Filipino food, culture in ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Thanksgiving episode

Six-week old TV musical comedy-drama series “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” made history after it portrayed a Filipino family's Thanksgiving dinner on American television for the first time.

The TV series stars Rachel Bloom as Rebecca Bunch, a Manhattan lawyer who drops everything to follow her high-school boyfriend, Josh Chan—a Filipino-American—to the Los Angeles suburb of West Covina, California.

In the show's most recent episode, Rebecca cooks dinuguan to impress Josh's family at their Thanksgiving celebration.

According to Fil-Am writer and actor Rene Gube, who wrote the episode entitled “My Thanksgiving with Josh,” the producers were committed to representing the Filipino culture in the most authentic way possible.

After all, this is the first TV series that depicts Filipino-American family life.

West Coast, you're one of the family, too, and invited to watch the Thanksgiving episode of #CrazyExGirlfriend NOW! pic.twitter.com/PmQxYkGsal

— Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (@CW_CrazyXGF) November 17, 2015

“To have an opportunity to create a fully developed Filipino character, a male romantic lead, I’ve never seen that before, and I was super excited about that. It is a great opportunity to show a Filipino family on network television, and show how American that Filipino family truly is,” Gube said in an interview with entertainment site Vulture.com.

The Thanksgiving episode did not only feature traditional Filipino food, but also a large Filipino cast who were natural in delivering lines in Filipino.

Vincent Rodriguez III, who plays Josh, said that the episode felt real and very close to home, especially the focus given on family values.

“It’s cool to have this be my breakout role because it means so much more to me personally that I’m playing a role that is altering network history and putting Filipinos more on the map,” he said.  “The show is not about the fact that Josh is Filipino, but the fact that it was an active choice that was made, and it was treated with such integrity, is what’s important.”

Some of the Filipino actors who were present for the Thanksgiving episode were Alberto Isaac as Josh's father and Tess Paras and Coryn Mabalot as Josh's sisters. The actors were chosen largely for their Filipino-American background to maintain authenticity.

“The last time I’d seen that many Filipinos was at my Thanksgiving,” Gube said. “It was an amazing feeling.” — Bianca Rose Dabu/BM, GMA News