Fox’s new series Dads is notable for two main reasons: 1) It is executive produced by Seth MacFarlane and written by fellow Family Guy and Ted writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, and 2) Everybody haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaated the pilot. So much. So very, very much. Critics particularly took issue with one scene, in which the two main characters (played by Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi) convince Brenda Song to pose as a sexy Asian schoolgirl in an attempt to influence Chinese businessmen. Now, an Asian American watchdog group has joined the fray, asking Fox to do re-shoots to remove the “inappropriate scenes.”
“Our community can’t continue to be the target of racially insensitive jokes,” [Media Action Network for Asian Americans president Guy] Aoki wrote. “Fox has an opportunity to fix fatal flaws in the pilot and to improve the show’s chances for success when it premieres next month. We are asking you to reshoot the inappropriate scenes of the pilot. Considering the consistent feedback from our community and television critics in general — and the creators saying they hadn’t properly defined their characters nor gotten used to their actors when they shot that first episode — this sounds like a no-brainer.” [THR]
Entertainment Weekly reports that such a re-shoot is very unlikely, which seems like somethi-oh God oh no we’re going to have that same “YOU SHOULDN’T SAY THAT vs. OMG DON’T CENSOR ME, PC POLICE” argument people have been having about comedy 1000000000000 times a day since the dawn of civilization, aren’t we? Oh man, I really don’t want to do that on a Friday afternoon. No, I do not. Someone will say something about someone’s First Amendment rights being violated even though that only applies to government restrictions on speech, and then I will just scream. Nope, you are not suckering me in to that today. Nice try, guys.
