According to HitFix.com, actor/comedian Garrett Morris (Saturday Night Live, Martin, The Jamie Foxx Show) has signed on to co-star in the new CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls, scheduled to air this upcoming fall season.

However, while the general viewing audience won’t get to see it until next month, critics who have seen at least one episode of 2 Broke Girls have openly challenged the show’s creators regarding whether some of its supporting characters may be considered racist.

Co-created by comedienne Whitney Cummings and Sex and the City writer Michael Patrick King, 2 Broke Girls is described by The Independent as follows:

Two twenty-something girls from different ends of the social spectrum try to make it in New York. Max (Kat Dennings) is a blue-collar girl. Caroline (Beth Behrs) is from a wealthy background but has lost her trust fund. The pair strike up a combative friendship whilst working as waitresses in a Brooklyn diner and then hustle to raise the $250,000 (£153,000) they need to set up their own cupcake business.

Garrett Morris is set to play a character named “Earl”, along with a supporting cast of minority characters who frequent the Brooklyn diner.

HitFix.com reports that when co-creators Cummings and King were questioned during the TCA Press Tour about the show’s diner being populated by “ethnic characters”, King offered a quick rebuttal:

“By ethnic characters, I’d say the hipsters… And Max is sort of the lord and ruler of that diner, so she’s going to take everybody down, the hipsters, the immigrants, the girls, and most importantly, herself.”

Specifically, one character mentioned during the TCA Press Tour, recent Asian immigrant Han Lee (played by Matthew Moy), was described as “at best stereotypical and had been called other “words that start with R.” Cummings told the gathered crowd of journalists that “stuff that we’ve heard about this is not rooted in . . . reality.” (Translation: You people are being way too sensitive. Get over it.)

I know I can’t wait to see how this plays out. I’m hoping 2 Broke Girls is at least given a chance to prove itself. And I’m hoping that Garrett Morris and the rest of the show’s “immigrants” get to bank some of that CBS money before the plug is pulled.