Have you seen the movie that this appears to be based on? I watched it a few months ago and while it did have some 'lol Indians are dorky' moments, I think it also deals with how ridiculous some of the American demands are.

Although it's obvious that this shows going to be hanging desperately on the premise that Indian people are just crazy and ridiculous and have comedic mannerisms, I agree with emily. I think (hope) that this will have as many ridiculous American moments as it will ridiculous Indian moments.

The competitor call center employees are not misfits at all. They are clearly super effective and excellently trained (though, perhaps, also Westernized).

When the job requires dealing with Westerners, isn't being able to act in a Westernized manner part of aforementioned training and effectiveness?

I'm definitely withholding judgment on this one for a while. When I first heard about it, I thought it could go either way, and based on the trailer I still think it could go either way.

I do think it's good that, while they rely on a few "Indians are weird" jokes (THE FOOD WILL MAKE YOU POO FOR FIVE DAYS!!), they also show the white guy clearly offending people when he tries to make similar jokes (about the "hats," for instance.) Which can be seen as a "dumb Americans, don't know about other cultures" stereotype in and of itself, but might also mean that the show will quickly get past those kinds of jokes, shown as good OR bad, within the first few episodes.

I was disappointed to say that when the voice over mentioned "romance", a blond white woman appeared on screen. Apparently multicultural romance is out...

The movie on which this is based was fairly good, especially in terms of showing cultural differences without forcing laughs or suggesting superiority or pity. If there's anything reassuring in this little trailer, it's the fact that the successful-but-Westernized team is also farcical, showing the mundanity and arbitrariness of the things associated with "American-ness."

But again there's a white teacher figure blah

I really cannot tell if it's going to be awful or not. If it were from the UK, I'd have so much more confidence in it than I do now. Actually, if it were on USA I'd have more confidence than I do. But NBC? Not so much.

The trailer at least presented a couple of really interesting characters who I'd like to get to know better. I do wonder if we're going to get many (or any) scenes where the Indians talk to each other without the white man present.

I think it'll be interesting to see what the ratings are like given that we're in the midst of a recession in which immigrants are being demonized and dehumanized.

One thing is clear: the show is not funny.

Hmm. ITV in Britain did "Mumbai Calling" (2007) in which an British Asian man, played by Sanjeev Bhaskar, is assigned to head up a call center in India run by the British company for which he works. It wasn't the best show ever, but it was funny and insightful. NBC would be better off following that formula more closely.

Did anyone else notice at the end it said, "NBC: more colorful"?

I just realized it's their new slogan (I guess I hadn't noticed) but put in the context of this show it seems to take on a whole new meaning.

All I know is, this is the show they are putting in the Parks and Rec time slot to test it out, while delaying Parks and Rec. I'd rather it replaced The Office.

I think this has the potential to turn into something like The Big Bang Theory which began as comedy centering on "nerds are funny to laugh at" and has morphed into "let's laugh with the nerds."

It will also be nice to see turbaned Sikhs and Muslim women with head coverings portrayed as normal.

For an example of a comedy show who actually does "cultural diversity" right, check out CBC's "Little Mosque on the Prairie".

It focuses on the lives of the muslim community of a very small rural canadian town, and does a great job at portaying the muslim characters as normal, fully-rounded, multi-faceted characters. It does focus on the cultural differences between the muslim and non-muslim community, but does it in a way that does not rely simply on stereotypes.
Both the muslim and non-muslim communities offer a wide range of characters, with different views concerning religion and life in general.

Plus, it's actually quite good (and funny!)

So Filmi Girl, if you want to see strong, normal, hijab-wearing women on TV, this might be the show for you! :P

As long as it focuses on "culture clash is funny" and not "other cultures are funny" I'm okay with it.

ok, so that looks interesting, and I think I have to agree that it makes it clear that it's the individuals who are goofy... and "culture clash" can indeed make for some interesting entertainment, as long as it doesn't derail into "we're normal, they're stupid and silly and weird"

This is the issue I have with tokenism, and it just clarified something I was trying to explain to someone last night about why the bechdel test is important.

Having only one X in your movie or show (black person, woman, gay person, etc) means that at SOME POINT you will come accross a stereotype about Xs. Sooner rather than later, because many stereotypes are based on things that are true (many women really do enjoy shoes). It's just that when there is only one X then that character's behaviour speaks for all Xs everywhere. Where there even one more X, it can be shown that, sure. THIS gay man likes to dance all night or whatever, but the other gay man has slightly different tastes. Even if they are still playing out stereotypes, they become more like actual human beings than like a vessel for pure prejudice.

So I think a show that has more than one character of a type that is often stereotyped has potential. Even if there are the classic token goofy characters, there will be other characters that can, collectively, give that stereotype more depth and less hatefulness.

OMG this "Get Him to the Greek" trailer is hilarious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9s0oYIP3Kc&feature=player_embedded

I think this is in some ways trying to capitalize on the success of a Canadian show "Little Mosque on the Prarie", in which the humour is largely generated by cultural misunderstandings (oh yeah, it has a lot of brown people too). However, Little Mosque features multicultural romance, deep characterization (rather than a lot of misfits) and actually attempts to examine some troubling stereotypes and social problems (like the assumption about all Muslims being terrorists or extremists). Unfortunately, in it's efforts to be "more colourful", NBC has just produced another sad sitcom with the predominant message "can't we all just make fun of each other and get along?" I suppose I should withhold judgement until I've actually seen an episode, but something tells me this doesn't have nearly the substance it could have.

This is a tricky sort of thing, a delicate balance to set (with a sledge hammer). With the world wide recession (which *we* caused with our greed) receding, the whole outsourcing thing almost seems like a distant memory, so maybe we are able to address it now. But the only way we are able to address it is to show that the Indians are a people to make fun off. Of course, we also want to be sensitive and not offend a whole demographic, but rather than tweak the jokes about the Indians, we will simply also make almost all the Americans comically stupid as well. So in order we avoid claiming any group or nationality is better than another, there is a furious race to the bottom. And in order to avoid making American viewers think that their desirable jobs are being taken away, the jobs we are presented with here are with a novelty company, something slightly distasteful to sell. The degree of calculation in the formula is startling when you think about it.

The mixture of racist humor and attempts at political correctness is kind of annoying. But, I guess if I turn my brain off, the show might be fairly funny. Not as good as anything currently on NBC from 8:00 to 10:00, or as good as the Big Bang Theory, but maybe good for a chuckle or two.

Speaking as an American, living in Bangalore, India, and having friends who have worked in BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), some of this stuff rings very true. The "training" of call center employees in American culture is a big part of the job. They are trained not only in accents, but also in American culture and history. Many of these people know more about America than I do! Another thing is the accent training. My friend used to speak english with an Indian-American accent, when he was working for Accenture, but now speaks more with an Indian-British accent, when he switched to working for a British company.

All of this comes from the type of reaction that comes from Americans when they make a phone call, and the first reaction is that that job should be going to an "Amurican". The business strategy is then to make the customer believe that the call center is based in the US, through accents, cultural knowledge, etc. It's interesting to see how Indians navigate this kind of nativist mentality to the job they are doing, but through a highly professionalized way. Americans shouting at you is just part of the job, so here's how you deal with it. Different from shouting at a telemarketer because they are trying to sell you insurance while you're eating dinner, in this case they are shouting at you because you are Indian.

If interested about the culture of Indian call centers/software companies/etc., see a great documentary by a prof. from Bangalore called "Coding Culture: Bangalore's Software Industry". Gives a fascinating look at how people navigate a highly westernized office culture in the middle of India.

Oh man! I think I'll watch.