https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MH5nXzGUqs Kal Penn has a new show on NBC Thursday nights at 9:30p and Sunnyside is about becoming a citizen in America. Five immigrants (Diana-Maria Riva, Joel Kim Booster, Poppy Liu, Moses Storm and Samba Schutte) from all over the World hire Penn to help them study for the citizenship test. Immigration is a very hot topic in America now.
When it comes to Penn, back in 2009 he actually took a job in the real White House in Washington, D.C. Which makes you wonder, will we see what is going on in America today on the sitcom? During the first episode, one of the characters was taken away by ICE and tonight they are going to try to get him out of the detention center. Which looks nothing like the ones we saw Mike Pence and Lindsey Graham raise their snotty little noses at when they went to visit the one in Texas.
Anyways, I am not going to talk about politics. Will Penn do that on his show? That was one of the questions I asked the actor recently at NBC’s Summer Press Tour Day at the TCAs.
Will the current political climate about immigration make its way on to Sunnyside?
Kal Penn: Well I think neither. I think because the idea of this is five years old and really like the topic of immigration goes back to our country’s founding, even before our country’s founding. So, it’s not like we’re, you know we are definitely not a reaction to anything. Obviously, it is topical but the show’s inception and its creation and how it’s come together has never been a reaction to anything. And I think if I use that Harold & Kumar metric that’s so important to me is we just want to make everybody laugh. And comedy can be a vehicle for bringing people together and I think that’s so special and it’s why I think a lot of us hold dear about making audiences laugh. Of course we all have our own beliefs, as do our audience, but I think if we do it right we’ll be a show that everybody can enjoy.
What type of research did he do for the show?
Kal Penn: So [Executive Producer] Matt [Murray]’s wife has worked in the immigration space before. We’ve certainly looked into how long does this process take? I think there was a question about what happens if and when all the characters get their citizenship? We’re like oh hopefully that’s a nine-year process for our story purposes, but in reality yeah it can take a really long time. There are hurdles to jump through, there are tests, there’s a lot of bureaucracy that kind of makes our experience at the DMV seem innocuous. So I think there’s a lot of flavor there based on the reality, but at the end of the day, you know, like the second episode is about Hakim, Samba’s character, and Diana and I thinking that he’s a hit man. So we do go off the rails purposely in a lot of ways that are just way more universal than where the characters came from.
Would Penn go back and work at the White House?
Kal Penn: Well, I just have my literal dream happening in having a chance to create and sell a show to NBC a comedy at that. So I loved the two years plus that I had you know in the Obama White House, but I’m even more thrilled that I have to chance to make people laugh right now.
Laughing is what we do on Sunnyside and we need more people to watch it. Since it is a chilly Thursday night, what better thing could you be doing than watching Sunnyside? There is nothing better, so watch it. I promise it will put you in a good place for your Friday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1M58YphY0k
Last week, Sunnyside, a comedy about five immigrants trying to get ready for their citizenship test, debuted on NBC. This week the laughter continues at 9p with a problem many immigrants face.
If you want to become an American citizen, you want to have a lawyer help you with the paperwork and such. Ethiopian Hakim (Samba Schutte) finds a lawyer who agrees to help him. However, he tells Hakim to meet him in an alley at midnight to get the money. Garrett (Kal Penn) and Dominican Griselda (Diana Maria Riva) are suspicious of him, so they do their own investigating on him. Turns out, they are right. He is defrauding him. How will they get Hakim’s money back?
Meanwhile, Moldavian Brady (Moses Storm) agrees to help the extremely wealthy Mei Lin (Poopy Lui) and her brother Jun Ho (Joel Kim Booster), we do not know where they are from because their father has done some bad stuff, with their bags and they throw money and gifts at him. He loves it, but his guilty conscience takes over. Will he just be their friend to be their friend or will he keep accepting their gifts that are worth more than everything he owns. Did I mention they are filthy rich?
The plot of the story is about five people preparing to take their citizenship test and the man who is going to help them pass it. However, at the end of the day it is about seven people who become like family. Even though, Garrett and his sister Mallory (Kiran Deol) are really a family. Now, they have five more siblings.
Since this is a show about immigrants, Kal Penn, and Matt Murray wanted to make sure that storylines are authentic. That is why most of the writers and actors are newer to America than most of the viewing audience. Recently, the people from Sunnyside talked about that very thing at the NBC Summer Press tour day at the TCAs.
