Cast member Ken Jeong laughs at the premiere of ''The Hangover Part II'' at Grauman's Chinese theatre in Hollywood, California May 19, 2011. (Photo : Reuters/Mario Anzuoni)
"Dr. Ken" premiered on ABC on Oct. 2, Friday, with impressive ratings. Prior to the pilot episode of the new comedy series, lead star Ken Jeong talked about ABC's past and present TV shows that featured Asian families.
In an interview with HuffPost Live on Oct. 1, Thursday, Jeong praised ABC for being a pioneer when it comes to giving opportunities for Asian-American visibility and for the being the first network to three shows aired at the same time featuring Asian lead actors.
Jeong was referring to "Dr. Ken," "Quantico" and "Fresh off the Boat." "Quantico" stars Bollywood star and Miss World 2000 Priyanka Chopra while "Fresh off the Boat" stars "The Interview" actor Randall Park, who is also of South Korean descent like Jeong.
For Jeong, what ABC has done is ground-breaking and the network has done an excellent job in advocating diversity in programing. He pointed out that ABC has two Asian-American family sitcoms while the other networks have none.
Aside from praising ABC's ground-breaking show "All-American Girl," which starred Korean-American comedienne Margaret Cho, Jeong said "Dr. Ken" would not be on the air if it was not for the success of "Fresh off the Boat," which he described as "the most successful show featuring an Asian family."
Previously, Park's "Fresh off the Boat" co-star Constance Wu mentioned about American sitcoms featuring an Asian-American family.
"The fact that it's been 20 years since an Asian-American was allowed to be a lead on a network show, that in and of itself is a type of pressure," Headlines & Global News quoted Wu as saying.
