''Huff'' (stylized as '' HUFF!'') is an American

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

television series that aired on

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

from November 7, 2004, to June 25, 2006. It won three

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

s from ten nominations, as well as being nominated for a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

and a

Screen Actors Guild Award Screen Actors Guild Awards (also known as SAG Awards) are accolades given by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). The award was founded in 1952 to recognize outstanding performances in movie an ...

. The storyline is centred around psychiatrist Craig Huffstodt. He is a good therapist and middle-aged family man in the middle of a mid-life crisis. His own family's private lives are chaotic, including a mentally incurable uncle Teddy, who fascinates Craig's adolescent son Byrd.

Cast and characters

Besides Azaria, the cast included

Paget Brewster Paget Valerie Brewster (, ; born March 10, 1969) is an American actress and singer. She was first recognized for her recurring role as Kathy on the fourth season of the NBC sitcom ''Friends''. Her breakthrough role came as FBI Supervisory Specia ...

Blythe Danner Blythe Katherine Danner (born February 3, 1943) is an American actress. Accolades she has received include two Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Izzy Huffstodt on '' Huff'' (2004–2006), and a ...

(who won the

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in 2005 and 2006 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Izzy),

Oliver Platt Oliver Platt (born January 12, 1960) is a Canadian-born American actor. He is known for his starring roles in many films such as ''Flatliners'' (1990), ''Beethoven'' (1992), ''Indecent Proposal'', ''The Three Musketeers'' (both 1993), ''Executiv ...

Anton Yelchin Anton Viktorovich Yelchin ( rus, Антон Викторович Ельчин, p=ɐnˈton ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtɕɪn; March 11, 1989 – June 19, 2016) was an American actor. Born in the Soviet Union to a Russian Jewish family, he emigr ...

Andy Comeau Andy Comeau (born October 19, 1970) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Theodore "Teddy" Huffstodt on the Showtime series '' Huff'' (2004-2006). He was also featured in the fourth season of the series ''House'' as Dr. Travis Brenna ...

Kimberly Brooks Kimberly D. Brooks (née Lawson) is an American voice actress who works in the voice-over, film, video games, and theatre industry. She has voiced in video games since the mid-1990s. She has played Ashley Williams in the ''Mass Effect'' serie ...

Liza Lapira Liza Lapira (born December 3, 1981) is an American actress. She played Kianna in the 2008 film '' 21'', Special Agent Michelle Lee in the CBS police procedural series '' NCIS'' and Ivy, Topher Brink's assistant in ''Dollhouse''. Lapira has also c ...

, and

Faith Prince Faith Prince (born August 6, 1957) is an American actress and singer, best known for her work on Broadway in musical theatre. She won the Tony Award as Best Actress in ''Guys and Dolls'' in 1992, and received three other Tony nominations. Life ...

. Those making recurring guest appearances on the show during its first season included

Lara Flynn Boyle Lara Flynn Boyle (born March 24, 1970) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Donna Hayward in the television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991). After portraying Stacy in Penelope Spheeris's comedy ''Wayne's World'' (1992), ...

Robert Forster Robert Wallace Forster Jr. (July 13, 1941 – October 11, 2019) was an American actor, known for his roles as John Cassellis in ''Medium Cool'' (1969), Captain Dan Holland in ''The Black Hole'' (1979), Abdul Rafai in ''The Delta Force'' (1986), ...

Swoosie Kurtz Swoosie Kurtz ( ; born September 6, 1944) is an American actress. She is the recipient of an Emmy Award and two Tony Awards. Kurtz made her Broadway theatre, Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of ''Ah, Wilderness''. She has received five Tony ...

Annie Potts Anne Hampton Potts (born October 28, 1952) is an American actress. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for ''Corvette Summer'' (1978) and won a Genie Award for '' Heartaches'' (1981), before appearing in ''Ghostbusters'' (1984), ''Pretty i ...

, and

. In its second season, ''Huff'' also managed to attract high-profile recurring guest stars, including

Sharon Stone Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress. Known for primarily playing femme fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the recipient of various ...

and

Anjelica Huston Anjelica Huston ( ; born July 8, 1951) is an American actress and director. Known for often portraying eccentric and distinctive characters, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as no ...

