''Playing House'' 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 ...

that premiered on April 29, 2014, on the

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...

Lennon Parham Lennon Kathleen Parham (born October 26, 1975) is an American actress and improvisational comedian from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. With frequent collaborator Jessica St. Clair, she created and co-starred in NBC's ''Best Friends Forev ...

and Jessica St. Clair created and star in the series, which is inspired by their real-life friendship. On January 14, 2016, the series was renewed for a third season, which aired from June 23 to July 14, 2017 with each episode available via VOD. On October 30, 2017, series stars and creators Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham, announced over an emotional video message that USA Network canceled the show.

Premise

When mother-to-be Maggie ends her marriage upon discovering her husband's affair with a woman online, she turns to her best friend Emma for support. In order to help Maggie in her time of need, Emma gives up her successful business career in China to return to their hometown of Pinebrook and help her friend raise her newborn baby.

Cast

Main

as Maggie Caruso – Emma's best friend since childhood, who was pregnant and newly single after a sudden separation from her husband in the first season. She is the mother of Charlotte Emma Caruso. * Jessica St. Clair as Emma Crawford – Maggie's best friend since childhood. She leaves her overseas job in China to come home and to help Maggie. *

Keegan-Michael Key Keegan-Michael Key (born March 22, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He co-created and co-starred alongside Jordan Peele in Comedy Central's sketch series ''Key & Peele'' (2012–2015) and co-starred in USA Netw ...

as Mark Rodriguez – A local cop and childhood friend of Maggie and Emma. Mark and Emma used to date in high school. * Zach Woods as Zach "Zoo" Harper – Maggie's younger brother. *

Brad Morris Brad Morris (born August 16, 1975) is an American actor and television writer. He starred in ''Playing House'' and had recurring roles on ''Cougar Town'' as Jerry from 2013 to 2015, for which he also wrote five episodes, ''Great News'' from 201 ...

as Bruce Caruso – Maggie's ex-husband. He is the father of Charlotte.

Recurring

Jane Kaczmarek Jane Frances Kaczmarek (; born December 21, 1955) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Malcolm's mother Lois on the Fox television sitcom '' Malcolm in the Middle'' (2000–2006), which earned her three Golden Globe nominat ...

as Gwen Crawford – Emma's mother. *

Lindsay Sloane Lindsay Sloane Leikin-Rollins (born August 8, 1977) is an American actress. She is known for playing Valerie Birkhead on ''Sabrina the Teenage Witch'' (1997–99) and Emily in '' The Odd Couple'' (2015–17). She has also starred in films such ...

as Tina "Bird Bones" Steigerman – Mark's wife and former nemesis to Emma. * Gerry Bednob as Mr. Nanjiani – a local townsperson, originally from Pakistan. *

Marissa Jaret Winokur Marissa Jaret Winokur (born February 2, 1973), sometimes credited as Marissa Winokur, is an American actress and singer known for her Tony-winning performance as Tracy Turnblad in the Broadway musical '' Hairspray,'' an adaptation of John Wate ...

as Candy – a bartender at Rosie's, the local restaurant. * Ian Roberts as Ian – Mark's partner on the police force. *

Sandy Martin Sandy Martin is an American actress, playwright, director, and producer. She is best known for her roles in the film '' Napoleon Dynamite'' and the TV series '' Big Love'', ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'', and '' Ray Donovan''. Career Mart ...

as Mary Pat – Bruce's mother. * Norma Michaels as Ms. Johannsen – a prickly old woman living in the town. *

Kyle Bornheimer Kyle Edward Bornheimer (born September 10, 1975) is an American actor and comedian known for his roles on the sitcoms '' Worst Week'', ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'', '' Casual'', and '' Playing House''. Life and career Bornheimer was born in Mishawaka ...

as Dan – a Rabbi. *

Ben Willbond Benjamin Thomas Willbond (born 18 January 1973) is an English actor and screenwriter best known as a member of the British Horrible Histories troupe in which he appears in the TV series ''Horrible Histories'', '' Yonderland'' and ''Ghosts''. He ...

as Dr. Clive Ericson, a cold and distant doctor supervising Maggie on clinical rotation.

Episodes

Season 1 (2014)

Season 2 (2015)

Season 3 (2017)

Production and development

''Playing House'' first appeared on the

development slate in February 2013, under the name ''Untitled Lennon Parham/Jessica St. Clair Project''. The series was created by

and Jessica St. Clair who also star in the series and executive produce alongside

Scot Armstrong Scot Armstrong is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He is credited with writing or co-writing numerous comedy films, including '' Old School'', '' The Hangover: Part II'', ''Semi-Pro'', ''Road Trip'', and many others. He is als ...

and Ravi Nandan, and the production companies

Universal Cable Productions Universal Content Productions (UCP) is an American television production company operating within the Universal Studio Group division of NBCUniversal. History Universal Cable Productions In July 2008, Universal Cable Productions was split off ...

and American Work. Casting announcements began in February 2013, with Parham, St. Clair and Zach Woods announced as starring in the series when USA Network ordered the presentation. Parham and St. Clair signed on to play the lead roles of Maggie, an expectant mother who turns to her career-driven best friend Emma.

and

then signed on to the series, with Key playing the role of Mark, a cop who holds resentment towards Emma because she turned down his proposal and left town twelve years earlier, and Morris playing the role of Bruce, Maggie's husband, who cheats on her. On May 16, 2013, ''Playing House'' was ordered to series, making it the second original half-hour comedy series for the USA Network after ''

Sirens Siren or sirens may refer to: Common meanings * Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies * Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology Places * Siren (town), Wisconsin * Siren, Wisco ...

''. On December 8, 2014, USA Network renewed ''Playing House'' for an eight-episode second season. Through a new model, each of the episodes will be released on

video-on-demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

platforms before airing a week later on USA. On January 14, 2016, ''Playing House'' was renewed for a third season.

Reception

The first season of ''Playing House'' scored 65 out of 100 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 ...

based on 13 "generally favorable" reviews. On another review aggregator site,

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 ...

, it holds a 76% rating with an average rating of 7.1 out of 10, based on 17 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham are a comedy duo worth watching, and their chemistry helps to make ''Playing House'' reasonably enjoyable and perceptive." The second season was met with even more positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds an average of 100% with an average of 7 out of 10, based on 6 reviews.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{USANetwork Shows 2010s American single-camera sitcoms 2014 American television series debuts 2017 American television series endings English-language television shows Television series by Universal Content Productions USA Network original programming Television shows set in Connecticut Television shows featuring audio description