Cinderella Story or DIY Success? Either way, here’s your first look at “Cristela,” coming to ABC on Fridays in Fall 2014

Pilot season doesn’t always make sense, and certainly doesn’t feel like it’s under your control, whether you’re an actor, writer, director or producer.

Three months ago, stand-up comedian Cristela Alonzo told The Comic’s Comic that her pilot, based on her own life experiences, “isn’t going forward at ABC for now.” This was Feb. 6, 2014.  “I need to decide what to do next but redeveloping is definitely an option. Just need to decide what I’m in the mood for.”

A couple of weeks ago, I saw Alonzo in Austin at the Moontower Comedy Festival, where she was running her second stand-up set for Conan (it aired April 29). She was excited not only for that, but also for the possibility that her once dead TV pilot had arisen and carried a lot of buzz in the industry trades.

Today, ABC unveiled the first trailer to Cristela, debuting this fall at 8:30 p.m. Fridays (Eastern/Pacific).

Here’s the full two-minute tease from the pilot:

What happened over the past three months?

History sometimes repeats itself in wonderfully magic ways.

When I’d talked to her in February, she was sharing advice with younger comedians about taking a chance on NACA Nationals and how, by investing in herself, she gave herself the opportunity for her biggest break in comedy. It looks as though Alonzo took her own advice. She’d invested in herself in February 2011. Now, three years later, she doubled down on her investment.

She took the ABC money she had from her development deal and developed her own pilot presentation anyhow. Order or no order. She was making her own destiny once more. DIY? Cinderella story? “I’m the kind of person that believes in the stars aligning in an inexplicable moment that creates a moment of magic,” Alonzo wrote in April.

Whatever you want to call it — a month ago, she delivered.

Here is part of what Alonzo wrote last month after filming her pilot presentation for ABC (read the whole post on her site):

“This is the first TV show I’ve ever sold and when I did, everyone kept warning me about what a miserable experience it was going to be. So many people involved, all trying to change what Kevin and I had created. I’d have succumb to terrible decisions if I wanted to have a chance of getting this show on the air.

I told them all the same answer. That wasn’t going to happen to me. I wasn’t going to change the voice of show. I had a story to tell. I couldn’t steer away from that story. People told me I was silly, naïve.

What these people didn’t realize is that I was willing to say no and walk away from it if it ever got to that point.  Luckily, it never did.  I really lucked out with the people I’m working with on this project. Our producer, Becky Clements… my partner Kevin Hench have been so great. I really couldn’t imagine working with a better group of people.

I’m the kind of person that believes in the stars aligning in an inexplicable moment that creates a moment of magic. I truly believe this happened with the pilot.

I was involved in every step of the process.  I knew I would be, considering that the name of the pilot is Cristela but it was still a weird to suddenly have all these decisions to make.

Right from the casting process, I wanted all of the actors coming in to feel welcomed. I wanted them to come into a warm room where they knew that we all wanted them to succeed, because we did. I laughed when they did something funny. I thanked them all for coming. It was sincere. I wanted them to know how much I appreciated them. 

I think that’s the feel I had throughout the entire process. I was so grateful and so appreciative of everyone that worked on the pilot, I tried to let them know that as much as I could. Having people working on creating a world you created is surreal. And I know that everyone that worked on the pilot had an important role. The crew, the cast…everyone was just as important as everyone else. 

We taped last Thursday. God, even writing that still seems weird. I taped a pilot called Cristela last week. Wow.

People kept asking me if I was nervous…and honestly, I wasn’t. That kind of worried me. This was the biggest night of my life and I wasn’t nervous? What was wrong with me? I think I wasn’t nervous because I had complete faith and trust in everyone working with me that I knew everything would go great. Part of succeeding is having faith. And I had a lot of faith.

My family flew in from Texas for the taping. Aside from my brother Eloy, no one had ever been to Los Angeles before.  Before the taping, I had to go out into the audience to welcome them. When I walked out and saw my family sitting in the front row, I just about lost it. I was trying so hard not to cry. I was so emotional. Thinking about that moment, looking back to where we started, it really makes no sense that we were there. We were so poor. We were the kids of an immigrant mother that worked as a cook at a restaurant. We didn’t have the opportunities that most people get.  My entire life has been dedicated to getting to that precise moment I was living and I couldn’t believe it.

I thanked everyone for coming. I had to tell the audience how grateful I was that they were there. I did some stand-up. And most importantly, before I finished my little speech, I dedicated that taping to my mom who I was hoping was looking over me that night, proud.

