CBS’s new show “Rob”, one giant step backwards for Latinos.

Having just watched the pilot for Rob Schneider’s new show, Rob, I am totally disgusted by the way CBS has portrayed a Mexican-American family in an attempt to lure Latinos to general market television. The only thing I can think of is that they wanted to use every stereotype in the book to generate non-Hispanic viewership. To start with, the premise is ridiculous, that a drop dead gorgeous Latina (who works at a dress shop, of course), would meet Rob (a short Jewish landscape architect) and 6 weeks later marry him without telling anyone. The real insults begin when he is taken to the parents’ house, where there is a “small” family gathering of approximately 30 people, including an uncle that arrived from Mexico for the weekend and confesses to Rob that he is never leaving and Rob proceeds to use every stereotype imaginable to get a laugh from the viewers. What is even more surprising to me is that Cheech Marin and the rest of the Latino cast would actually stoop so low as to take money to be in the show. Cheech even admits that of the 100 plus employees he has working for him, he couldn’t find more than three with a Social Security number and he thinks the US should put up a big wall on the border because he “doesn’t need any more competition.”

This show was hyped up as a great potential crossover show, a comedy that had potential to deliver a unique audience. In my opinion, it will be lucky if it makes 6 episodes and if NCLR does not begin a boycott of CBS by next week. This is not Modern Family, where everyone is over the top and no one is singled out. This is a direct insult to any Latino living in the US, especially Mexican Americans. It is poorly written, poorly acted out and altogether bad.

I guess we don’t have to worry about our market leaving Spanish language television as long as these are the kind of shows the networks think will cross us over. Embarrassing.