How Kal Penn came up with the idea for the show.
KAL PENN: Sure. So, about five years ago, my manager and producing partner, Dan Spilo, and I were talking, and he said, “You know, you need to start pitching more things.” And he goes, “What’s your dream project?” I was, like, “That’s a thing I can pitch?” I didn’t know that was a thing I could do. He said, “Yeah. What would it look like?” I said, “Well” I mean, the two things I love are I love making people laugh. Comedy is my first love, and I love America. And I remember some of the shows I watched as a kid were “Head of the Class” and, obviously, “Fresh Prince” and “Seinfeld” and “Friends.” I grew up in New Jersey, right outside of New York City, in one of the suburbs, and so a lot of the New York-centric or fish out of water stories were always interesting to me. So he said, “Okay. Let’s make a patriotic comedy.” And I kind of tossed around different iterations of it, about how to be teaching a citizenship class or a civics class or something. Then I had the chance to sit down with Mike and Matt about a year and a half ago, and it kind of jelled into the form that you are seeing now.
The writers’ room is full of immigrants.
MATT MURRAY: Well, one good thing that we’ve tried to do is our entire writing staff, with the exception of one person, is either an immigrant themselves or a child of an immigrant. So we are just getting real stories of the process. I mean, it’s an infuriating process. It can be very frustrating. It can be very difficult, but we are trying to tell, sort of, a bunch of different stories around the subject. It’s not one specific thing to everyone. So we are just trying to tell real stories about people who have gone through it, and, yeah, there is comedy to be mined.
Samba Schutte on how his life was different in Ethopia.
SAMBA SCHUTTE: I grew up in Ethiopia, and a lot of people think, “Ethiopia. I’m so sorry.” But we had a great life there. A lot of people don’t know, in Ethiopia, it’s normal for you to have help around the house: a driver, a maid, someone who cooks. So when I moved to America and everyone found out I came from Ethiopia, they were, like, “Oh, my God, it must be so hard for you to get used to life in America.” I was, like, “Yeah. Here I got to do everything myself.. Who’s gonna do the dishes?” Yeah, so I love that they kept it authentic that Hakim is a surgeon back home, had a great life back home, but here he has to work as a cab driver, which is the reality of a bunch of immigrants.
Poppu Liu on growing up with immigrant parents.
POPPY LIU: I don’t think when we first moved here. No, I think it was just a lot of hustle. And I think a lot of my upbringing was watching how hard my parents had to work. And yeah, they were engineers and had master’s degrees in, like, the top universities in China, came to the States, worked at McDonald’s. My mom took night classes. I remember going to bed, and my mom would tuck me in and then leave to go to night class, then wake up and work at a hotel, then work at McDonald’s. That was my upbringing. And my dad had to get a second Ph.D. because his wasn’t recognized here. I think, within our family unit, we probably tried to have as much humor and love with each other as possible, but it was kind of in spite of everything, not necessarily because of the situation.
Poppy Liu on watching her parents that the US Citizenship test.
POPPY LIU: So I immigrated here when I was 2 with my family. I was born in Xi’an, China. And interestingly, I witnessed my parents taking this test, the citizenship test, when I was, like, 12 or 13. It was an interesting dynamic because, by then, my English was far better than theirs was. But they had to be the ones taking the test because I was a minor. So, yeah, that story is very real and fresh for me.
Kal Penn on his dad moving to America with barely any money.
KAL PENN: That’s very insightful. I think they were both. My dad moved to America in the early ’70s with $12 in his pocket and grad school admission to an engineering master’s program. And I asked him recently when I was writing a piece about their story I called and I said, “I just want to make sure I’m not exaggerating. You moved to America with $12 in your pocket?” And I outlined all these stories I remember him telling me. And he sort of smirked, and he goes, “You’re being a little dramatic. When I moved here, I had $8.” I was, like, “OK, fine.”
How Kal Penn came up for the name of his character and his sister’s character.