I couldn’t have asked for a better night. The cast of the show was absolutely perfect. I even got my friend Gabriel Iglesias to be in the show! The crew was amazing. The audience laughed. A lot. It was crazy to hear the laughter. The taping went great. In fact, it went so great that when we finished the taping (or what I thought was the end of the taping), the producer came up to me and suggested we do something we hadn’t worked on at all. She suggested we do an entire scene in Spanish to show that the show could be done in both English and Spanish. 

Wow. I had never heard of that. The cast playing my family were all fluent in Spanish and I asked them if they were up to trying it. EVERYONE SAID YES. They all thought it was a brilliant idea and they were so excited. We rehearsed the scene a couple times and shot it. It was amazing. The jokes translated. I have to say that was probably one of my favorite parts of the night. To have a show that could be shot in BOTH English and Spanish simultaneously was pretty historic. I think a lot of people watching it felt the same way too.

I had been trying to write a blog describing my experience for about a week but it’s been hard. I’ve been kind of speechless.  I started this blog a number of times and then deleted it because I didn’t think I was capturing everything I was feeling. Today, I woke up in Toronto, looked out into the gray sky and thought: this is the perfect writing weather. 

Whatever the outcome of this show is, I can honestly say that I’m so proud of what we created. If the network decides to pick it up, great. If it doesn’t, well, they must have their reasons and I’ll accept that as well.

I am proud of what we created. We created a show about a girl that lives with her average, American family and works in a world that is out of her comfort zone. It’s a true family show that kids can see with their parents. There isn’t a raunchy joke in it and it’s genuinely funny. I think it’s a show that the Latino community would be proud of. I’ve tried to honor the culture and give us a voice.

When I was a little girl living in San Juan, TX, I watched shows like The Cosby Show and Roseanne and they inspired me to dream about one day following in their footsteps. I wanted to create a show that other little kids like me, could watch and be inspired by.

If you had seen the way I grew up, if you had seen the struggles, you would understand what a long-shot this dream seemed to feel like. As a little girl, I would sit in the abandoned diner we lived in and dreamed about performing in front of people and making them laugh.  Throughout my journey, I’ve been bullied, ridiculed and told that I was stupid for trying. But that didn’t stop me. My dream was always bigger than that.

It’s been a long road and I am just so grateful to have had this opportunity. I’d like to thank my agency WME that has believed and supported me from the day we met, 20th Century Fox, 21 Laps, Becky Clements, Kevin Hench, my family, my friends that came out to support me at the taping…and my mom. All of them made the most amazing night of my life happen. Thank you.

As a kid, my mom told me not to dream because our family couldn’t afford to have an imagination.  She said dreams were for the rich and survival was for the poor.

Years later, I hope she’s somewhere, looking over me.  I hope she’s not mad that I proved her wrong: Dreams aren’t for the rich. They’re for ANYONE that’s willing to work hard and chase after them.

Si se puede.


CRISTELA (8:30 p.m. Fridays, Eastern/Pacific)

Starring Cristela Alonzo
Co-stars: Carlos Ponce, Terri Hoyos, Andrew Leeds, Sam McMurray

Official network show description: “In her sixth year of law school, Cristela (Cristela Alonzo) is finally on the brink of landing her first big (unpaid) internship at a prestigious law firm. The only problem is that her pursuit of success is more ambitious than her traditional Mexican-American family thinks is appropriate. She’s stuck straddling the old culture she’s trying to modernize at home with her working-class family and the modern world she’s trying to embrace in her professional career. Breakout comedian Cristela Alonzo stars in this hilarious comedy about laughing your way down the path to the new American dream. “Cristela” stars Cristela Alonzo as Cristela, Carlos Ponce as Felix, Terri Hoyos as Natalia, Andrew Leeds as Josh and Sam McMurray as Trent.”

CREDITS
From 20th Century Fox Television
Executive producers: Kevin Hench, Marty Adelstein, Becky Clements and Shawn Levy
Written by Cristela Alonzo and Kevin Hench

(pictured above: Gabriel Iglesias, Cristela Alonzo, Terri Hoyos (standing), Carlos Ponce and Maria Canals-Barrera)

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

View all posts by Sean L. McCarthy →

One thought on “Cinderella Story or DIY Success? Either way, here’s your first look at “Cristela,” coming to ABC on Fridays in Fall 2014

Comments are closed.