''American Auto'' is an American television
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
created by
Justin Spitzer
Justin Spitzer is an American television and film writer, producer, and series creator whose credits include ''Scrubs'' and ''Courting Alex''. He worked as a writing assistant on ''Queer as Folk'' (U.S. version) and ''Grounded for Life'' prior ...
that premiered on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
on December 13, 2021. In May 2022, the series was renewed for a second season which premiered on January 24, 2023.
Premise
The series follows the employees of
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
-based Payne Motors. The company's struggles after a new CEO who knows little about cars is hired from the pharmaceutical industry.
Cast and characters
Main
*
Ana Gasteyer
Ana Kristina Gasteyer (born May 4, 1967) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1996 to 2002. She has since starred in such sitcoms as ABC's '' Suburgatory,'' TBS's ''People of Earth'', NBC's ...
as Katherine Hastings, Payne Motors' new CEO. Classic corporate shark who jumps from one company to another. Before that she was in a pharmacology company and often tries to make a parallel between that and car industry, but she knows nothing about cars.
*
Harriet Dyer
Harriet Dyer (born 17 October 1988) is an Australian actress. She is best known for starring in the television series '' Love Child'' (2014–2017) and ''No Activity'' (2015–2018). She has also appeared in films, most notably ''The Invisible M ...
as Sadie Ryan, Payne Motors' CCO
*
Jon Barinholtz
Jon Barinholtz (born December 27, 1982) is an American actor, comedian, and producer based in Los Angeles. He has appeared in film and television, and is best known for the role of Marcus White on the NBC sitcom '' Superstore'' and Wesley Payne o ...
as Wesley Payne, grandson of Payne Motors' retired CEO and brat-type who doesn't really have a job but shows at headquarters every day
*
Tye White
Tye White is an American actor, known for his role as Kevin Satterlee in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series, '' Greenleaf'' (2016—18).
Life and career
White is African American, born in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Brother Rice High Sch ...
as Jack Fortin, a former assembly-line employee brought in to help in the C-suite who is like a counselor to Hastings
*
Michael Benjamin Washington as Cyrus Knight, Payne's Chief Product Designer
*
Humphrey Ker
David Humphrey Rivers Ker (; born 11 October 1982) is a British actor, writer and comedian who is a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Penny Dreadfuls.
Early life and education
Ker was born to David Peter James Ker, a fine art dealer, ...
as Elliot, Payne's Chief Counselor
* X Mayo as Dori, Hastings' assistant and social media addict
Guest
*
Jeff Meacham
Jeff Meacham (born April 4, 1979) is an American actor best known for his role in the television comedy series ''Black-ish'' and ''The Thundermans''.
Early life
Meacham attended Booker High School in Sarasota, Florida.
Career
After graduating ...
as Brent
* Christopher Chen as Jin Tao-Kang, CFO who hates Hastings and tries to flee Volkswagen
*
Jerry Minor as Steve
*
Tom McGowan
Thomas McGowan (born July 26, 1959) is an American actor. He first became known for his stage career both on and off Broadway. In 1991, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in ...
as Ed
*
Joshua Malina
Joshua Charles Malina (born January 17, 1966) is an American film and stage actor known for playing Will Bailey on the NBC drama ''The West Wing'', Jeremy Goodwin on '' Sports Night'', US Attorney General David Rosen on ''Scandal'', and Caltech P ...
as Ted
*
Jim O'Heir
Jim O'Heir (born February 4, 1962) is an American actor and comedian, perhaps best known for portraying Jerry Gergich on the NBC sitcom '' Parks and Recreation''.
O'Heir first became active in Chicago theater and improv during the late 1980s ...
as Governor Tom Harper
*
Andy Daly
Andrew J. Daly (born April 15, 1971) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He starred as Forrest MacNeil on the Comedy Central series ''Review'', and had a supporting role in the HBO comedy series ''Eastbound & Down'' as Terrence Cutler. ...
as Frank
*
Matt Murray as Bennett
*
Lombardo Boyar
Lombardo Boyar (born December 1, 1973) is an American actor. He is best known for his recurring role as Chuy in ''The Bernie Mac Show'' and for voicing Lars Rodriguez in '' Rocket Power''.
Career
Lombardo is a veteran of the United States Army, ...
as Robin
*
Betsy Sodaro as Alex
*
Martha Kelly
Martha Kelly (born February 24, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian and actress from Los Angeles, California, best known for co-starring in the FX comedy series ''Baskets''. In 2022, Kelly was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstan ...
as Barb, a desk worker who starts to stalk Hastings
*
Ike Barinholtz
Isaac Barinholtz (born February 18, 1977) is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, and producer. He is best known for his starring roles in the comedy series ''MADtv'' (2002–2007), ''Eastbound & Down'' (2012), '' The Mindy Project'' (20 ...
as Landon Payne, who is in politics.
*
Brad Hall
William Bradford Hall (born March 21, 1958) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is best known as a ''Weekend Update'' news anchor on ''Saturday Night Live'' and for creating the sitcoms ''The Single Guy'' and ''Watching Ellie''.
H ...
as Richard, Katherine's husband and a math teacher in a primary school. He's very supportive to her job until the charity dinner.
*
Ian Roberts as Charlie Altman
*
Jim Meskimen
James Ross Meskimen (born September 10, 1959) is an American actor, comedian and impressionist, who is best known for his voice-over work in video games.