KAL PENN: Okay. So towards the end. So when you play different characters I remember playing a character like Dr. Kutner, for example, on “House,” and a lot of very well meaning folks in the Asian American community would say, “Why does his name have to be Lawrence Kutner? Can’t his name be Samir?” or something or other. Then you play a character named Samir, and they are, like, “How come his name can’t be Lawrence?” And it’s, like, okay. I get it. It’s kind of a no win conversation but totally valid points on all sides. So when we were coming up with the names for Garrett and his sister Mallory, I thought, I want this to be grounded in something. So Modi is my real last name. I thought that was a cool little hat tip to my parents, who did not agree, by the way. They were, like, “Won’t people be confused?” I was, like, “No. It’s a TV show, Mom.” The backstory is his parents named him Garrett because, when they moved to America, they fell in love with American television and they loved “The Facts of Life” and Mrs. Garrett was the hardest-working person that they saw on TV. So they were, “We love ‘The Facts of Life’ and Mrs. Garrett.” Then Mrs. Garrett shows up on “Different Strokes,” and their minds were blown, like, “Wait. She has two jobs? She is super hard-working. We have to name our firstborn son after Mrs. Garrett.” And then Mallory, obviously you know Michael J. Fox, an old “Family Ties” throwback. But, yeah, I wanted to not just come up with random names but have the names be kind of meaningful and significant to the kinds of stories that we are telling.
NBC is known for Must See TV on Thursdays and this season they are not disappointing. They start it off at 8p with Superstore. The season premiere picks up a few hours after the season finale when Mateo (Nico Santos) was taken away by ICE.
Jonah (Ben Feldman) has gotten everyone together from Cloud 9 for a vigil for Mateo. Since no one knows what to do, they sing a song that is perfect for them. You have to see it, to believe. That and to find out that Lauren Ash, who plays Dina, can really sing. You go girl.
Now, it is time for everyone to get back to work. Corporate has sent over a new worker to replace Mateo and everyone hates Glen with one “n”. Glenn (Mark McKinney) with two “n’s” hates him the most. Therefore, when they come up with a way to get rid of him, he is all for it.
Meanwhile, Dina is still mad at Garrett (Colton Dunn) for letting her birds accidentally go free, so she continues to torture him. He feels bad, but that is not good enough for her.
Talking about couples, Sandra (Kaliko Kauahi) wants to let everyone know that she is engaged but no one will let her talk.
When it comes to talking, Cheyenne (Nichole Bloom) has not spoken to her BFF since he was taken away. It is just too hard for her. Amy (America Ferrera) decides to kidnap her co-worker and take her to see their friend. Will she go inside?
All of this leads to a moment that will have everyone afraid, very afraid.
If working at a Big Box store was as fun as they make it look on Superstore, we would all be working at one!
https://youtu.be/U-BaSkJV_Ok
Then at 8:30p, Bradley Whitford is back for another comedy on NBC. Perfect Harmony is something to sing about.
Arthur Cochran (Whitford) is the former chair of the music department at Princeton. After his wife died, he pretty much lost his will to live. He returns to her hometown to bury in her in the cemetery at the church she loved, but he is told there is no room. Therefore, he has come to confront them to let her in.
On the way there, the very drunk professor stops in front of another church with a choir rehearsing. They are so bad that he goes in to tell all of them how awful they are. When he is done, he passes out.
The next day, when he wakes up, and they ask him to coach their choir. He doesn’t want to do it, but then he gets his reason. Now he has to work on them to make them all singers whether they like what he says or not.
Ginny (Anna Camp) is a single mom, who is a mother to the group. She is also just so gosh darn nice. Adams (Tymberlee Hill) is not that nice, so she does not want to take Arthur’s advice. Jax is adopted and he is the Kumbaya one of the group. Wayne (Will Greenberg) takes a lot of crap Arthur, but he has potential. Although, not as much as Shep (Geno Segers) who has the deepest voice you will ever hear.
They are a dysfunctional bunch, but together they make beautiful music. That is why this and Carol’s Second Act are tied for my favorite new comedies with Sunnyside in a close second place.
Then at 9p, The Good Place begins its final season. Michael (Ted Danson) and Eleanor (Kristen Bell) are continuing to welcome the four new humans to The Good Place. They know that these four individuals are there to antagonize them. However, they have to work through it to save the human race.
How will Tahani (Jameela Jamil) deal with her gossip columnist arch-nemesis? Jason wants to be with Janet (Manny Jacinto) but she told him no because the experiment is too important. Meanwhile, Janet is busy dealing with all the new people’s request. Especially, the new guy who is there to torture Eleanor. She has enough problems now that Chidi’s (William Jackson Harper) memory has been erased and he does not remember her.
