The Huang family prepares for election day in the new episode “Citizen Jessica.”
While this Fall series has seen plenty of attempts by the writers over at SNL to mock the current election, alongside a few notable sitcoms and comedies from around the landscape, few shows have a better ability to view the truly potential issues immigrants face by a potential Trump presidency able to do what Fresh Off the Boat does with it’s upcoming election themed episode set to air this Tuesday, November 1. Titled “Citizen Jessica,” the episode finds Louis and the Cattleman’s Ranch staff preparing to serve as a polling place for the 1996 election as Jessica suspects that one of the restaurant employees may be an undocumented immigrant. When Jessica reports her findings to the I.N.S., she learns that her immigration status is also questionable. Meanwhile, Eddie and his friends have a heated debate over who killed rapper Tupac Shakur.
I had the opportunity to speak with the writer of the episode, Sanjay Shah, on what it was like to adapt an election themed episode, for a show based in the 1990s. And we got into the similarities between some of Trump’s anti-immigrant stances to Proposition 187, which was debated and passed in 1996, using much the same fear-mongering techniques we’re seeing today.
Writer of the episode Sanjay Shah working on notes during filming.
Q: What’s been the theme for ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ so far in its third season?
A: “We don’t start with big schematic things. We might have an idea for a season long arc Emerging theme is what it means to be American.”
Q: So, where did the inspiration come from for the upcoming episode “Citizen Jessica?”
A: “We’re doing this episode and wanted to be really strict with the 1996 timeline and where our characters are at. Talking about today by talking about yesterday. Immigration policy was a big topic then and it’s still a bit topic. It was a way we got to thinking about this episode. I’m a 90’s kid and I was really involved in politics in the 90s and the early 2000s. I actually worked at the California legislature for many years as an aid. But during this time I was in college and I remember so vividly in 94, Proposition 187 and all the campaigning that occurred around it. It was an anti-immigrant measure to ban social service measures for undocumented immigrants.”
Q: Were there any particular problems in trying to adapt a current phenomenon and fit it into a show that is essentially a period piece without having to stray to far from the year the show is set in?
A: “I was really interested in that. How it’s history repeating itself twenty years later. What did we learn and what got better or worse. And that’s what really inspired me with this episode. And by the way, our show takes place in 1996. There was of course at the time a lot of people who were supporting the measure. But what really surprised me (laughter) was how many immigrants were anti-immigration. And there was so many! And their issue was, “I stood in line” and “I did it the right way” and it caught up a lot of people who you wouldn’t imagine it would. As a concept, it’s a persuasive emotional pitch. But it’s much more nuanced, especially in California, where there is a necessity for the large numbers of undocumented immigrants.”
Q: So of all the potential shows on television, FOTB is one of the few that has platform to show the immigrant experience. How did that connect to what you were trying to do with this episode?
A: “And while the hip-hop portion of it was a little tricky, it definitely wasn’t as difficult as getting the immigration part down right. I wanted to tell the story right because I remember people in my family, and other Indian friends families were pro Proposition 187. And the funny thing was then I realized you couldn’t just dismiss this idea as some nativist notion and a kind of xenophobic phenomenon when it’s happening among brown people.
When you talked to them it was “I sacrificed so much to be here” and “I did it the right way”, I don’t like that people are jumping the line or benefitting from the taxes I’m legally paying, you know and they are freeloading. Are they really freeloading if they are contributing to our economy in such a significant way? It’s more complicated than that. We have to really see who is taking advantage of social services and how much the media is driving the argument and in particular its something we spoofed in the show.That had such an impact on this issue in California and you know we’re seeing the same way the media is being used by Donald Trump to get otherwise reasonable people to go along with these super xenophobic arguments because they are couched in language like “fair is fair” and “American values.” That’s what I think the more tricky part was getting that right.”
“It’s a funny and timely parallel. We don’t try to think about themes but rather what can our show do that others cant. Talking about immigration from the immigrant’s perspective is something few shows on the air can currently do and so it also just felt like this would be a great area for us to explore.”
Q: Did you try to stay away from giving a winking political opinion that would date to the current election or was that something you tried to avoid?
A: One, our first goal is just to do a funny show. We didn’t write this episode to have a particular message, and we wanted to write something funny and surprising and relatable. We want to find something real and grounded. And what attracted to me this story was simply in the 90’s there were these anti-immigration measures that immigrants supported. And it’s like voting against your own interests in a way, regardless of what the letter of the measure was, it created this anti-immigrant sentiment that every immigrant was impacted by, whether they were documented or not. That was the thing that really had a human and humor element.
Randall Park as Louis Huang
I’m glad to see Fresh Off the Boat tackle an election themed episode, particularly given that it’s one of the few shows with an Asian-American cast, and one that reflects probably the most underrepresented experience in Hollywood, namely, the experience of first generation immigrants from all over Asia. And what sentiment could be more timely and important than anti-immigration. Though the episode of course tackles the concept with it’s trademark with and humor, it’s great to see the show moving into such nuanced territory
ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat airs every TUESDAY at 9:00 PM EDT and it’s special election episode “Citizen Jessica” is set to air this coming Tuesday, NOVEMBER 1.