The casting of Jason Mamoa and South Asian Navi Rawat on the already picked-up Fox drama, “The North Shore” already guarantees that there two Asian Pacific American series regulars on TV this coming season. If you’re concern about negative portrayal in “North Shore” Navi character is very strong and if you know Jason’s work or if you seen any of his photos, you know that Fox did not cast him to be a geeky side kick.
But most of the pilots are not picked up and some of them have Asian Pacific Americans in prominent roles. MANAA is encouraging the Asian and Pacific Islander American to be as vocal as possible either by writing, emailing or calling in your support of these shows. Please let these networks know that you’re:
1) You’re Asian American or Pacific Islander
2) You are a viable consumer/demographic.
3) You will support positive Asian American and Pacific Islander portrayals.
NBC
CONTACT: 330 Bob Hope Drive, Burbank, California, United States, 91523. President Kevin Reilly, (818) 840-7500.
TITLE: THE MEN’S ROOM
FEATURING: John Cho
NOTE: MANAA read the script and to our joy and elation, John Cho got the main lead of this show. The show features three guys in different stages of life (a man in his 20’s, and man in his 30’s, and a man in his 40’s) they share their differences of their POV in a room with a video camera called “The Men’s Room”. John plays Bob (the guy in his 30’s) he is the originator of “The Men’s Room” project and is also this fun loving, sexy party go’er that’s wise beyond his years. It comes to no surprise that the executive producer is Danny Zucker, who knows John’s comic talent while running “Off Centre”. IT WILL BE A SHAME IF THIS SHOW DOES NOT GET PICKED UP.
TITLE: HAWAII BLUE
FEATURING: Cary Tagawa, Aya Sumika, and countless other Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in various roles.
NOTE: This show has a lot of bad points (see review) but features a lot of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in both positive and negative roles. We still have yet to give this show a passing grade, but NBC is willing to work with us on improving the series if it gets picked up. The good news is both Cary and Aya are playing good guys, the bad news is there are a lot of stereotypical Asian Pacific Americans characters as criminals. But we know a lot of you support Asian Actors regardless of the quality of the roles so therefore we’re leaving this show on the list.
These are the three that we know that has Asians or Pacific Islander as “series regulars”. The technical term for a series regular, is that they have a signed contract guaranteeing that they are in at least 7 out of 13 episodes. An easier guideline for the average Joe is if they’re used as part of the series ad/publicity campaign (billboards, interviews, etc) then they’re probably a series regular. For example, actor Charlie Chun on NBC’s Scrubs was a recurring character on the show, but one would not know that by watching the commercials or ad campaigns since he was not both a series regular or heavily publicized. They are a lot of actors who have one-lines and are recurring characters, but we need to reserve this bigger push and support for new show that chose to make this bigger commitment.
However if you know of any other Asian or Pacific Islanders actor or actress who is in a pilot, please let us know. We’ll review it and post it on our website.