While things are not going smoothly for them, things are going better off down in the Bad Place. Or are they?
You don’t want to miss as our Fab Four tries to acclimate the new kids into their world with a big old party.
A sad party is happening over here because I don’t want this show to end.
https://youtu.be/sk_2uEoI1i8
Finally at 9:30p, Kal Penn is an elected official in Sunnyside. Scratch that, he is an impeached city councilman for Sunnyside in Queens, NY.
When Garrett Modi (Penn) first ran for office, he had dreams of helping the community. Fifteen years later, he is living in his office because his girlfriend kicked him out, he has no money and he has just been fired from his job. He moves in with his sister, Mallory (Kiran Deol) and she tells him to get a job.
He gets a call to meet some people at a bar to help them pass their citizenship test so they can become Americans. When all of his contacts fails, he decides to help them himself. Luckily, two of his students are really rich, so they throw money his way.
Those two students are siblings, Jim Hoa (Joel Kim Booster) and Mel Lin (Poppy Liu). We do not know where they are from because they won’t say. While they have lots of money, Griselda (Diana-Maria Riva) does not. The Dominican has so many jobs, no one can possibly count them all. Hakim (Samba Schutte) is a taxi driver from Ethiopia. Finally, there is Brady (Moses Storm), he just found out he is from Moldovia and that he was not born in America. His mother brought him here when he was two and she never told him. After he gets caught, the government told him to become a citizen or go back. Since he does not know where Moldavia is, he opts to become an American. Which is why he needs Garrett’s help.
Each week, Garrett will work with them to make sure they get to live the America Dream. Granted the brother and sister are already living all of their dreams and most other people’s. Can Garrett teach them all about the good ole USA?
You are going to want to watch the show that reminds us that we are all immigrants in America. You don’t have to be born here to love America. You just have to live hear to learn you love it! Like we will love this show.
Fifteen years ago, we got to know Harold and Kumar as they went to White Castle. However, it has been almost 8 long years since the BFFs have gotten high and they might be lighting up again!
Yesterday, when Kal Penn was talking to reporters about his new NBC show Sunnyside (that debuts on September 26th) at NBC’s Summer Press Tour Day, someone asked him if he would every play Kumar Patel again. The actor told us that he and John Cho recently spoke with the two writers, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, about doing a fourth movie together. Unfortunately, the latter two are working on Cobra Kai, Penn has Sunnyside coming up and Cho is busy doing his own thang. Therefore, they cannot smoke together until at least the end of the year. The former White House employee says that is when they will try to come up with an idea for the next movie.
I think they should do Harold & Kumar Look for Neil Patrick Harris. NPH just disappeared from sight over the last few years and now they are on a mission to find him. Every time Harris finds out that they are on to him, he finds a new place to hide. All along the way, they try new strains of pot that are local to the area where they have been searching for their arch-nemesis. Giving them a different high at each spot.
How long does Penn think he can play his most famous role? He said, “I would consider myself lucky if I have a chance to make Harold and Kumar 15 when I am like 70 years old.” Could you imagine Harold & Kumar Go to Assisted Living and they try to get all their neighbors high? Actually, they should do that for the fourth one!
Last year, ABC cancelled Designated Survivor and then Netflix picked it up for a third season in September. Today, they announced that they too are cancelling the show. Even though we will not get any more new episodes, the old ones will continue to stream for years to come.
Netflix said this about the cancellation, “We’re especially thankful to star and executive producer Kiefer Sutherland, who brought passion, dedication and an unforgettable performance as President Kirkman. We’re also grateful to showrunner/executive producer Neal Bear for his guiding vision and steady hand, creator/executive producer David Guggenheim and EPs Mark Gordon, Suzan Bymel, Simon Kinberg, Aditya Sood and Peter Noah along with the cast and crew who crafted a compelling and satisfying final season.”
However, the news is not really a surprise. Kiefer Sutherland is busy with his musical career, Kal Penn has a new show on NBC and Italia Ricci is expecting her first child.
Last year, I was OK with the show getting the ax, but this season I am going to miss it. It was as thrilling as the first half of season one when the show was really enjoyable. At least we got one more season.
You know if Netflix keeps cancelling the shows I watch, I might have to cancel them.
