''18 to Life'' is a Canadian sitcom television series that debuted on January 4, 2010, on
CBC. The series is shown in Quebec on
Vrak.TV
Vrak (stylized as VRΔK) is a Canadian French language specialty channel owned by Bell Media. The channel primarily broadcasts live-action programming aimed at youth audiences.
History Background
The youth channel TVJQ () went on the air in ...
with the title ''Majeurs et mariés''.
Synopsis
The show stars
Stacey Farber and
Michael Seater
Michael Seater (born January 15, 1987) is a Canadian actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. From 2005 to 2009, he starred as the titular role in the Canadian sitcom ''Life with Derek''. He later portrayed James Gillies in ''Murdoch Mysteri ...
as Jessie Hill and Tom Bellow, a young couple who decide, on a dare, to get married right out of high school. The cast also includes
Peter Keleghan and
Ellen David
Ellen David is a Canadian actress. She was co-nominated for a 2007 Gemini Award for Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series in '' The Business'' episode ''Check Please'' and nominated for a 2005 Prix Gemeaux for Meilleur rôle de ...
as Tom's parents Ben and Judith Bellow, and Alain Goulem and
Angela Asher as Jessie's parents Phil Hill and Tara Mercer. The two families live next door to each other and ascribe to the
adage
An adage (; Latin: adagium) is a memorable and usually philosophical aphorism that communicates an important truth derived from experience, custom, or both, and that many people consider true and credible because of its longeval tradition, i.e. ...
that "good fences make good neighbors." Jessie's parents are free-spirited and do not believe in societal constructs of marriage or organized religion. They have a refugee from Iraq living in their basement. Tom's parents are traditional
white-collar sticklers for rules. Tom's father is a judge who converted to Judaism when he married and his mother is a homemaker. Jessie and Tom eventually settle into the attic suite of Tom's parents' house as their first marital home and try to balance college, work, and the trials of being young newlyweds. The show is set in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
.
Production
The series was originally announced in 2008 as a co-production between CBC and the American television network
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
, although ABC later dropped out of the production. The
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
was filmed in 2008 and the rest of the first season was filmed in the summer of 2009.
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
, another U.S. network, had interest in the series and announced on July 15, 2010 that it would pick up the show.
Season 2 was filmed in the summer of 2010 and returned to
CBC on January 3, 2011, with 13 new episodes.
CBC has officially canceled the show and there will be no season three. The final episode, the 25th, was telecast on March 28, 2011.
Episodes
Season 1 (2010)
Season 2 (2011)
International distribution
''18 to Life'' was broadcast in the United States on
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
. The first six episodes were shown in August 2010. On August 19, 2010, The CW announced that it had removed the series from its schedule.
On August 24, 2010 it was reported that Arnie Gelbart, executive producer of the series and CEO of the production company Galafilm Productions, said The CW would show the remaining six episodes of the first season in December 2010; this never did occur.
In
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Zee Café
Zee Café is an Indian pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. The channel mainly syndicates popular American and British television shows to appeal to the English-speaking population of India.
History
Zee English was ...
began broadcasting the first season on February 9, 2011.
Reception
Critical reception
John Doyle of ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' said that ''18 to Life'' "crackles with wit" and that "Peter Keleghan is in fine fettle as Tom's uptight dad." ''
Quebecor Media
Quebecor Media Inc. is a Canadian media conglomerate that owns a wide array of media outlets, as well as an internet service provider.
History
In 1983 Quebecor purchased the Winnipeg Sun newspaper, which had been independently run. The newspap ...
s Bill Harris called the premise "kind of refreshing" and described it as a "Canadian combination of ''
Meet the Parents'' and ''
Modern Family
''Modern Family'' is an American family sitcom television series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan for the American Broadcasting Company. It ran for 11 seasons, from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. It follows the lives of thr ...
''."
Rob Owen of the ''
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the All ...
'' described the series as a "gentle, intermittently entertaining Canadian import." He also compared ''18 to Life'' to the sitcom ''
Dharma & Greg
''Dharma & Greg'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from September 24, 1997, until April 30, 2002, for 119 episodes over five seasons.
The show starred Jenna Elfman and Thomas Gibson as Dharma and Greg Montgomery, a ...
''. Roger Catlin of ''
The Hartford Courant
The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...
'' found ''18 to Life'' to be "kind of sweet in a Disney/
ABC Family
The American cable television, cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and s ...
kind of way."
Brad Oswald of the ''
Winnipeg Free Press
The ''Winnipeg Free Press'' (or WFP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, national, and international news, as well as ...
