All-American Girl – A Creative’s Guide to Asian American Media Studies

20 years before ABC’s mega-hit Fresh Off the Boat, another sitcom starring an Asian American family aired on the same network. All-American Girl premiered on September 14th, 1994, making it the first ever tv show comprised of majority Asian American actors played on a broadcast network in the US. Starring Margaret Cho as the lead, and backed by an all-star cast of Jodi Long, Clyde Kusatsu, B.D Wong and Amy Hill, this show lasted for just one season, and received mostly negative reviews from both critics and the public alike. Although there were many issues with the show, and as such was met with poor reception, it was an important breakthrough for Asian American representation both on tv, and on screen in general.

The premise of the show rested on Margaret Cho playing the rebellious, Americanized teen daughter of a traditional Korean American family living San Francisco, and focused on Cho as she dealt with friends, family, and love life. Although marketed as “Based on the comedy of Margaret Cho” (from her stand-up routines as a comedian before landing this role), Cho has claimed that this was just a marketing tool- the show borrowed little to nothing from her stand-up, and she herself had no creative control of the scripts or direction of the show. 

All-American Girl garnered heavy criticism from critics, as well as Asian American viewers. Critics bashed the show for “not being funny”, as none of the jokes seemed to land and none of the sharp-witted humor that Margaret Cho is known for was present in the script at all. Asian American viewers, or more specifically Korean American viewers, were very disappointed in this show, claiming that it depicted the Asian American characters in an extremely stereotypical and exaggerated way (tiger mom, overachieving nerdy student, etc), and made no room for any character development. Viewers also criticized the fact that none of the actors except Margaret Cho were actually of Korean descent, and many Asian Americans felt that this decision conveyed a message from the network that all Asians are the same and interchangeable.

This show also gained criticism from the actors themselves- most notably from Margaret Cho. In an interview with I am Koream journal, Cho stated that she understood why the show failed, as she agreed that it had poor humor that rested on racial stereotypes. She also revealed that she had a miserable time on set, as producers were constantly trying to change her image by making her lose weight or do different things with her makeup/hair.

Overall, Cho looks back on the show in a more positive way- she acknowledges that being the first Asian Americans on regular tv in the US was very difficult, and that All-American Girl stumbled over many hurdles, it still provided ground-breaking work for Asian Americans and paved the way for a show like Fresh Off the Boat, which, currently on its 5th season, is performing exponentially better.

Sources:

Baxton, Greg. “It’s All in the (Ground-Breaking) Family : Television: As a Sitcom Centered on Asian Americans, ‘All-American Girl’ Is Being Monitored by Advocacy Groups Concerned about Racial Stereotypes. Welcome to the Pressure Cooker.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 14 Sept. 1994, articles.latimes.com/1994-09-14/entertainment/ca-38522_1_asian-americans.

Chung, Philip. “’All-American Girl’: Is It Good or Bad Television? : A Positive Look at the Sitcom.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 5 Dec. 1994, articles.latimes.com/1994-12-05/entertainment/ca-5247_1_asian-american-family.

Jung, E. Alex. “All-American Girl at 20: The Evolution of Asian Americans on TV.” Los Angeles Review of Books, 9 Nov. 2014, lareviewofbooks.org/article/american-girl-20-evolution-asian-americans-tv/.