The Belcher family consists of Bob, Linda and their kids, from left, Tina, Gene and Louise. 2012 Fox Broadcasting

Anyone who’s worked in a family store should be watching this show. For me, “Bob’s Burgers” evokes all the nostalgia and terror my Korean immigrant parents and brother and I felt running a short-lived café in Tacoma, Washington. It was a masochistic brand of family bonding: Smooshed behind the pastry case, we endured the morning latte rush, the lunchtime sandwich panic and the late-afternoon queue of sweet tooths and coffee seekers. Every night, we’d cash out the register, scrub and mop, take inventory and shop wholesale for whatever supplies we weren’t too tired to remember. Our bedtime ritual was to dissect the day’s transactions.

The majority of my immigrant friends grew up in a small business. As young kids, they stocked grocery shelves, hung dry cleaning, chopped cabbage in teriyaki joints and checked people into motel rooms. Their play hours depended on when they could escape “the store.”

The Belchers are not immigrants, but “we liked so much this idea that they are essentially living a life that many, many immigrant families live,” says Loren Bouchard, creator and executive director of “Bob’s Burgers.” “Them all having black hair was us somewhat intentionally, somewhat unconsciously going toward that, too.” (Bouchard adds, to my delight: “Many, many, many Korean people work on this show. We have the Lims, Boohwan and Kyounghee, directing; several of our board artists; and we actually ship all of the animation to Korea. So we’re all Koreans!”)

Bob is a second-generation entrepreneur with early memories of his stern, semi-alcoholic dad yelling, “Get back to work, Bob!” in their family diner. Fearing he has deprived his own children of their childhood, he tries to terminate their employment in the episode “Bob Fires the Kids:”

Bob: (smiling) Kids, you’re all fired!

Tina: (looking hurt) I deserve this. I’ve been coasting.

Bob: This isn’t a punishment. It’s a gift. My dad made me work all the time … I never had any fun. So I want you to go out and have the summer and the childhood I never had.

Tina: But what are we supposed to do?

[and later]

Bob: You guys are just our kids now, not our employees.

Gene: Is that all we are to you, Dad — your children?!