FOX refuses to reshoot dads pilot despite plea from Asian-American group

FOX is standing by its new fall comedy.

The network declined to reshoot portions of Dads, despite the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans' plea that FOX fix or remove scenes it deemed racist, Deadline reports.

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The Dads pilot, which premieres Tuesday, Sept. 17, features numerous "racial and sexual stereotypes," including business partners (Seth Green, Giovanni Ribisi) having Brenda Song's character to dress up like a sexy Asian schoolgirl in order to sway Chinese businessmen and Martin Mull's character referring to Asians as "Orientals."

Although FOX declined to do the reshoots, the network promises that the patient viewer will see that Song's character won't remain a stereotype.

"You will see that Brenda Song's character is a strong, intelligent, empowered young woman who basically runs the company, and who almost always gets the upper hand," FOX executives said. "[Dads] is a show that will be evocative and will poke fun at stereotypes and bigotries -- sometimes through over-the-top, ridiculous situations."

Asian-American group asks Fox's Dads to reshoot "racist" scenes

FOX executives also said, "The series is based heavily on the executive producers' own lives, and the relationships between the fathers and sons on Dads will continue to be the main driver of show's comedic sensibility. Everyone involved with Dads is striving to create a series with humor that works on multiple levels and 'earns' its audaciousness."

In the letter that MANAA sent to FOX executives last week, president Guy Aoki wrote, "Our community can't continue to be the target of racially insensitive jokes. 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."

Dads premieres Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 8/7c on Fox.

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