Fall Preview 2016: Will ABC’s ‘American Housewife’ bring something new to family-comedy space?
At the moment, one thing feels fairly clear about the state of network comedy: It’s a crowded field, and it is going to be even more so this coming season with a lot of networks going hard with the genre.
This brings us to “American Housewife,” a show that is interesting for a few different reasons, most notable that this show is being somewhat subversive of the typical family-comedy trope where the wife has to be relatively straight-laced while the husband gets the weird, wacky material that is fun to play. Katy Mixon stars as the title character, and we get the sense that she is going to have a lot of fun in the part … we just hope that we do, as well.
Premiere Date and Timeslot Competition – Tuesday, October 11 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. This show will have the challenge of airing against the likes of “NCIS,” “The Voice,” and The CW’s #1 show in “The Flash.” The biggest thing it has going for it is that none of these shows are comedies, so technically there’s not too much in the way of direct competition that it is going to have to face.
Logline – “Katie Otto, a confident, unapologetic, plump wife and mother of three, raises her flawed family in the wealthy town of Westport, CT, filled with “perfect” mommies and their “perfect” offspring. She lets us in on her deepest, most unfiltered thoughts through voice-over as the she lives her life as the second fattest housewife in Westport.”
Cast – Katy Mixon, Diedrich Bader, Johnny Sequoyah, Daniel DiMaggio, Julia Butters, Carly Hughes, and Ali Wong.
Trailer – Much of it does feel rather family-comedy-by-numbers, from the rebellious children to the snobby neighbors, to even the dancing. What makes it stand out are the liners. Mixon gets a few good ones in here, and we do enjoy the making fun of the 2016 trends such as the Fitbit and all of the “green juice.” There’s a certain “Beverly Hillbillies” vibe here that could be appealing, even if it’s not anywhere near that sort of level.
Overall Take – We’ll be the first to admit that this is a genre of television that we don’t really watch or cover much on the site, largely because it doesn’t really do that much for us anymore when so many similar shows are out there. Yet, at the same time we will concede that this was a funnier trailer than most. Even if you’re cynical, the pilot may still deserve a viewing. The one thing that we hate is the title: It’s incredibly dull, and tells you nothing about the show.
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