‘Fresh Off the Boat’ celebrates TV diversity

LOS ANGELES — Television is mostly entertaining, sometimes enlightening and, occasionally, can make a difference.

The sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat” hits all the marks. Because of it, along with ABC siblings “black-ish” and “Dr. Ken” (and, at CW, “Jane the Virgin”), network TV’s American family photo album is starting to look authentic.

The contribution of “Fresh Off the Boat” is especially notable. It’s the first network prime-time comedy about an Asian-American family since Margaret Cho’s “All-American Girl” in 1994, which lasted a season. “Dr. Ken” star Ken Jeong (“Community,” “The Hangover”) gladly acknowledges that the success of “Fresh Off the Boat” paved the way for his series.

“Even if I wasn’t a part of any of it, never in a million years would I have thought any of this would happen,” said Jeong, who guest stars in the season finale of “Fresh Off the Boat,” airing 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. “It really is beyond satisfying” to see two shows on the air and with characters of different Asian origins, he said.

“Fresh Off the Boat” follows a Taiwanese-American family’s mostly eager plunge into the melting pot of the 1990s. On the flip side, “black-ish” is about a contemporary African-American family’s efforts to hold on to its cultural identity. “Dr. Ken,” about a Korean-American husband and father, gives the formulaic domestic sitcom a cheerful ethnic tweak.

Without losing sight of their primary job, to be funny, the ABC shows make the case that there is — cynics and malcontents aside — a suburban-lawn-sized patch of common ground to be found. The shows’ ratings are proof that viewers are responding, with both “Fresh Off the Boat” and “black-ish” secure on ABC’s schedule and “Dr. Ken” returning for its second year.

Executive producer Nahnatchka Khan marvels at TV’s sudden burst of inclusiveness, including Aziz Ansari in “Master of None” and Priyanka Chopra in “Quantico.”

“The difference in the past year has been enormous. The fact we were right in the middle of this kind of change is incredible, and we’re really grateful for it,” Khan said. “The more, the merrier. Let’s just keep going.”