''Superior Donuts'' 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 ...

television series based on the play of the same name by

Tracy Letts Tracy S. Letts (born July 4, 1965) is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He started his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre before making his Broadway debut as a playwright for '' August: Osage County'' (2007), for which he received ...

that aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

from February 2, 2017, to May 14, 2018. It was produced by Daily Productions, Goldman-Donovan Productions and Teitelbaum Artists, in association with

CBS Television Studios CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount Television, as a renaming of the o ...

. Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan served as showrunners. On March 23, 2017, CBS renewed the series for a second season which premiered on October 30, 2017. On November 27, 2017, CBS ordered an additional eight episodes for the second season, bringing the total to 21 episodes. On May 12, 2018, CBS cancelled the series after two seasons and 34 episodes due to low ratings.

Synopsis

The series revolves around the relationship between donut shop owner Arthur Przybyszewski (

Judd Hirsch Judd Seymore Hirsch (born March 15, 1935) is an American actor. He is known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983), John Lacey on the NBC series '' Dear John'' (1988–1992), and Alan Eppes on the CBS seri ...

), his new young employee, Franco Wicks (

Jermaine Fowler Jermaine Fowler is an American actor, comedian, producer and writer. He is perhaps best known for his role as King Akeem Joffer's long-lost son Lavelle Junson in the 2021 romantic comedy film ''Coming 2 America'' and Franco Wicks on the CBS sit ...

), and the shop's various patrons in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. With the donut shop struggling financially, Franco makes suggestions for improvement and modernization to the sometimes reluctant Arthur. Superior Donuts' supportive regulars include loyal patron Randy (

Katey Sagal Catherine Louise "Katey" Sagal (; born January 19, 1954) is an American actress and singer. She is known for playing Peggy Bundy on '' Married... with Children'' (1987–1997), Leela on ''Futurama'' (1999–2003, 2008–2013, 2023), Cate Hennes ...

), a cop whose late father was Arthur's best friend; in season one only, her over-eager rookie partner, James (

Darien Sills-Evans Darien Evans, better known by his stage name, Darien Sills-Evans, is an American actor, writer, comedian, and director. He is best known for Darien in '' Cosby'' (1998-2000), CSU Tech Foster in ''Third Watch'' (2002-2005) and Andrew in '' The R ...

); Tush (

David Koechner David Michael Koechner ( ; born August 24, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing roles such as Champ Kind in the ''Anchorman'' films and Todd Packer on NBC's ''The Office''. Koechner first became involved in perf ...

), a colorful customer who uses the shop counter as a makeshift office where he keeps tabs on a variety of odd jobs via fax machine; in season one only, Maya ( Anna Baryshnikov), a privileged grad-school student working on her Ph. D; and Sweatpants (Rell Battle), Franco's longtime friend who's willing to dress as a donut to help drum up more business. Looking to cash in on the urban renewal is Arthur's over-caffeinated neighbor, aspiring real estate capitalist Fawz (

Maz Jobrani Maziyar Jobrani ( fa, مازیار جبرانی; born February 26, 1972) is an American comedian and actor who was part of the "Axis of Evil" comedy group. The group appeared on a comedy special on Comedy Central. Jobrani has also appeared in n ...

), who pushes Arthur on a daily basis to sell the building to him. Season two introduces Sofia ( Diane Guerrero), a food truck owner whom Franco befriends quickly.

Cast

Main

as Arthur Przybyszewski, the 75-year-old owner of the donut shop which he founded in 1969, with his now-deceased wife. Arthur is an old-fashioned and sometimes grumpy widower. *

as Franco Wicks, the 28-year-old aspiring artist and Arthur's new and energetic but naive employee, who sees him as a mentor and friend and vows to help Arthur with his struggling donut shop. He and his father had visited Superior Donuts and bought a box of donuts regularly when he was younger. *

as Officer Randy DeLuca, a police officer, daughter of Arthur's best friend, and James' partner. In season 2, she gets promoted after passing the detective exam. *

as Carl 'Tush' Tushinski, a laid-off factory worker who now works odd jobs to make a living and uses Arthur's donut shop as his 'office'. He is one of Superior Donuts' loyal customers, though the episode "Wage Against the Machine" reveals he has run up a tab. *

as Fawz Hamadani Farooq Al-Shahrani, a wealthy Iraqi real estate developer and Franco and Sweatpants' landlord. He owns the dry cleaners next door and wants to buy Superior Donuts and tear it down, despite the fact that he always gets coffee there. In addition to the dry cleaners and apartment buildings, Fawz owns "Rub-A-Dub Sub" and one-eighth of a