Main

Hank Azaria Henry Albert Azaria ( ; born April 25, 1964) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is known for voicing many characters in the animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), most notably Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Sna ...

as Dr. Craig "Huff" Huffstodt: a Los Angeles psychiatrist whose life is sent reeling when a tragedy occurs in his office. An eternal caretaker who thinks he can save people, Huff learns very brutally that he can't save everyone. He deals with the functionally insane all day, and when he comes home, he's faced with the daily insanities of family life. *

as Beth Huffstodt: Huff's loving yet capricious wife. She helps Huff avoid meltdowns, while providing welcome, wifely support and amenities. *

as Russell Tupper: Huff's lawyer, longtime friend and former running buddy from their single days. Although a source of questionable ethics and morality, he still gets it done with a sense of humor and comes through for Huff. *

as Isabelle "Izzy" Huffstodt: Huff's mother who has lived in the apartment above the garage since the breakup of her marriage. Izzy is tough and manipulative but also funny and irreverent. *

as Byrd Huffstodt: Huff and Beth's 14-year-old son. He is a loving child who is concerned with his father's well-being and to what's going on in the family. He's a very bright teenager. *

as Theodore "Teddy" Huffstodt: Huff's younger brother. Literally and figuratively locked away in a private mental institution, Teddy's mental illness brings clarity of thought for Huff during his visits. * Kimberly Brooks as Paula Dellahouse: Huff's office manager who protects him as much as she provokes him. She has been with Huff for a long time and knows him and his family very well. *

as Maggie Del Rosario: Russell's utterly devoted yet pull-no-punches assistant. She cares for him, covers for him and curses him, but it's all in a day's work for her as she knows she's probably the only woman Russell has ever allowed himself to truly depend on. *

as Kelly Knippers: a television sales rep whom Russell meets and woos while shopping for a flat screen. A wild night of partying and debauchery results in a pregnancy that changes both their lives.

Recurring

Season 1

as Ben Huffstodt *

as Madeleine Sullivan * Jack Laufer as The Homeless Hungarian *

as Doris Johnson * Misti Traya as Gail *

as Melody Coatar *

January Jones January Kristen Jones (born January 5, 1978) is an American actress and model. She played Betty Draper in ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), for which she was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and a Pri ...

as Marisa Wells

Season 2

Tom Skerritt Thomas Roy Skerritt (born August 25, 1933) is an American actor who has appeared in over 40 films and more than 200 television episodes since 1962. He is known for his film roles in ''M*A*S*H'', ''Alien'', '' The Dead Zone'', ''Top Gun'', '' A R ...

as Ben Huffstodt * Jack Laufer as The Homeless Hungarian * Ashley Williams as Alyssa *

as Dr. Lena Markova *

as Dauri Rathburn * Alex Black as Tim Winnick * Missy Crider as Natalie

Production and broadcast

The series was created by Bob Lowry and features

as Dr. Craig "Huff" Huffstodt, a

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

whose life changes abruptly when a 15-year-old client commits

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

in his office. The series follows Huff, his family, and his friend Russell Tupper, played by

, as they navigate life. The first season was broadcast on Showtime between November 7, 2004, and January 30, 2005. The second season premiered on April 2, 2006, and ended on June 25, 2006. Two days before the finale, Showtime announced that the show would not be picked up for a third season, and several plotlines, including the resolution of pending criminal charges against Russell Tupper and the possibility of reconciliation between Huff and Beth were left unresolved. The two-hour pilot episode was filmed in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. Later, production for ''Huff'' was moved to Delfino Stages in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Episodes

Season 1 (2004–2005)

Season 2 (2006)

Home media

''Huff - Season One'' was released on Region 1

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

on March 21, 2006. All 13 episodes from the first season are presented in

Anamorphic widescreen Anamorphic widescreen (also called Full height anamorphic or FHA) is a process by which a comparatively wide widescreen image is horizontally compressed to fit into a storage medium (photographic film or MPEG-2 standard-definition frame, for exam ...

(1.78:1) with

Dolby Digital Dolby Digital, originally synonymous with Dolby AC-3, is the name for what has now become a family of audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. Formerly named Dolby Stereo Digital until 1995, the audio compression is lossy ...

5.1 Audio. Extras include commentary tracks on four episodes, three

featurette In the American film industry, a featurette is a kind of film that is shorter than a full-length feature, but longer than a short film. The term may refer to either of two types of content: a shorter film or a companion film. Medium-length film ...

s, five minutes of

deleted scene A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread. A similar o ...

s and a

gag reel A blooper is a short clip from a film or video production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or news report, usually in terms o ...

. ''Huff - The Complete 2nd Season'' was made available in 2012 as a three-disc DVD set, but is only produced via a "manufacture on demand" format through

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (abbreviated as SPHE) is the home video distribution division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. Background SPHE is responsible for the distribution of the Sony Pictures lib ...

.Screen Archives Entertainment
''Huff: The Complete Second Season''
Retrieved 2013-11-24.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{Showtime Network programming 2000s American comedy-drama television series 2004 American television series debuts 2006 American television series endings Showtime (TV network) original programming English-language television shows Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television shows set in Los Angeles Bipolar disorder in fiction Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series