''In the Motherhood'' is an American television

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 ...

that debuted on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

as a midseason entry and ran from March 26 to June 25, 2009.ABC Drops "Motherhood", Shuffles Sundays
''The Futon Critic'', June 30, 2009. Retrieved June 30, 2009. The series was produced by

ABC Studios ABC Signature is an American television Filmmaking#Production, production studio that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is part of the List of assets owned by The Walt Disney Company#Disne ...

in association with Spud TV and Mindshare Entertainment.

Plot

The series focused on Rosemary, Jane, and Emily, loosely inspired by real-life everyday moms. Rosemary, who has been married numerous times but currently single, is a fast and loose free-wheeling mom with a teenaged son, Sid, who seems to be more responsible than his non-traditional mother. Rosemary's best friend, Jane, is a recently divorced mother of two girls, pre-teen Annie, and eight-month-old Sophie. As she tries to keep her career and home afloat, Jane has also hired a "manny," Horatio, to help her out with her working mother duties. Horatio also has the ability to "communicate" with Sophie and believes she is the only person that really "gets" him. Jane's younger sister, Emily, is a model stay-at-home-super-mom for her two young children, Esther and Bill. Emily also believes in perfection which she sees as key to her family life and takes parenting as seriously as any mother could. Her home is a work of art, and her kids are polite and sweet. Emily is married to Jason, the breadwinner in the family, who likes his food to be organic and determined to make sure that his family is at the top of their class.

Cast and characters

Cheryl Hines Cheryl Ruth Hines (born September 21, 1965) is an American actress and director, best known for playing the role of Larry David's wife, Cheryl, on HBO's ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', for which she has been nominated for two Emmy Awards. She also s ...

as Jane *

Megan Mullally Megan Mullally (born November 12, 1958) is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She is best known for playing Karen Walker on the NBC sitcom ''Will & Grace'' (1998–2006, 2017–2020), for which she received eight Primetime Emmy Award no ...

as Rosemary *

Matt Prokop Matthew Ray Prokop (born July 29, 1990) is an American former actor. He is best known for his role as Jimmie "The Rocket Man" Zara in '' High School Musical 3: Senior Year'' and Josh Rosen in the Disney Channel's ''Geek Charming''. Early life ...

as Luke *

Horatio Sanz Horacio Sanz (born June 4, 1969), better known by his stage name Horatio Sanz, is a Chilean-born American actor and comedian. He was a cast member on '' Saturday Night Live'' from 1998 to 2006. Early life Sanz was born on June 4, 1969 in Sant ...

as Horatio *

Jessica St. Clair Jessica St. Clair is an American actress and improvisational comedian from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. With frequent collaborator Lennon Parham, she co-created and co-starred in NBC's ''Best Friends Forever'' and USA Network's '' Playi ...

as Emily *

RonReaco Lee RonReaco Lee (born August 27, 1977) is an American television and film actor best known for his roles as Tyreke Scott on the ABC/The WB sitcom '' Sister, Sister'', and as Jamal Woodson on the BET romantic comedy '' Let's Stay Together''. From 2014 ...

as Jason

Production

Loosely based on the popular online web series created by Mindshare and produced by Science + Fiction and Microsoft's Branded Entertainment and Experience Team (BEET) in 2007 in conjunction with Suave hair care products and

Sprint Nextel Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before it merged with T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 million customers as of June 30, 2019. The co ...

, this adaptation chronicled the daily and hilarious perils of three mothers, with most of their stories being adapted from everyday real-life mothers. The success of the webisodes led to ABC's announcement to order 7 initial episodes for the 2008-2009 TV season after the premiere. Sprint and Suave had an involvement in the series as well.

Casting

Whereas the webisodes featured Leah Remini,

Jenny McCarthy Jennifer McCarthy Wahlberg (' Jennifer Ann McCarthy; born November 1, 1972) is an American actress, model, and television personality. She began her career in 1993 as a nude model for ''Playboy'' magazine and was later named their Playmate of ...

, and

Chelsea Handler Chelsea Joy Handler (born February 25, 1975) is an American comedian, actress, writer, television host, and producer. She hosted the late-night talk show ''Chelsea Lately'' on the E! network from 2007 to 2014 and released a documentary series, ...

in the lead roles, Handler was supposed to be the only cast member from the series to make the transition to the small screen. But on November 24, 2008, ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' reported that the series would instead star

and

. In addition,

and

had also been cast, with Sanz playing Hines's manny and St. Clair playing Hines's "intimidating younger sister," who doesn't discipline her children. Handler decided to drop out of the project due to scheduling commitments to her E! show ''

Chelsea Lately ''Chelsea Lately'' is an American Late night television, late night Television comedy, comedy talk show created by Brody Stevens and hosted by comedian Chelsea Handler which was broadcast on E! The show debuted on July 16, 2007, and was produced ...

''.

Reception and scheduling

The series had not been received well by critics, and despite ABC's promotional push in the hope of weakening NBC's Thursday night comedy lineup, not many viewers, especially fans of the original web series, flocked to see the show. On April 30, 2009, ABC announced that it was pulling the series. Followed by the return of ''

Ugly Betty ''Ugly Betty'' is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which was originally broadcast on ABC. It premiered on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian t ...

'' to the schedule while on May 15, 2009, ABC announced that ''In the Motherhood'' would return once again, to burn off the remaining episodes. But on June 30, 2009, ABC announced that they pulled ''In the Motherhood'' and instead doubled up on ''

Samantha Who? ''Samantha Who?'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from October 15, 2007, to July 23, 2009. The series was created by Cecelia Ahern and Donald Todd, who also served as producers. Although highly rated during its first ...

'' for Thursday, July 2 and Thursday, July 9 at 8:30PM Eastern/7:30PM Central."In the Motherhood": ABC Yanks Cancelled Sitcom Again
''TV Series Finale'', July 1, 2009. Retrieved July 5, 2009.

Episodes

U.S. Nielsen ratings

References

External links

* (Web series) * (Television series)

{{DEFAULTSORT:In The Motherhood 2000s American single-camera sitcoms 2009 American television series debuts 2009 American television series endings Television series based on Internet-based works Motherhood American Broadcasting Company original programming Pregnancy-themed television shows Television series by ABC Studios Television shows set in Los Angeles American comedy web series