What Makes the New ABC Show “Alex, Inc.” Special
As I have shared before, I think representation in the media we consume matters. I love turning on the television or watching a movie that reflects the diversity of our world. I especially think this is important for my kids to see. This is one of the things I really loved about the new ABC show Alex, Inc. which premieres tonight at 8:30/7:30 c.
While in LA for my press trip last month, we had the opportunity to screen the Alex, Inc.
About the show:
Based on the podcast StartUp, Alex Schuman (Zach Braff) is a successful radio producer with a whip-smart, public defender wife, Arunima (aka “Rooni”) (Tiya Sircar) and two confident, quirky children, Ben (Elisha Henig) and Soraya (Audyssie James). After years of making the kind of content that brings no creative fulfillment, in what most would consider an early mid-life crisis, Alex decides to risk everything – including his savings – to start his own business. Armed only with the help of his overenthusiastic producer, Deirdre (Hillary Anne Matthews), and his fast-talking, unemployed second cousin, Eddie (Michael Imperioli), Alex navigates the crazy world of start-ups while trying to keep his marriage and family a priority. Zach Braff stars, directs and is executive producer with Matt Tarses (“Scrubs”) and Davis Entertainment (“Dr. Ken,” “Blacklist”).
My favorite character on the show is Rooni, a working mom like me. I could really relate to her character and some of the tensions she feels on the show. I loved the actress playing her, Tiya and enjoyed hearing about the ways the show’s writers worked to incorporated her Indian heritage into it. During the season, viewers will see/learn some Bengali customs. The show’s writers actually brought in Tiya’s family as consultants to make sure the show kept true to Indian culture, which I thought was so neat. It was also clearly special to Tiya, who shared:
“It was originally written she was Persian-American as the woman who she’s based on is in real life. When I got this job I thought, oh, Hollywood. Guys, I can’t play a Persian-American, but these guys were like, well let’s change her and let’s make her you. They had me come in and meet the writers and we had this two hour conversation about my upbringing in Texas and my parents’ upbringing in Calcutta and, when they came over as grad students and their experience as Indian immigrants.
We talked for a long time and then slowly this character evolved from who she was on paper to so closely related to who I am in real life, which I have never gotten to play before.
They wanted to get to know me and they wanted me to get to know the writers. And as we were talking, they were asking a lot of questions about my parents. And so I was talking about my parents [and] stories that I’d grown up listening to, and I happened to mention that my parents were coming in town the next day to visit.
These guys were like, “would they maybe wanna like sit down with us?” And I was like absolutely. Are you kidding? For sure. So, I brought them in. They had a whole sit down, talk. My dad — my parents are professors. There was a dry erase board. My dad gets up and starts like and makes a diagram. There’s a map of India. There’s notes.
These two guys and just specifically were like, look we want this to be as, accurate a portrayal as an Indian-American family or an Indian-American character as possible. So, even if — you said even if it’s down to like the right kind of tea that they’re drinking, and I was like that’s good because we are very particular about tea. So, I really appreciate how much of an effort the producers and writers have made to like make this authentic and not just sort of like an stereotypical idea of what an Indian-American family looks like.”
Alex, Inc. is a fun, family-friendly sitcom that many families will enjoy watching together. Check it out tonight!
I attended this press event on behalf of Disney and ABC in Los Angeles 2/24-2/27. This post is part of the required content series, all opinions and experiences are my own. Photos courtesy of Louise Manning Bishop (intetview) and ABC (show images).