It looks like Rob Schneider will ring in the New Year trying to win over the hearts of Hispanics with his new CBS sitcom, "Rob!"
"What is America? It's a mish-mash," Schneider says, "and this show will help represent that in a funny way."
"Rob!" is about a guy who marries a Mexican-American woman. If the clip is at all representative of the show's content, the new sitcom will be full of jokes on illegal immigration, racism, and making sense of the Spanish language.
In real life, Schneider recently married Mexican television producer Patricia Azarcoya Arce.
"Remember the movie Meet the Parents?" Eugenio Derbez, who plays the wife's uncle, told Latina.com, "Well this is like, Meet the Mexicans!"
With such a targeted audience in mind, it remains to be seen is whether Latinos will find the show funny.
Fox News Latino reported that critics of the show found it cynical. Many Latinos voiced concerns that the show will make the same tired, cheesy and offensive jokes about piñatas, immigration and spicy foods.
It's interesting, however, that Schneider is married to a Mexican television producer in real life. Whether his personal experiences find their way into the script or influence the sincerity of his acting remains to be seen, according to Fox News Latino.
While CBS dropped the punctuation from the title for press releases and listings, the network will continue to use the official title -- complete with two exclamation points -- for marketing purposes, including on-air promos, reported The Hollywood Reporter.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Schneider is also a writer and executive producer on the show alongside Lew Morton. Eric and Kim Tannenbaum will exec produce, with John Schneider attached as a non-writing producer. Jamie Widdoes directed the pilot episode, and Cheech Marin, Lupe Ontiveros, Claudia Bassols, Eugenio Derbez, Diana Maria Riva and Ricky Rico round out the cast.
This is the first TV gig that Rob Schneider has produced in 14 years. "Men Behaving Badly" was the last series he produced in 1996 for NBC, reported News In A Box. The new show will take over Rules of Engagement's Thursday at 8:30 p.m. slot starting Jan. 12, 2012, following the very popular "The Big Bang Theory" at 8p.m.