''Abby's'' 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 created by Josh Malmuth that aired from March 28 to June 13, 2019, on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. The series stars Natalie Morales,

Neil Flynn Neil Richard Flynn (born November 13, 1960) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his roles as Janitor on '' Scrubs'' and Mike Heck in the ABC comedy series '' The Middle''. He has had notable appearances in television series, ...

Nelson Franklin Nelson Franklin is an American actor best known for his television roles in ''The Millers'', ''Traffic Light'', ''The Office'', ''New Girl'', ''Black-ish'', and ''Veep''. Life and career Franklin was born to father Howard Franklin, a screenwri ...

Jessica Chaffin Jessica Chaffin is an American actress, comedian, and writer best known as part of the comedy duo Ronna and Beverly with Jamie Denbo. She is also known for her recurring roles as Coco Wexler on Nickelodeon's ''Zoey 101'', Marie Faldonado in the C ...

, Leonard Ouzts, and Kimia Behpoornia. In May 2019, the series was canceled after one season.

Premise

Set in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, the series takes place at the home of Abby, a

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

Latina Latina or Latinas most often refers to: * Latinas, a demographic group in the United States * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America. *Latin Americans Latina and Latinas may also refer ...

ex-

Marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

sergeant, who turned her backyard into an unlicensed bar complete with her own set of rules, which the eclectic set of regulars have to follow.

Cast and characters

* Natalie Morales as Abby, a former

sergeant and the owner of the unlicensed bar, Abby's. *

as Bill, an engineer and Abby's new landlord who initially disapproves of the bar, but eventually comes around and joins her circle of patrons. *

as Beth, a lawyer-turned housewife and one of the bar's most loyal customers. * Leonard Ouzts as James, the bouncer for Abby's despite his distaste for confrontation and meek personality. * Kimia Behpoornia as Rosie Consari, Abby's bar-back and oldest friend. *

as Fred, a functioning alcoholic who's known Abby since she was a young girl and acts as a father figure to her.

Production

Development

On September 22, 2017, the production, then untitled, received a

put pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

commitment from NBC. The pilot was written by Josh Malmuth who was set to executive produce alongside

Mike Schur Michael Herbert Schur (born 1975) is an American television producer, writer, director and actor. He was a producer and writer for the comedy series ''The Office'', and co-created ''Parks and Recreation'' with ''Office'' producer Greg Daniels. ...

and David Miner. Production companies involved with the pilot were expected to include

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 predeces ...

Fremulon Fremulon is an American television production company founded by television producer and writer Michael Schur. It is known for producing the long-running series ''Parks and Recreation'', ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'', ''Master of None'', and ''The Good ...

, and

3 Arts Entertainment 3 Arts Entertainment is an American talent management and television/film production company founded by Erwin Stoff, Michael Rotenberg and Howard Klein in 1991. The company has gone on to produce TV shows such as ''King of the Hill'', ''The Off ...

. On January 23, 2018, NBC officially gave the production a pilot order. A week later, it was announced that

Pamela Fryman Pamela Gail Fryman (born 1959) is an American sitcom director and producer. She directed all but twelve episodes of the television series ''How I Met Your Mother''. Early life Fryman was born and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Career F ...

would direct the pilot. On May 8, 2018, it was announced that NBC had given the production a series order. A few days later, it was announced that the series would premiere as a

mid-season replacement In American network television scheduling, a mid-season replacement is a television show that premieres in the second half of the traditional television season, usually between December and May. Mid-season replacements usually take place after a sh ...

in the spring of 2019. On January 24, 2019, it was announced that the series would premiere on March 28, 2019. The series notably is filmed using a largely outdoor set. On May 30, 2019, NBC canceled the series after a single season.

Casting

On February 22, 2018, it was announced that Natalie Morales had been cast as the titular Abby. In March 2018, it was reported that

, Leonard Ouzts,

, and Kimia Behpoornia had joined the cast as series regulars.

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

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 ...

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 series holds an approval rating of 73% based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 6.01/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Despite some watered down, outdated humor, ''Abby's'' brims with potential thanks to its easy going, goofy sensibility and a perfectly cast Natalie Morales." 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 ...

, it has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Ratings

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abby's 2010s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2010s American sitcoms 2010s American workplace comedy television series 2019 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings American LGBT-related sitcoms Bisexuality-related television series English-language television shows Fictional drinking establishments NBC original programming Television series by 3 Arts Entertainment Television series by Fremulon Television series by Universal Television Television shows set in San Diego