''Mulaney'' is an American

sitcom A sitcom, a Portmanteau, 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 troup ...

that aired on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve s ...

from October 5, 2014, to February 15, 2015. Stand-up comedian and former ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...

'' writer

John Mulaney John Edmund Mulaney (born August 26, 1982) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He first rose to prominence for his work as a writer on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2008 to 2013, where he contributed to numerous s ...

created the show and starred as a fictionalized version of himself. At the beginning of each episode, and sometimes throughout, Mulaney would perform

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories ...

to the studio audience. The show suffered from low ratings and poor critical reviews, and was cancelled in February 2015.

Premise

John Mulaney is a comedian living in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

with his roommates—Jane ( Nasim Pedrad), a personal trainer with emotional issues, and Motif (Seaton Smith), a fellow stand-up comedian. John often receives advice from his elderly Jewish neighbor Oscar (

Elliott Gould Elliott Gould (; né Goldstein; born August 29, 1938) is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s. Elliott's breakthrough role was in the ''Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'' (1969), for which he received a nomination f ...

), and visits from his odd and annoying friend Andre (

Zack Pearlman Zachary Michael Pearlman (born May 19, 1988) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Zack in '' The Virginity Hit''. He has co-starred in short-lived television comedies such as MTV's ''The Inbetweeners'' and on the Fox sitcom '' ...

), a small-time drug dealer. John's life changes when he's hired as a writer for Lou Cannon ( Martin Short), an eccentric, legendary comedian and game show host.

Cast and characters

Main

as John Mulaney, a standup comedian and writer for Lou Cannon * Nasim Pedrad as Googoosh "Jane" Parvana, a

personal trainer A personal trainer is an individual who creates and delivers safe and effective exercise programs for apparently healthy individuals and groups, or those with medical clearance to exercise. They motivate clients by collaborating to set goals, p ...

* Seaton Smith as Gerald "Motif" Goods, a standup comedian *

as Andre Van Horn, a drug dealer *

as Oscar Glass, neighbor to John, Jane and Motif * Martin Short as Louis "Lou" Cannon, a game show host and John's boss

Recurring

Fortune Feimster Emily Fortune Feimster (; born July 1, 1980) is an American writer, comedian, and actress. Having made her television debut on NBC's ''Last Comic Standing'' in 2010, Feimster starred as Colette on ''The Mindy Project'' (2015–2017). In July 20 ...

as Mary Jo *

Julie Klausner Julie Klausner (born July 3, 1978) is an American writer, comedian, actress, and podcaster. She is best known for creating, writing, and starring in the Hulu sitcom '' Difficult People'' (2015–2017), which also starred comedian Billy Eichner. ...

as Donna

Guest stars

Maria Thayer Maria Christina Thayer is an American actress and comedian. She first earned public recognition for her portrayal of Tammi Littlenut on the cult series ''Strangers with Candy'' in 1999. Thayer has also had supporting roles in the comedy films '' H ...

as Amanda the

Doula A doula () is a trained professional who provides expert guidance for the service of others and who supports another person (the doula's client) through a significant health-related experience, such as childbirth, miscarriage, induced abortion o ...

Dan Mintz Daniel Alexander Mintz (born September 25, 1981) is an American actor, comedian, and writer best known for his role as Bob's oldest daughter Tina Belcher on the animated show ''Bob's Burgers''. As a comedian, he is known for his extremely dead ...

as Mintz * Lorraine Bracco as Vaughn *

Penny Marshall Carole Penny MarshallBorn Carole Penny Marshall in 1943, as per ''My Mother Was Nuts, a Memoir'', p. 10; . Copyright 2012 (October 15, 1943 – December 17, 2018) was an American actress, director and producer. She is known for her role as ...

as Tutti *

Nora Dunn Nora Dunn (born April 29, 1952) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on the NBC sketch variety TV series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1990, Dr. Reynolds in ''The Nanny'' (1998-1999), and Muriel in ''Home Economics'' ...

as Patty Mulaney, John's mother *

Pete Holmes Peter Benedict Holmes (born March 30, 1979) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and podcaster. Musings on spirituality and religion are frequent themes in his works. Holmes gained recognition in the early 2010s as a stand-up comic, ...

as Father Trey *

Nick Kroll Nicholas Kroll (born June 5, 1978) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is known for creating and starring in the Comedy Central series '' Kroll Show'', ''The Oh, Hello Show'', the FX comedy series ''The Le ...

