''Surviving Suburbia'' is an American

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 ne ...

television series starring

Bob Saget Robert Lane Saget (May 17, 1956 – January 9, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. Saget played Danny Tanner on the ABC sitcom ''Full House'' (1987-1995), and reprised the role for its Netflix sequel '' Fuller ...

and

Cynthia Stevenson Cynthia Stevenson (born August 2, 1962) is an American actress. She first played a leading role in the syndicated parody comedy series ''My Talk Show'' (1990–91), before starring in a number of sitcoms, including ''Bob'' (CBS, 1992–93), ''H ...

that aired on

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...

(ABC) from April 6 to August 7, 2009. The series originally aired at 9:30 PM Eastern/8:30 PM Central following ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

'', before moving to Fridays at 8:30 PM Eastern/7:30 PM Central for its remaining episodes. It was the first program starring Saget to air on ABC since he left ''

America's Funniest Home Videos ''America's Funniest Home Videos'', also called ''America's Funniest Videos'' (abbreviated as ''AFV''), is an American video clip television series on American Broadcasting Company, ABC, based on the Japanese variety show ''Kato-chan Ken-chan Gok ...

'' in 1997. On August 8, 2009, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson announced that ''Surviving Suburbia'', along with ''

The Goode Family ''The Goode Family'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''Goode Family'') is a short-lived American adult animated television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from May 27 to August 7, 2009. The series was created by Mike Judge, the creator of MTV's '' ...

'', had officially been cancelled due to low ratings.

Premise

A half-hour comedy dubbed as a male version of ''Roseanne'', ''Surviving Suburbia'' focused on a father named Steve Patterson (

), his wife Anne (

), and their two children, Henry and Courtney. The Pattersons lead ordinary, uneventful lives until their new next-door neighbors begin causing several problems, turning their suburban lifestyle upside-down.

Cast and characters

– Steve Patterson *

– Anne Patterson *

Jared Kusnitz Jared Andrew Kusnitz (born November 8, 1988) is an American actor. He has appeared in the films ''Doll Graveyard'' (2005), ''Dance of the Dead (2008 film), Dance of the Dead'' (2008), and ''Prom (film), Prom'' (2011), and television series such as ...

– Henry Patterson * G. Hannelius – Courtney Patterson *

Jere Burns Jere Eugene Burns II (; born October 15, 1954) is an American actor who has appeared in theatre productions and on television. He played the roles of ladies' man Kirk Morris on the television series '' Dear John'', DIA psychiatrist Anson Fullert ...

– Dr. Jim * Dan Cortese – Onno *Lyndsey Jolly – Jenna *Lorna Scott – Monica *

Melissa Peterman Melissa Margaret Peterman is an American actress and comedian. She has played the role of Barbra Jean in the television comedy series '' Reba'', appeared as Bonnie Wheeler in the ABC Family/ Freeform series ''Baby Daddy'', and was host of ABC Fami ...

– Mrs. Muncie

Programming history

In 2008,

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 ...

announced plans to air the comedy as part of their Sunday night programming block with

Media Rights Capital MRC II Distribution Company L.P., doing business as MRC (formerly Media Rights Capital), is an American film and television studio. Founded by Mordecai (Modi) Wiczyk and Asif Satchu, the company funds and produces film and television programming. ...

or MRC. The series was set to air November 2, and 13 episodes were taped. When the MRC block started, it faced very low ratings against other networks (especially with

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 sp ...

's ''Animation Domination''). After only a few weeks the CW pulled the entire block and announced that the status of ''Suburbia's'' air date was TBA. An additional factor in scheduling changes may have been the fact that Media Rights Capital had been unable to keep up with the set production schedule and had begun running out of episodes. CW never released any announcements concerning the series' air date. On February 6, 2009, ABC, which had previously aired two shows with Bob Saget: ''

Full House ''Full House'' is an American television sitcom created by Jeff Franklin for ABC. The show is about widowed father Danny Tanner who enlists his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis and childhood best friend Joey Gladstone to help raise his three dau ...

'' and ''

'', announced that it would be airing ''Surviving Suburbia'' starting April 6. When the first episode aired, it garnered 12.16 million viewers and 3.2/8 million viewers in the 18–49 demographics but ratings kept dropping and it lost a lot of the audience of its lead-in, ''Dancing with the Stars''. ''Surviving Suburbia'' returned to the 8:00PM Eastern/7:00PM Central slot on Friday, June 12 and finished its first and only season on Friday, August 7.Ratings: "Law & Order" Rises, the Non-Celebrities Fall
''TV Guide'', June 4, 2009

Episodes

Weekly ratings

International airings

The program premiered on October 2009 in Greece on Greece's

Fox Life Fox Life is an international pay television network, launched by the Fox Networks Group in 2004. The network has been discontinued in several markets over time, except for the Middle East, Bulgaria, Portugal, the Balkans, India and Greece. The ...

. In Portugal, it airs every weekday at 9:45 on

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1280629
SitcomsOnline.com Review of Surviving Suburbia
2000s American sitcoms 2009 American television series debuts 2009 American television series endings American Broadcasting Company original programming English-language television shows Television series by Media Rights Capital Television shows set in Los Angeles