New show Run the Burbs crafts a modern family in a modern way

Fresh off a longtime run on one of Canada's most successful television comedies, Andrew Phung wanted to do something seemingly straightforward: He wanted to make another TV show.

But while that might seem like an obvious step for the writer and producer who's a four-time winner of the Canadian Screen Award — and that's only looking at his work on Kim's Convenience — Phung felt something else. He would be creating his new sitcom, Run the Burbs, just after what's been called the Golden Age of Canadian television, in the wake of successful shows such as Letterkenny, Schitt's Creek and Workin' Moms.

"I feel so much pressure all the time," Phung explained in an interview, all while laughing slightly at the situation. "Because these shows are wonderful." 

It's also an echo of his own work on Kim's Convenience, the light comedy about a Korean family in Toronto that ended abruptly this year after five seasons.  

Soon after, members of the cast alleged accounts of racism from the writers' room due to poor representation behind the camera, while fans and critics felt that the show was burdened with the expectation to be all things for all people, since it was one of the few Canadian comedies to predominantly feature non-white actors.

Hearing those concerns from his castmates informed Phung's next project, and you can see it on the screen. He teamed up with longtime collaborator Scott Townend — who's also his best friend and godfather to his children — and made sure to hire a diverse room of writers and hired Vietnamese, South Asian and even food consultants for their show, which focuses on a Vietnamese-South Asian-Canadian family in the suburbs.

The original idea was simple. Phung wanted to tell a story about a diverse and inclusive family that just loved each other — something he felt was missing from the TV landscape. There were too many self-serious shows, or dour shows forced to shoulder the difficult realities of BIPOC life. Run the Burbs was getting out from outside burdens and ideas of what a show should be — for both television, and himself. 

"I said, 'I want to get it right,'" Phung said he told Townend when they were first pitching the show. "And he's like, 'No, you're not trying to get it right, you're trying to get it less wrong.'"

The show, which premieres Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET, stars Phung in the lead role as father Andrew Pham, alongside wife Camille (Rakhee Morzaria) and kids Khia (Zoriah Wong) and Leo (Roman Pesino). The storylines also largely follow Phung's goal of a less serious — but high energy — look at modern life. A through line in the first season deals with Zoriah Wong's Khia and her crush on the neighbour girl, Mannix. 

But while Khia's little brother teases her and her parents are concerned, you won't find any outrage, concern or even mention of the LGBTQ+ elements. The fact that the two characters are girls is not emphasized or examined. It's just a girl with a crush, in a family who loves her but is worried — and maybe a bit weird. 

It's a storyline that was at least partially drawn from life. In scripting the scene, Phung described an experience he had with his five-year-old son. As they were walking by a Pride flag in front of his school, Phung's son pointed at it and demanded he take a picture.

"I was like, 'Man, like, you're five years old and you see the world in that way,'" Phung said, an entryway for the Khia and Mannix storyline. It was a way to think about the reality of modern life without the baggage of trauma — an LGBTQ+ storyline that's about the person and their journey, not the larger cultural associations. 

"It's not a coming-out story," Phung said. "It's a being story. It's a living story. It's who you are."

Love letter to suburbia

That lightness extends throughout the show, one that emphasizes inclusion at the same time as characterization. Both Townend and Phung emphasized that lightness, and fun, that is intended to be central to the show — a love letter to suburbia that perhaps comes out most with the show's surprise musical guest.

Getting that musical guest (who will remain a secret until the second episode premieres) was something of a moonshot, Phung explained. They wrote the episode around him, but didn't fully believe he would agree. Weeks before the show filmed, Phung said, writers were writing an alternate episode weeks before, assuming he would turn the role down — only for him to not only film the guest spot, but demand they bring him back for another episode. 

It's altogether the tenor of the show, Phung said — one which promotes inclusion, pride and aspiration, but in a way that is both a little ridiculous and, at the same time, serious. 

"This is about a suburb, people who live in the 'burbs and on this block," Phung said. "There's a big mix of people, but their color isn't the reason why they are there. Their personality and their backstory is what we care more about. And the goal for us was every character we introduce. We better damn well know more about them as the episodes go on."