'' said there is "plenty of next-door comedy" however he found the premise "simply isn't believable". Glenn Garvin of ''
The Miami Herald
The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County and the Miami metropolitan area, several miles west of Downtown Miami.[Megan Angelo
Megan Angelo (born ca. 1985) is a journalist and the author of the 2020 novel ''Followers''.
Early life and education
Angelo grew up in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, and has two younger brothers. She attended St. Isidore Elementary School and Quake ...]
of ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' leads off her review by mistakenly claiming this is "adapted from a Canadian hit" when there is no American adaptation of the show. She then mentioned the general critical decrying of the glamourisation of out-of-wedlock pregnancy in the films ''
Juno
Juno commonly refers to:
*Juno (mythology), the Roman goddess of marriage and queen of the gods
*Juno (film), ''Juno'' (film), 2007
Juno may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters
*Juno, in the film ''Jenny, Juno''
*Ju ...
'' and ''
Knocked Up
''Knocked Up'' is a 2007 American romantic comedy film written, co-produced and directed by Judd Apatow, and starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, and Leslie Mann. It follows the repercussions of a drunken one-night stand between a sl ...
'' and then says that out-of-pregnancy wedlock is not any better for teenagers. Angelo goes on to say that "what makes it really hard to watch is Tom and Jessie's casual discourse on sex." She further explains that what makes ''18 to Life'' so difficult to watch compared to shows such as ''
Gossip Girl
''Gossip Girl'' is an American teen drama television series based on the novel series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series, developed for television by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, ran on The CW network for six sea ...
'' and ''
90210'' is that creating a believable world and "trying to legitimize the whole thing only makes it worse – and usually, the CW doesn't try." Mary McNamara, television critic for ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', opens her review by saying, "The setup for this CW show isn't anything new. Except, possibly, in its old-fashioned commitment to marriage." McNamara later says "It is much more shocking to see these young people leap into matrimony than it would be if they were just having sex or even moving in together." As to the writing, McNamara says it "plays like an improv exercise in a high school drama class".
Jaime Weinman of ''
Maclean's
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian perspe ...
'' reviewed the negative American reviews, in particular those from the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The Wall Street Journal'', and had concern about their "criticizing the show because it's about two over-18 teenagers who get married." In writing of ''The Wall Street Journal'' review Weinman said it is an "odd presumption" that "a relatively realistic portrayal of teenage sex, of somewhat normal and (comparatively) de-glamorized teens who have been sexually active, is worse than the glossy version we get on the CW's own shows." In response to McNamara's comment in ''Los Angeles Times'' about the marriage of the two main characters being shocking Weinman said, "That's part of the point of the show: the characters make a decision that has more impact, legally and culturally, than any other, and one that their parents fear will ruin their lives."
Ratings
The show premiered on January 4, 2010 on CBC. Only the weekly top 30 ratings are available to the public in Canada and ''18 to Life'' never ranked in the top 30 during its first season.
The U.S. premiere on The CW on August 3, 2010
garnered 1.01 million viewers and a 0.4 rating with adults 18–49 and even lost viewers from an encore of the low rated summer reality series ''
Plain Jane
Plain Jane may refer to:
*''Plain Jane'', a 1922 play by McElbert Moore
* ''Plain Jane'' (Wednesday Theatre), an Australian TV movie
* ''Plain Jane'' (TV series), a U.S. TV series airing on The CW
*Plain Jane (band), an American band from the lat ...
'' which preceded the premiere.
The next two episodes aired on The CW on August 10 and fell in the ratings even further with only 0.76 million viewers and a 0.3 rating in the adults 18–49 demographic.
Home video
On January 18, 2011 the first season was released on DVD in both the US and Canada. The second season has not been released or announced on DVD, but both the first and second seasons are available for purchase from the Canadian
iTunes Store
The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...
in both HD and SD format, and were previously available on
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
. It is currently available to stream on the media content platform
Tubi TV
Tubi is an American over-the-top content platform and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corporation. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In January 2021, Tubi reached 33 million monthly ...
.
Streaming
In July 2019 the series has been released on the Canada Media Fund Encore + YouTube channel. It is also streaming on Amazon.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:18 To Life
2010 Canadian television series debuts
2010s Canadian teen sitcoms
2011 Canadian television series endings
CBC Television original programming
English-language television shows
Television series about couples
Television series about families
Television series about teenagers
Television shows filmed in Montreal
Television shows set in Montreal
The CW original programming