“It was so big that to this day I could still get into it,” Ramy Youssef tells Den of Geek. “When I started first grade I had on this thing that fit me like a dress. My parents’ whole plan was ‘Michael Jordan will be great forever, and this will fit you forever.’”
It must be said that the Youssefs had a point. Michael Jordan was indeed great forever and it seems as though the jersey will fit forever. That childhood moment also served as the perfect entryway for #1 Happy Family USA‘s comedic but poignant depiction of a very specific time in American history. What specific time, exactly? Well, the series opens with a radio DJ happily anticipating the release of Jay-Z’s album “The Blueprint” the following day. Now to just head over to Wikipedia and check the date The Blueprint was relea…oh. Oh no.
That’s right: #1 Happy Family USA is a 9/11 period piece, a genre that, perhaps unsurprisingly, remains rare. Taking place just before and then just after the events of September 11, 2001, the Prime Video series follows the Muslim-American Hussein family as they adapt to scary new times and make great efforts to prove to their white neighbors that they’re as American as apple pie and baseball. This involves many song-and-dance numbers.
While the specter of 9/11 looms large, the show is really more of a typical slice-of-life sitcom about an ironically oft-forgotten place and time: American youth at the turn of the millennium.
“This is a show that I wish had been on at the time, to kind of reflect what was happening,” Youssef says. “And I think a lot of that is even reflected in the animation style we chose to hone in on.”
That animation style is developed by the show’s executive producer, Mona Chalabi. A British data journalist of Iraqi descent, Chalabi has received many awards (including a Pulitzer in 2023) for her illustrations that help publications present complex data. Aside from some work in documentaries and various explainer pieces, Chalabi had little experience in scripted animation and was grateful to finally get the opportunity.