as Jesse Tyler Munoz * Bailee Madison as Ruby *

Dean Cain Dean George Cain ( Tanaka; born July 31, 1966) is an American actor. From 1993 to 1997, he played Clark Kent / Superman in the TV series '' Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman''. Cain was the host of ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' an ...

as himself

Production

The show was originally taped as a pilot for NBC, but was not picked up. Mulaney re-tooled the pilot,Dodds, Eric (May 15, 2014), "8 Ways the Trailer for Mulaney Resembles Seinfeld". TIME. :1 and then pitched it to Fox, who picked the show up with a cautious six-episode commitment. Fox later ordered an additional ten episodes. A trailer was released on May 12, 2014, along with an announcement that the show would air Sunday nights at 9:30 p.m., replacing the Seth MacFarlane sitcom, ''

American Dad! ''American Dad!'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Since 2014, the series has been airing new episodes on TBS. ''American Dad!'' is the first televisio ...

'', which moved to TBS. The series premiered October 5, 2014. On October 18, 2014, the day before the third episode was supposed to air, Fox announced it was cutting three episodes from its order. This resulted in the production of ''Mulaney'' being shut down, as the thirteenth episode had already been filmed and production of the fourteenth was about to begin. Less than a month later, Fox moved ''Mulaney'' into the 7:30 PM timeslot where ''

Bob's Burgers ''Bob's Burgers'' is an American adult animated sitcom created by Loren Bouchard that premiered on Fox on January 9, 2011. The show centers on the Belcher family—parents Bob and Linda and their three children, Tina, Gene, and Louise—who ...

'' had been airing. The season ended on February 15, 2015, and Fox announced ''Mulaney''s cancellation shortly thereafter.

Episodes

Reception

Mulaney said: Even before ''Mulaney'' aired, critics were wary of the direction of the show. After viewing the show's trailer, Eric Dodds with ''TIME'' magazine penned an article called, "8 Ways the Trailer for ''Mulaney'' Resembles ''Seinfeld''," and said it could "trigger a little déjà vu." In regard to its

multi-camera The multiple-camera setup, multiple-camera mode of production, multi-camera or simply multicam is a method of filmmaking and video production. Several cameras—either film or professional video cameras—are employed on the set and simultaneou ...

format, Canadian magazine ''Maclean's'' asked, "why would a cool comic pick such an uncool format?"Weinman, Jaime J. (August 4, 2014), "'The New Seinfeld'". ''Maclean's''. 127 (30/31):60-62 Ultimately, the show was universally panned by critics, with most reviews drawing unflattering comparisons to ''Seinfeld''. 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 Wan ...

, the show has an approval rating of 17% based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 4.27/10. The site's critical consensus states, "John Mulaney, we know

Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for playing a semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom ''Seinfeld'', which he created and wrote with Larr ...

. ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself and f ...

'' was funny. ''Mulaney'', you're no ''Seinfeld''." On

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 ...

, the series has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

James Poniewozik James "Jim" Poniewozik (; born July 12, 1968) is an American journalist and television critic. He is the chief TV critic for ''The New York Times''. Earlier in his career, he wrote ''Time'' magazine's ''Tuned In'' column for 16 years. Early life ...

with ''TIME'' magazine said the show "seems like something a dutiful student might have produced for his final project in his 'Tropes and Themes in the 1990s Sitcom' class." Robert Bianco with ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' called the sitcom a "misfire." The show was named the fourth-worst show of 2014 by ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

''. ''Mulaney'' fared poorly commercially as well, with the series premiere only getting 2.3 million viewers, the weakest scores for any of the fall's series premieres. The episode from December 21, 2014, became the lowest rated episode, with fewer than 1 million views; the January 18, 2015, episode, airing after the

NFC Championship Game The NFC Championship Game is the annual championship game of the National Football Conference (NFC) and one of the two semi-final playoff games of the National Football League (NFL), the largest professional American football league in the world. ...

, became the highest-rated, with over 3 million viewers.

References

External links

* * * {{John Mulaney 2014 American television series debuts 2015 American television series endings 2010s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2010s American sitcoms Cultural depictions of American men Cultural depictions of comedians English-language television shows Fox Broadcasting Company original programming Television series about comedians Television series about television Television series by 3 Arts Entertainment Television series by Broadway Video Television series by Universal Television Television shows set in New York City