'Fresh Off the Boat' after a loooong voyage

* FRESH OFF THE BOAT. 8:30 and 9:31 p.m. Wednesday, 6ABC.

* ALLEGIANCE. 10 p.m.

Thursday, NBC10.

WHAT DOES it mean when we call something groundbreaking?

I think it should mean we can come back in a year or two and find more than a deep hole.

So I'm not going to saddle ABC's very funny "Fresh Off the Boat" with the G-word.

Because it's been a little more than 20 years since comedian Margaret Cho became the first Asian-American to star in a network sitcom. "All-American Girl" launched in 1994 - also on ABC - with Cho as an assimilated Korean-American from a traditional family. Neither Cho nor the network nor viewers were very happy with it and it ended, as so many shows have, after a season.

Still, it's crazy that until this Wednesday, when "Fresh Off the Boat" premieres with two episodes wrapped around "Modern Family," the first Asian-American family to be the focus of a network comedy was also the last.

Inspired by lawyer-turned-chef Eddie Huang's memoir of the same name, "Fresh Off the Boat" stars Hudson Yang as 11-year-old Eddie, whose parents (Randall Park and Constance Wu) are from Taiwan and whose younger brothers (Forrest Wheeler and Ian Chen) are people-pleasers.

Eddie loves all things hip-hop, which isn't the only thing that makes him a fish out of water in Orlando, Fla., where his family's just moved.

There's also his lunch - food, not surprisingly, is a recurring theme in Eddie's story - as well as his natural cussedness.

As the New York Times noted in a review of Huang's book, "Mr. Huang has a mouth on him."

So apparently does Eddie, whose reaction to being called "Chink" by a kid at his new middle school occurs off-camera but establishes him as a force to be reckoned with.

Huang narrates the show, produced by Nahnatchka Khan ("Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23"). Yet, in a medium where smart-mouthed kids usually rule, Eddie's show's being stolen out from under him by Park and Wu, who have adorable, comedic chemistry as a couple with very different approaches to the American dream.

Park's fiercely optimistic Louis has moved his family from Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown to Orlando, where he's opened a Western-style steakhouse. His wife, Jessica, has her doubts. Wu brings a perfectly seasoned mix of steel and weary resignation to her trials, which may be even greater than Eddie's. She does her best to fit in with the cartoonishly vapid neighborhood moms, who roller-blade together daily, while not losing touch with the things she holds dear.

In the three episodes I've seen, it's Jessica, not Eddie, who has most of the best lines, and Wu (who also does a bit of singing) earns every one.

FX's critically acclaimed "The Americans," which returned for its third season last week, has yet to win as large an audience as it deserves, but that doesn't seem to worry NBC, which on Thursday will introduce its own drama about Russian spies in the U.S.

Like FX's operatives, Mark and Katya O'Connor (Scott Cohen and Hope Davis) face Russian pressure to turn one of their kids into a second-generation spy.

But unlike "The Americans," set in the early '80s, "Allegiance," loosely based on an Israeli series, takes place in present day, with the O'Connors caught between the SVR, successor to the Soviet KGB, and the CIA, where their son Alex (Gavin Stenhouse) has, coincidentally, recently begun work.

Like many a TV character, Alex, who's brilliant, socially awkward and reflexively honest, may or may not be be somewhere on the autism spectrum, adding a layer of intrigue to a show that may already be a little too intriguing for its own good.

Cohen and Davis are better than the pilot script, which begins with a nod to one of TV's nastier trends - someone's set afire - and quickly overheats. Philadelphians may want to check out the third and fourth episodes, which take the O'Connor family here (and feature a cameo by Mayor Michael Nutter).

Though recent events may have made "Allegiance" timely, the family drama's still more compelling than the spy story. With "Parenthood" now gone, a family of spies may be better than no family at all.

Phone: 215-854-5950

On Twitter: @elgray

Blog: ph.ly/EllenGray