Quizno's Quiz Holdings, LLC, doing business as Quiznos, is an American franchised fast-food restaurant based in Denver, Colorado, that specializes in offering toasted submarine sandwiches. It was founded in 1981 by Jimmy Lambatos and sold to Rick and R ...

. *Rell Battle as Sweatpants, Franco's roommate and friend who helps Arthur drum up business. * Anna Baryshnikov as Maya (season 1), a college graduate student from an upper-class family who is frequently doing school work in the shop. She has a crush on Franco. The season 1 finale reveals that Maya was studying the donut shop employees and patrons for her doctoral dissertation. She doesn't appear after season 1. *

as Officer James Jordan (season 1), Randy's geeky younger partner. In the season 2 premiere, it was revealed that he transferred to another police station. * Diane Guerrero as Sofia (season 2), a young Colombian-American gentrifier who parks her food truck that serves healthy, socially conscious breakfast foods in front of the donut shop. She grew up and attended college in Wisconsin. Franco develops a crush on her. The episode "Friends Without Benefits" reveals she reciprocates those feelings.

Guest

Production

Developed and filming

The pilot was originally developed for the 2015–16 television season, but was not picked up, and was put in redevelopment by CBS. In May 2016, a new pilot was ordered, for consideration at midseason. On September 21, 2016, CBS ordered the pilot to series. On December 15, 2016, it was announced that the series would premiere as a "special preview" on February 2, 2017, following ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on C ...

'' and premiered for its regular Monday at 9:00 p.m. timeslot on February 6, 2017.

Casting

On February 10, 2016, '' Crashing'' actor

joined the cast as Franco Wicks, a buddy/employee for Arthur, in the pilot. On August 1, 2016, ''

Taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choic ...

'' star

was cast as Arthur.

from '' Married... with Children'' and '' Sons of Anarchy'' was cast as a female lead for the pilot on September 8, 2016. In September 2016, it was announced that Anna Baryshnikov was cast as Maya; she was upgraded to a series regular role on October 6, 2016. On August 25, 2017, it was announced that Diane Guerrero would play Sofia in a regular role, to replace Baryshnikov.

Cancellation

On May 12, 2018, it was announced that CBS officially cancelled ''Superior Donuts'', along with ''

Kevin Can Wait ''Kevin Can Wait'' is an American television sitcom starring Kevin James that aired on CBS from September 19, 2016, to May 7, 2018. The series was created by James, Rock Reuben, and Bruce Helford, and marked James' second starring role in a CBS ...

'', ''

9JKL ''9JKL'' is an American sitcom television series that was created and executive produced by Dana Klein and Mark Feuerstein, loosely based on the life of the couple, who are married in real life. The series debuted on October 2, 2017. It stars Feu ...

'', '' Living Biblically'', and '' Me, Myself & I''. The combination of factors, including declining ratings, CBS's desire to have an ownership stake, and the network needing to clear space for three new sitcoms in the fall 2018 schedule, led to the show's demise.

Episodes

Season 1 (2017)

Season 2 (2017–18)

Home media

The first season of Superior Donuts was released on DVD on January 22, 2018. The second season was released on June 9, 2020.

Reception

Critical response

Review aggregator

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 ...

gives the series an approval rating of 62% based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "While ''Superior Donuts'' talented cast impressively delivers, the annoying laugh track and stale jokes leave a hole in the middle of a crusty — albeit topical — narrative." 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 ...

the series has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Ratings

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title, id=5462364 2010s American sitcoms 2010s American workplace comedy television series 2017 American television series debuts 2018 American television series endings CBS original programming English-language television shows Television series based on plays Television series by CBS Studios Television shows set in Chicago Television series set in restaurants Fictional portrayals of the Chicago Police Department