my list is not comprehensive and it was NOT meant to be. And where is it written here that you can only name shows if you can name every single one in TV history. If you are bitter about the state of TV, don’t take it out on me.
You are assuming he was interested in any show from any time period. I assumed the discussion is about shows that are currently on. For the most part, I am happy with the state of TV. But when discussing trends, timeliness is important.
If any group has a right to complain about representation, I’d have to go with Latinos. You can’t ask Sofia Vergara to carry the dreams of a whole people.
???
They have about 20 channels! Telemundo, Azteca America, MTV Tres, etc etc.
That’s Archie Panjabi, who’s appearing in The Good Wife.
@Jenna, Parminder Nagra was on ER starting in 2003, well before Slumdog, and Kal Penn’s role on House started back in 2003.
More generally, to echo what others have said, I love the fact that three of the more prominent Indian-American roles on TV (Archie Panjabi, Mindy Kaling, Aziz Ansari) are playing characters who don’t conform to stereotypes, and where butethnic identities aren’t completely hidden. And I love that Maulik Pancholy’s character is a sycophantic idiot. All i really want now is for an Indian-American to play a stone-cold gangster 🙂
sorry, meant “2007”
It took us 30 years in UK to become mainstream…most prime time newsreaders are desi, and Naveen Andrews has palyed lead a number of times….Asians are a bigger community in the UK than in America…Punjabi is offically the no 2 language, a tenth of the population is Asian Muslim, and so on..
Yes, but those are aimed at Spanish speakers. Ask a non-Spanish speaker to name a memorable personality, and you’ll be met with a blank stare. Or, if you ask a guy, they might know the name of the hot chick that does the weather. But, Kelly Kappoor’s appeal is not just to brown folk.
Ask a non-Spanish speaker to name a memorable personality,
I don’t speak spanish (not fluently anyways): Eva Longoria in Desperate Housewives, Roselyn Sanchez and the guy who plays Eric in Without a Trace, America Ferrera in Ugly Betty, George Lopez has his own talk show now, Wilbur Valderama (sp?) from that 70’s show not on tv: Cameron Diaz (she is Latina), Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek, J.lo, Jessica Alba etcetcetc
None of whom work on those Spanish-language channels, which is what you mentioned. If you remove the film actors, since they have only 1 or 2 projects a year, and then toss the actors from canceled shows, you are left Longoria & Lopez. For an ethnicity which is nearly 15% of the American population, that is a very small number.
TV does not represent America in strict demographic terms. Jewish people and gay people in TV shows than an American is likely to encounter in day to day life. Consider the large number of shows set in NY, even though most Americans do not live there.
Wow, I just love self-appointed, proxy PCism… Not sure how old you are or where you live, but we have several entirely Spanish-speaking stations in TX. I don’t think the average latino in Texas gives a damn about representation on prime-time sitcoms. As a half-latino, I only care about asinine stereotypes; not blockbuster ratings. In fact, I think most television is complete crap, NBC Thursdays notwithstanding.
By that reasoning, brown folks cannot raise an issue of their own representations since there is Namaste America, Anjali TV, etc. To put it crudely, such channels are television ghettos. But, it is reasonable to point out that South Asians are more prominent on “mainstream” American scripted television, in proportion to their share of the population, when compared to the numerically larger Latino population.
What about Ravi Kapoor who was one of the main actors on the NBC crime drama Crossing Jordan.
If there any desi character who may be making a breakthrough its Baljeet from the show Phineas and Ferb which my daughter watches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea0OA5HBoBU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7xdLpOdDHo
uh. that’s about one whisker away from being canceled. and good riddance. it was ok but has gotten preachy and is quite insufferable now
he has a radio show on cbc.