''Detroiters'' is an American television

comedy series Television comedy is a category of broadcasting that has been present since the early days of entertainment media. While there are several genres of comedy, some of the first ones aired were variety shows. One of the first Television in the United ...

created by Sam Richardson, Tim Robinson,

Zach Kanin Zachary Kanin is an American writer, producer, comedian, and cartoonist. He is a former ''SNL'' staff writer and the co-creator, producer, and writer of '' Detroiters'' and ''I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson''. Early life and educatio ...

, and Joe Kelly. The series, filmed on location in

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 th ...

, starred native Michiganders Sam Richardson (of

) and Tim Robinson (of Clarkston). The series premiered on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

on February 7, 2017 and ran for two seasons. On December 11, 2018, Comedy Central canceled the series.

Premise

Best friends and next-door neighbors Sam Duvet (Richardson) and Tim Cramblin (Robinson) work together as creatives at Tim's family's advertising agency in Detroit (which Tim took over after his father stepped down), producing low-budget TV commercials for local businesses.

Cast

* Sam Richardson as Sam Duvet * Tim Robinson as Tim Cramblin

Recurring

*Shawntay Dalon as Chrissy Cramblin, Tim's wife and Sam's sister; she works on an automotive assembly line *Pat Vern Harris as Sheila Portnadi, the secretary at Cramblin Advertising *Lailani Ledesma as Lea, an intern at Cramblin Advertising *Andre Belue as Tommy Pencils, an employee at Cramblin Advertising *Quintin Hicks as Quintin the Bartender *

Chris Powell Christopher George Robin Powell (born 8 September 1969) is an English football coach and former player, who is currently head of coaching at Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur's Academy and a coach for the England national team. As a left b ...

as Ned, a security guard for the building where Cramblin Advertising is located *Carolette Phillips as Rhonda Devereux *

Jason Sudeikis Daniel Jason Sudeikis ( ; born September 18, 1975) is an American actor, comedian, producer, and writer. In the 1990s, he began his career in improv comedy and performed with ComedySportz, iO Chicago (Improv Olympic), and The Second City. In 200 ...

as Carter Grant, a

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

executive *

Mort Crim Mort Crim (born July 31, 1935) is an author and former broadcast journalist. Crim joined Channel 4 (soon to be named WDIV-TV) in Detroit in 1978. Crim stayed with the station 19 years before retiring from anchoring TV newscasts in 1997. Previously, ...

as Himself

Guest stars

* Kevin Nash as "Big Hank" Cramblin *

Chris Redd Christopher Jerell Redd (born March 25, 1985) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, rapper, and singer. Redd was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2017 to 2022. For his work on the show, he won ...

* Keegan-Michael Key * Cecily Strong * Michael Che *

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 Dr. Kozak *

Larry Joe Campbell Lawrence Joseph Campbell (born November 29, 1970) is an American actor and comedian best known for his role as Andy on the ABC sitcom ''According to Jim''. Early life Born in Cadillac, Michigan, Campbell graduated from high school at Pine Ri ...

Richard Karn Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

as himself * Malcolm-Jamal Warner *

Rick Mahorn Derrick Allen Mahorn (born September 21, 1958) is an American former professional basketball player who played power forward and center for the Washington Bullets, Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, and the New Jersey Nets of the National Basket ...

as himself *

Jim Harbaugh James Joseph Harbaugh (; born December 23, 1963) is an American football coach and former quarterback, who is the current and 20th head football coach of the Michigan Wolverines. He played college football at Michigan from 1983 to 1986. He play ...

as himself * Steve Higgins as Eddie Champagne *

Tim Meadows Timothy Meadows (born February 5, 1961) is an American actor and comedian. He was one of the longest-running cast members on ''Saturday Night Live'', where he appeared for ten seasons and for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy ...

as Walt Worsch *

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and ...

as Freddie "Motown" Brown * Wendy Raquel Robinson as Councilwoman Gwinett * Conner O'Malley as Trevor, Tim's brother

Series overview

Episodes

Season 1 (2017)

Season 2 (2018)

Production

Development

Robinson and Richardson, both raised in Michigan, performed improv comedy together first at Hamtramck's Planet Ant Theatre, and later at Chicago's Second City. They became close friends and conceptualized the idea of ''Detroiters''. In an interview with the ''

Metro Times The ''Detroit Metro Times'' is a progressive alternative weekly located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the largest circulating weekly newspaper in the metro Detroit area. History and content Supported entirely by advertising, it is distributed f ...

'', Robinson stated that they sought to depict Detroit as it really is and to avoid the overtly negative light in which the city is typically shown. Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video produced the show, and

, Joe Kelly, and

were executive producers. Robinson and Richardson also wrote for the show.

Cast and filming

''Detroiters'' was shot on-location in Detroit; filming locations included Belle Isle, Hamtramck, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the headquarters of

Little Caesars Little Caesar Enterprises Inc. (doing business as Little Caesars) is an American multi-national pizza chain. Based on 2020 statistics, Little Caesars is the third-largest pizza chain by total sales in the United States, behind Pizza Hut and Do ...

. Many of the commercials shown throughout the series are based on actual spots that showed in the 1990s in the area. The show hired over 200 people from Detroit, including cast members Lailani Ledesma, Christopher Powell, and Shawntay Dalon. The theme song was written by local artist and shoe entrepreneur Rick Williams.

Release

Season 1 of ''Detroiters'' premiered on February 7, 2017 on Comedy Central. The show was renewed and season 2 premiered on June 21, 2018.

Cancellation

On December 11, 2018, it was announced that Comedy Central had chosen not to pick up the show for a third season. Along with the announcement, Richardson tweeted, "Maybe it will find a home elsewhere, who knows?" Comedian

Seth Meyers Seth Adam Meyers (born December 28, 1973) is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, and television host. He hosts ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'', a late-night talk show on NBC. Prior to that, he was a cast member and head writer for NBC ...

wrote an op-ed for

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...

where he advocated for another network to pick up the show.

Broadcast

Internationally, the series premiered in Australia on

The Comedy Channel The Comedy Channel (promoted on air as comedy) is a defunct Australian subscription television channel available on Foxtel, and Optus Television. The channel ceased broadcasting on 1 September 2020. History A joint venture between Artist Servi ...

on February 13, 2017.

Reception

''Detroiters'' received positive reviews from television critics. On

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 ...

, the first season holds an approval rating of 88%, based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Proudly stupid yet surprisingly soulful, ''Detroiters'' showcases an impressive level of commitment from its charming, well-matched leads – and balances its goofy humor with an equal helping of heart." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, 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 arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the first season holds a score of 75 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews." The second season received a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

References

External links

* * {{Comedy Central programming 2010s American sitcoms 2017 American television series debuts 2018 American television series endings Comedy Central original programming English-language television shows Television series by Broadway Video Television shows set in Detroit