Development According to series creator Komack,
Chico and the Man was originally conceived with
Nisei and Chicano leads; because that pairing proved awkward, he saved the Japanese-American character for another show.
Mr. T and Tina was billed as "based on Japanese-American culture" and first noted to be in production in April 1976. Shortly afterward, it was rumored that NBC would be
counterprogramming a new show with the working title
Mrs. T. and Sympathy, about a widowed Caucasian businesswoman from America moving to Tokyo. The first pilot episode was filmed with
George Takei in the lead role, but when
ABC decided to target a less sophisticated audience at an earlier timeslot, a new pilot was taped, this time with
Pat Morita in the lead. The comedy was based on the conflict between Mr. T's traditional Japanese culture and Tina's free-spirited ways; Morita stated "Our comedy is going to come largely from the human chaos that evolves from the cross-culture differences. I think that can be an immensely rich area which we can develop." An advertisement for the series premiere used the
slogan "Comedy explodes when East meets West!" and called Mr. Takahashi "an immovable object" while Tina was "a dynamic irresistible force". According to Morita, the pilot was well-received following an early screening to Japanese Americans living in Los Angeles: "They fell down laughing. They could see themselves in the same situations. Then we had some friends from Japan look at it and they cracked up." Morita, a veteran of the stand-up comedy circuit, had already been cast when Blanchard was invited to read for the role of Tina; she recounted the role had been written for "a voluptuous hip girl" who was a kind of "blue-eyed, curlylocks [blonde]" and thought she would not be hired. At their first meeting, Blanchard was told that Morita spoke no English, but was instructed to tell him a joke that he could understand; two weeks later, she "was amazed at the amount of English Pat had learned". One news article compared the upcoming series to ''
The Courtship of Eddie's Father'' (1969–72), also created by Komack, with reversed ethnic roles.
Tom Bosley said that if
Mr. T and Tina proved to be a hit, Morita's character on
Happy Days, Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi, would "probably [be killed] off by some crazy kamakazi pilot" but promised that Morita could return to
Happy Days any time he wants. Morita was written off from
Happy Days by having his character Arnold get married.
Production The show was produced by
Madelyn Davis and
Bob Carroll Jr. Episodes were taped before a live audience using four cameras. The director was not present on set, but provided direction through a public address system. Ted Lange and other actors who worked on the show criticized the writing after the show's cancellation.
Critical response and cancellation Reportedly, the script for the pilot episode was revised eight times before it was taped. After the pilot was screened for national television critics in
Los Angeles in June 1976, the group collectively voted it the "worst new show they had endured" and rued that Morita deserved a better vehicle for his talents. One critic recounted "It was so much worse than anything else we saw this summer that it looked as though it had possibly been made for some other purpose than entertainment, possibly for shipment to some enemy country where the CIA wanted to scramble the brains of the citizenry." {{quote box |align=right |width=25em Programmed against
Doc on CBS and the second half of
Emergency! on NBC,
Mr. T and Tina drew poor ratings and terrible reviews, and was cancelled after just five episodes were aired. The series was officially canceled on October 30, 1976 and ''
What's Happening!!'' ran instead in the Saturday night timeslot at 8:30 starting on November 13. According to
Mark Evanier, a writer for
Kotter, ABC had already decided to cancel
Mr. T and Tina prior to the series premiere.
Legacy The show has since been cited as one of the first television shows to star an Asian-American lead and feature a predominantly Asian-American cast, following the short-lived drama
The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong (1951) and the animated
The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan (1972), and predating the sitcoms
Gung Ho (1986) and
Margaret Cho's
All-American Girl (1994–95). At the time it was aired, protests by the Asian-Americans for Fair Media and
Japanese American Citizens League led to a promise by the producers to avoid stereotypical portrayals of Asian Americans. ==Episodes==