''The Guest Book'' is an American anthology comedy television series created by Greg Garcia. Season one starred Charlie Robinson,

Carly Jibson Carly Jibson (born 1984) is an American actress, singer and writer. She is best known for her role in the Broadway musical ''Hairspray'' as Tracy Turnblad. She also starred in the TV series '' The Guest Book'' and '' One Mississippi''. Life and ...

, Lou Wilson, and

Kellie Martin Kellie Martin (born October 16, 1975) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Rebecca "Becca" Thatcher in '' Life Goes On'' (1989–1993), Lucy Knight on '' ER'' (1998–2000), Samantha Kinsey in the '' Mystery Woman'' TV film seri ...

, while season two starred Jibson,

Eddie Steeples Eddie Steeples (born November 25, 1973) is an American actor known for his roles as the "Rubberband Man" in an advertising campaign for OfficeMax, Cal in ''Would You Rather'', and as Darnell Turner on the NBC sitcom ''My Name Is Earl''. Life and ...

Kimiko Glenn Kimiko Elizabeth Glenn (June 27, 1989) is an American actress and Broadway performer known for portraying Brook Soso in the Netflix series ''Orange Is the New Black'', for which she received three ensemble Screen Actors Guild Awards. She also st ...

, Jimmy Tatro, and

Dan Beirne Daniel Beirne (born August 12, 1982) is a Canadian actor. He is most noted for his performance as Mackenzie King in the 2019 film ''The Twentieth Century'', for which he won the Vancouver Film Critics Circle award for Best Actor in a Canadian Fi ...

. The series centers on the lives of the employees of, and visitors to, vacation rental properties: season one focuses on the renters of Froggy Cottage in the small mountain town of Mount Trace, while season two follows the renters of Barefeet Retreat in the oceanside town of Mabel Beach. The regular cast plays residents in the town(s), while each episode is focused on a different guest star who plays an out-of-town vacationer. Garcia, who based the show on his habit of writing fake guest-book entries while on vacation, wrote all the episodes, and makes brief season-two appearances as street beggar Homeless Jack. The series premiered on TBS on August 3, 2017. On September 13, 2017, TBS renewed it for a second season, which premiered on October 23, 2018. Garcia tweeted on September 12, 2019 that TBS had cancelled the series.

Cast and characters

Main

* Charlie Robinson as Wilfred (season 1; guest season 2), the caretaker of Froggy Cottage, the mountain rental. *

as Vivian “Tickles” Williams, the owner of Chubby's, the local strip club near Froggy Cottage. In season 2, she is a waitress at Emmy Lou's Grill, the restaurant near Barefeet Retreat, the beach rental. * Lou Wilson as Frank (season 1; guest season 2), Vivian's stepson. *

as Officer Kimberly Leahy (season 1; guest season 2) *

as Eddie (season 2; recurring season 1), Wilfred and Emma's nephew. *

as Nikki (season 2), Tommy’s fiancée, a waitress at Emmy Lou's Grill. * Jimmy Tatro as Bodhi (season 2), Eddie's friend, target of Vivian's lustful desires. *

as Tommy (season 2), manager at Emmy Lou's Grill and caretaker of his mother's beach rental, Barefeet Retreat.

Recurring

Aloma Wright Aloma Wright (born March 10, 1950) is an American actress, widely known for her roles as Laverne Roberts on the NBC/ ABC comedy series '' Scrubs'' (2001–2009), Maxine Landis on the NBC daytime drama series '' Days of Our Lives'' (2008&ndas ...

as Emma (season 1; guest season 2), Wilfred's wife. *

Garret Dillahunt Garret Lee Dillahunt (born November 24, 1964) is an American actor. He is best known for his work in television, including the roles Burt Chance on the Fox sitcom ''Raising Hope'', for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television A ...

as Dr. Andrew Brown. *

Laura Bell Bundy Laura Ashley Bell Bundy (born April 10, 1981) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for originating the Broadway roles of Amber Von Tussle in the musical version of '' Hairspray and'' Elle Woods in the musical version of ''Legall ...

as Jessica, Andrew's ex-wife. *Trace Garcia as Bryce, Andrew and Jessica's son. *

Margo Martindale Margo Martindale (born July 18, 1951) is an American character actress who has appeared on television, film, and stage. In 2011, she won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award for her recurring role as Mags Bennett on '' ...

as Alice, Kimberly's mother. * Arjay Smith as Arlo (season 1), a fan of the show, seen only in

cold open A cold open (also called a teaser sequence) is a narrative technique used in television and films. It is the practice of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In Amer ...

summarizing the previous week's episode to coworker Woody to entice him to watch the series. *

John Milhiser John Milhiser (born November 29, 1981) is an American actor and comedian. Milhiser first garnered attention for his work as a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch group Serious Lunch, before achieving widespread success for his brief s ...

as Woody (season 1), Arlo's coworker, who never gets around to watching the series. * Tipper Newton as Sinnomin (season 1; guest season 2), Vivian's employee. *Melanie Mosley as Kombucha, Vivian's employee. * Jack Donner as Walter, an elderly Chubby's patron. * honeyhoney as Chubby's house band, a mailwoman (Suzanne Santo) and an exterminator (Benjamin Jaffe). In season 2, they relocate to Mabel Beach, take jobs as a food-cart lady and a lifeguard, and play at Emmy Lou's Grill.

Episodes

The intended fifth episode of the series was originally intended to air on August 24, 2017, but was held back as it "contained elements that were deemed too sensitive" at that point in time. At the end of August 2017, Garcia noted on Twitter that the held episode would not be made available "for awhile", and that he hopes that it will be released at a later date. In mid-September, Garcia again posted on Twitter and confirmed that the episode would air the next Thursday as the eighth episode of the season, albeit in an edited form to fit its new place in the show's continuity. When the episode aired, the sensitive elements were revealed to be in relation to the

Unite the Right rally The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, ...

which took place two weeks before the episode was originally due to air. The episode depicted an Alzheimer's patient regaining his spousal abuse tendencies and racist personality - going as far as sewing and wearing a KKK outfit with the intention of attending a rally, while also revealing he once murdered an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

while burning down a local

black church The black church (sometimes termed Black Christianity or African American Christianity) is the faith and body of Christian congregations and denominations in the United States that minister predominantly to African Americans, as well as their ...

Season 1 (2017)

Season 2 (2018)

Reception

Critical response

On the

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 ...

website

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 has an approval rating of 64% based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 6.33 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads, "An outstanding cast and sporadically sharp humor make ''The Guest Book'' worth checking out, even if its anthology formula leads to a bumpy journey from episode to episode."

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 ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 55 out of 100 based on 9 reviews.

Ratings

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Guest Book, The 2017 American television series debuts 2018 American television series endings 2010s American anthology television series 2010s American sitcoms English-language television shows Television series by Studio T TBS (American TV channel) original programming Television series by CBS Studios