Last week, an Asian-American watchdog group called for Fox to reshoot offensive scenes in the pilot of its new Seth MacFarlane-produced sitcom, Dads. Today, Fox execs wrote a public letter back that didn’t mention reshooting the scenes, meaning that the pilot will most likely go unedited before its September 17th premiere. Here’s a bit from Fox’s letter:
“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 on the guys …â€This is a show that will be evocative and will poke fun at stereotypes and bigotries – sometimes through over-the-top, ridiculous situations … Everyone involved with Dads is striving to create a series with humor that works on multiple levels and ‘earns’ its audaciousness. That said, we do recognize comedy is subjective, and we may not be able to please everyone, all the time.â€
The scenes in question involve actress Brenda Song dressing as a “sexy Asian schoolgirl,†Martin Mull’s character calling Asians “Orientals†and making other remarks, and a joke about an Asian guy having a small penis. The head of the Asian-American watchdog group, in response to Fox’s letter, requested to see future episodes “to get a sense of how Brenda Song’s character will develop as well as the extent of the racial humor against Asian Americans.â€