NBC’s ‘Mail Order Family’ Comedy Scrapped Amid Protest

September 30, 2016 5:28pm PT by Lesley Goldberg

@jackieclarke/Twitter

Clarke

The project, which was in development, would have followed a mail-order bride from the Philippines who helps a widowed single father raise his daughters.

NBC is scrapping Mail Order Family.

Two days after putting the comedy about a widowed single father who orders a mail-order bride from the Philippines to help raise his two daughters, the network has reversed course.

"We purchased the pitch with the understanding that it would tell the creator's [Jackie Clarke] real-life experience of being raised by a strong Filipina stepmother after the loss of her own mother," an NBCUniversal spokesperson said in a statement. "The writer and producers have taken the sensitivity to the initial concept to heart and have chosen not to move forward with the project at this time."

The comedy — which had received a modest script commitment from NBC — was to have been written and produced by Clarke (NBC's Superstore) and exec produced and directed by Ruben Fleischer. Universal Television was the studio. The comedy was inspired by Clarke's family.

The concept of the show was immediately blasted on social media, with petitions urging NBC to drop the project.