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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: March 7, 2004
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Arrested Development, “Shock and Aww” (Season 1, Episode 14) [Stream on Netflix]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Arrested Development got some of its biggest laughs from their recurring bits. Whether it was GOB’s “Final Countdown” magic-show music or the multitude of chicken-dances, AD was among TV’s best shows at densely layering references, callbacks, and Easter eggs.
One of the show’s longest-running gags was the recurring presence of Annyong, the Korean child who Lucille ends up adopting in the middle of season one. Lucille’s reasons aren’t altruistic (George initially suggested adopting as a way to seem patriotic to the Feds, and she drunkenly signed the Korean adoption papers in a fit of spite over Buster not eating his cottage cheese), and she doesn’t take warmly to his presence. She only calls him “Annyong,” in fact, because it’s the only word he keeps saying (it means “hello”).
I’m not going to lie: Annyong seems like he’d be a pretty problematic character today. The show’s only Asian character is a one-joke, mostly silent boy who doesn’t seem to have any wants, desires, or storyline of his own. Is it a commentary on the awful ways that rich old racists like Lucille treat Asian people? Or is it … just another example of the awful ways that rich, old, racist Hollywood treats Asian people?
You’re free to make the call for yourself, of course. One thing is incontrovertibly true, though: the callback in season 3 when Annyong is found to be living inside the walls of the model home was sublime.
