Behind-the-Scene Drama That Led To the Fresh Off The Boat Cancelation

And besides being centered around an Asian-American family (it was based on the memoir of the same name by Eddie Huang, about growing up in a Taiwanese family in Florida during the 1990s), it was, unfortunately, the most memorable for a string of controversies and dramas, which surrounded it.

Indeed, at times it was seemed like an example of why you shouldn't even bother with diversity and representation, unless you want your sitcom to have constant trouble.

People complained that Fresh Off The Boat lacked diversity behind the scenes, among the writers and the crew. And that its humor was racially insensitive and reinforced stereotypes.

And that the show's version of Eddie Huang was too bad-mannered. And so on.

People involved with the show also had plenty of complaints. Randall Park, who played Louis Huang, the father of Eddie, felt himself under so much pressure carrying the representation of the Asian community in the sitcom that he nearly had an anxiety attack.

And Constance Wu, who played Lois' wife, Jessica Huang, clearly hated the show. She even tweeted "literally crying" in response to the news of its renewal for the sixth season.

Later, in her memoir, Making A Scene, she shed the light on her reasons for such attitude: she claimed that she was harassed by a senior producer.

She also claimed that the backlash to her above-mentioned Twitter reaction nearly drove her to suicide:

"I felt awful about what I'd said, and when a few DMs from a fellow Asian actress told me I'd become a blight on the Asian-American community, I started feeling like I didn't even deserve to live anymore. That I was a disgrace to AsAms, and they'd be better off without me."

Even the real-life Eddie Huang largely hated the show, and stated in an interview with Vulture:

"The network tried to turn my memoir into a cornstarch sitcom and me into a mascot for America. I hated that."

So, basically, the whole project from start to finish was burdened by politically-driven expectations, which weighted heavily on people participating in it, and that, in combination with the far from uncommon sleazy stuff behind the scenes made the atmosphere on the set quite toxic.