American Housewife is an American sitcom television series created by Sarah Dunn who also working as the executive producer and debuted from ABC on October 11, 2016. The series was produced by Eight Sisters Production Weiner & Schwartz Productions and Kapital Entertainment, in association with ABC Studios. The executive producers were Sarah Dunn and co-executive produced with Aaron Kaplan, Kenny Schwartz, Rick Wiener, and Ruben Fleischer.
On November 14, 2016, ABC picked up the series for a full season of 22 episodes and on December 13, 2016, it was ordered one additional episode, increasing the first season order to 22 episodes. On May 11, 2018, it was renewed for a third season with 22 episodes.
Plot
The series chronicles the daily life of Katie Otto, a wife and mother who tries to stand out among the wealthy, pretentious, arrogant housewives and their privileged children after moving to her new hometown of Westport, Connecticut.
Cast
- Katy Mixon as Katie Otto
- Diedrich Bader as Greg Otto
- Daniel DiMaggio as Oliver Otto
- Meg Donnelly as Taylor Otto
- Julia Butters as Anna-Kat Otto
- Ali Wong as Doris
- Carly Hughes as Angela
Episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired (U.S. dates) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season premiere | Season finale | |||
| 1 | 24 | October 11, 2016 | May 16, 2017 | |
| 2 | 24 | September 27, 2017 | May 16, 2018 | |
| 3 | 22 | September 26, 2018 | ||
Production
Development
On January 28, 2016, it was announced that ABC had given the production a pilot order as The Second Fattest Housewife In Westport. The episode was written and author by Sarah Dunn who were expected to executive produce alongside Aaron Kaplan, Kenny Schwartz and Rick Wiener. Production companies involved with the pilot include Eight Sisters Productions, Weiner & Schwartz Productions, Kapital Entertainment, and ABC Studios. On May 12, 2016, ABC officially ordered the pilot to series. A few days later, it was announced that the series, now titled American Housewife, would premiere in the fall of 2016 and air on Tuesdays at 9:30 P.M.
Casting
On February 17, 2016, it was announced that Katy Mixon of Mike & Molly had been cast in the pilot's lead role.[1] In March 2018, it was reported that Carly Hughes, Ali Wong and Diedrich Bader (The Drew Carey Show) had also joined the pilot's main cast.[2][3][4] On June 27, 2016, it was announced that Meg Donnelly had been cast to replace Johnny Sequoyah n the recurring role of Taylor, Katie and Greg's character's daughter.[5]
Reception
American Housewife has received mixed reviews from television critics, with Katy Mixon's performance being praised as the show's highlight. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 54%, based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "American Housewife is boosted by a strong and enjoyable lead performance by Katy Mixon, yet her performance alone strains to sustain an excessively quirky show that relies too heavily on stereotypes." Metacritic reported a score of 60 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Norwalk controversy
In November 2017, the episode "Boo-Who?" featured character Taylor Otto dressed up as a "pregnant Norwalk prom girl", poking fun at the city of Norwalk, Connecticut, which borders the show's location of Westport. Before this incident, there were various other episodes in which Norwalk was mocked: The characters refused to swim in a Norwalk swimming pool, acting like the pool water was diseased because of Norwalk people; one of the children took bets on how many of the girlfriends of Norwalk’s basketball team would be pregnant post season; and Oliver Otto used a neighbor's Hispanic housekeeper to alter flawed Polo shirts and sell them to Norwalk students, believing that no Westport resident would buy them (Oliver ended up earning a lot of money). This brought condemnation from residents, school officials, and politicians of Norwalk. After a petition calling for the producers to stop "bullying" Norwalk got over 500 signatures and media coverage, a Disney spokesperson released a statement saying "As a comedy, ‘American Housewife’ isn’t intended to offend anyone. We’ve heard the concerns of the people of Norwalk and have made the decision to omit any mentions of the city from future episodes".
Trivia
- The original title was The Second Fatest Housewife in Westport.
References
- ↑ https://deadline.com/2016/02/katie-mixon-star-the-second-fattest-housewife-in-westport-abc-pilot-1201704661/
- ↑ https://deadline.com/2016/03/apb-fox-drama-pilot-cast-taylor-handley-ward-horton-cbs-bunker-hill-1201711836/
- ↑ https://deadline.com/2016/03/four-stars-cbs-pilot-cast-ashley-zukerman-ali-wong-in-abc-second-fattest-housewife-1201713123/
- ↑ https://deadline.com/2016/03/diedrich-bader-cast-male-lead-katy-mixon-second-fattest-housewife-in-westport-abc-pilot-1201714535/
- ↑ https://deadline.com/2016/07/american-housewife-meg-donnelly-cast-abc-comedy-recasting-1201793752/
External links
- American Housewife on ABC Database (Fandom)
- American Housewife on Wikipedia