Early life
James Ross Meskimen was born in Santa Monica, California on September 10, 1959 ...
as Soren McGarry
*
Tom Bergeron
Thomas Raymond Bergeron (born May 6, 1955) is an American television personality, game show host, comedian and actor, best known for hosting ''Hollywood Squares'' from 1998 to 2004, ''America's Funniest Home Videos'' from 2001 to 2015, and ''Danci ...
as himself, roasting celebrities at the Payne charity dinner
*
Marc Evan Jackson
Marc Evan Jackson (born August 21, 1970) is an American comedian and actor. Some of his roles include Sparks Nevada in the '' Thrilling Adventure Hour'', Kevin Cozner in '' Brooklyn Nine-Nine'' (he also hosts a podcast based on the sitcom, titled ...
as Alan Strong
*
Eric Stonestreet
Eric Allen Stonestreet (born September 9, 1971) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for portraying Cameron Tucker in the ABC mockumentary sitcom ''Modern Family'', for which he received two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporti ...
as Ian (season 2)
Episodes
Series overview
Season 1 (2021–22)
Season 2 (2023)
Production
Development
''American Auto'' has been in development since August 2013. TV writer
Justin Spitzer
Justin Spitzer is an American television and film writer, producer, and series creator whose credits include ''Scrubs'' and ''Courting Alex''. He worked as a writing assistant on ''Queer as Folk'' (U.S. version) and ''Grounded for Life'' prior ...
, fresh off the success of ''
The Office
''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries.
The original series o ...
'', wanted to produce a workplace comedy of his own, but would instead be set in the upper-management world. Spitzer sold his pitch to
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
, who put the idea as a
put-pilot. The script did not go forward as a pilot, and Spitzer instead went to work on ''
Superstore''. After stepping down as showrunner of ''Superstore'' in April 2019 and signing an overall deal with
Universal Television
Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a prede ...
, Spitzer went back and redeveloped the ''American Auto'' script.
On January 23, 2020, it was given a pilot order by NBC. The pilot was directed by
Jeffrey Blitz
Jeffrey Blitz is an American film director, screenwriter and producer best known for the documentary '' Spellbound'' (2003), ''The Office'' (2007 - 2010), the fiction film '' Rocket Science'' (2007) and ''Comedy Central’s'' ''Review'' (2014 ...
and written by Spitzer who was expected to executive produce alongside Aaron Kaplan and Dana Honor. Production companies involved with the series include
Spitzer Holding Company,
Kapital Entertainment
Kapital Entertainment is an American entertainment company founded by Aaron Kaplan in 2009. Prior to founding Kapital, Kaplan was the worldwide head of scripted television at William Morris Agency to which he joined in 1991. He exited the compan ...
and Universal Television. On January 12, 2021, it was announced that NBC had ordered the series.
On May 12, 2022, NBC renewed the series for a second season.
Casting
In February 2020, ''Deadline'' reported
Harriet Dyer
Harriet Dyer (born 17 October 1988) is an Australian actress. She is best known for starring in the television series '' Love Child'' (2014–2017) and ''No Activity'' (2015–2018). She has also appeared in films, most notably ''The Invisible M ...
had joined the cast as Sadie and later that
Ana Gasteyer
Ana Kristina Gasteyer (born May 4, 1967) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1996 to 2002. She has since starred in such sitcoms as ABC's '' Suburgatory,'' TBS's ''People of Earth'', NBC's ...
had also joined the cast as Katherine Hastings. In March, X Mayo joined the cast as Dori. In July,
Tye White
Tye White is an American actor, known for his role as Kevin Satterlee in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series, '' Greenleaf'' (2016—18).
Life and career
White is African American, born in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Brother Rice High Sch ...
joined the cast as Jack, Michael B. Washington joined the cast as Cyrus,
Humphrey Ker
David Humphrey Rivers Ker (; born 11 October 1982) is a British actor, writer and comedian who is a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Penny Dreadfuls.
Early life and education
Ker was born to David Peter James Ker, a fine art dealer, ...
joined the cast as Elliot, and
Jon Barinholtz
Jon Barinholtz (born December 27, 1982) is an American actor, comedian, and producer based in Los Angeles. He has appeared in film and television, and is best known for the role of Marcus White on the NBC sitcom '' Superstore'' and Wesley Payne o ...
joined the cast as Wesley.
Broadcast
The series premiered on December 13, 2021, at 10 p.m., with two "sneak
eek
Eek or EEK may refer to:
People
* Karl Morten Eek (born 1988), Norwegian footballer
* Maria Magdalena Eek (1733–1800), Finnish pastry chef
Places
* Eek, Alaska
* Eek Airport, Alaska
* Eek River, Alaska
Other uses
* Estonian kroon, a form ...
episodes"
and returned on January 4, 2022, in its regular time slot at 8 p.m. on Tuesdays.
The second season premiered on January 24, 2023.
Reception
Critical response
The
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 6.1/10, based on 11 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "While ''American Auto''s hijinks don't bode well for the future of Payne Motors, they promise a hilarious sitcom with a solid foundation."
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 68 out of 100 based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Ratings
Season 1
Season 2
Notes
References
External links
*
*
{{NBCNetwork Shows (current and upcoming)
2020s American single-camera sitcoms
2020s American workplace comedy television series
2021 American television series debuts
Automotive television series
English-language television shows
NBC original programming
Television series by Kapital Entertainment
Television series by Universal Television
Television shows set in Detroit