''Happy Together'' is an American television

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

created by

Tim McAuliffe Tim McAuliffe (born September 18) is a Canadian comedy writer, television producer and occasional actor from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, known for his work on The Last Man on Earth (TV series), ''The Last Man on Earth'', ''The Office (U.S. TV seri ...

and Austen Earl, that aired on

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

from October 1, 2018 to January 14, 2019. The series follows a young couple whose lives are suddenly thrown into chaos when a pop star moves into their home. It stars

Damon Wayans Jr. Damon Kyle Wayans Jr. (born November 18, 1982) is an American actor and comedian. He starred as Brad Williams in the ABC sitcom ''Happy Endings'', for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in ...

Amber Stevens West Amber Dawn Stevens West (born ) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Ashleigh Howard in the ABC Family series ''Greek'' (2007–2011)'','' Maxine in the NBC sitcom ''The Carmichael Show'' (2015–2017), and Claire Davis in t ...

Felix Mallard Felix Cooper Mallard (born 20 April 1998) is an Australian actor. He began his career playing Ben Kirk in the soap opera ''Neighbours'' (2014–2019). He has since starred in the CBS comedy '' Happy Together'' (2018–2019) and in the Netflix se ...

Stephnie Weir Stephnie Carmel Weir (born November 28, 1967) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She is best known for being a main cast member and writer on the Fox sketch comedy television series ''Mad TV'' from 2000 to 2005, for which she got two W ...

Victor Williams Victor L. Williams (born September 19, 1970) is an American actor best known as Doug Heffernan's ( Kevin James) best friend Deacon Palmer on ''The King of Queens.'' He has also appeared on several other hit TV shows, including '' Homicide: Life ...

and

Chris Parnell Thomas Christopher Parnell ( ; born February 5, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Parnell found wider success during his tenure as a cast member on ...

. In May 2019, the series was cancelled after one season.

Premise

''Happy Together'' follows "Jake and Claire, a thirty something couple who are tired of their mundane life and start to reconnect with their younger, cooler selves when an emerging

pop star A pop icon is a celebrity, character, or object whose exposure in popular culture is regarded as constituting a defining characteristic of a given society or era. The usage of the term is largely subjective since there are no definitively object ...

, who is drawn to their super-normal suburban life, moves in."

Cast and characters

Main

as Jake, an accountant in the entertainment industry who has Cooper James as a client *

as Claire, a restaurant and bar designer and Jake's wife *

as Bonnie, a retired doctor and Claire's mother *

as Gerald, a retired doctor and Claire's father *

as Wayne, a talent manager and Jake's colleague who also works for Cooper *

as Cooper James, an up-and-coming pop star and client of Jake's

Recurring

* Winston James Francis as Nightmare, Cooper's bodyguard

Guest

* Peyton List as Sierra Quinn ("Pilot"), an actress and ex-girlfriend of Cooper's *

Mary Holland Mary Holland is an American actress, comedian, and writer. Early life Holland was born and raised in Galax, Virginia. Career After graduating from college, she began performing at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. She is a cast member of ...

as Suzanne ("Pilot"), an assistant of Sierra's whom she refers to as "

Alexa Alexa may refer to: Technology *Amazon Alexa, a virtual assistant developed by Amazon * Alexa Internet, a defunct website ranking and traffic analysis service * Alexa Fluor, a family of fluorescent dyes * Arri Alexa, a digital motion picture ca ...

" *

James Corden James Kimberley Corden (born 22 August 1978) is an English comedian, actor, writer, producer, singer, and television host. In the United Kingdom, he is best known for co-writing and starring in the critically acclaimed BBC sitcom '' Gavin & S ...

as himself ("Pilot"), the host of ''

The Late Late Show with James Corden ''The Late Late Show with James Corden'' (also known simply as ''Late Late'') is an American late-night talk show that aired on CBS from 2015 to 2023. It is the fourth and final iteration of '' The Late Late Show'', and aired in the United Sta ...

'' who mentions Cooper and Sierra's break-up in his opening monologue *

Pia Mia Pia Mia Perez (born September 19, 1996) is an American singer, actress, and model. She began her career posting song covers on YouTube, after which she was discovered by Babyface in 2010. Three years later, she signed with Interscope Records ...

as Rylie Conners ("Pilot"), a woman Cooper dates while broken up with Sierra *

Betsy Sodaro Betsy Sodaro is an American actress. She is a regular performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles. She is best known for her appearances on comedy programs such as ''Ghosts'', '' Another Period'', '' Duncanville'', '' Clipped ...

as Donna ("Scrubbing"), a thrift store employee that helps Cooper retrieve all of Jake and Claire's donated items *

Anders Holm Anders Holm (born May 29, 1981) is an American comedian and actor. He is one of the stars and creators of the Comedy Central show ''Workaholics'' and starred in the short-lived NBC series ''Champions''. He, along with fellow ''Workaholics'' crea ...

as Antoine ("Let's Work It Out"), Cooper's workout coach *

Damon Wayans Damon Kyle Wayans Sr. (; born September 4, 1960) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, and writer. A member of the Wayans family of entertainers, Damon performed as a comedian and actor throughout the 1980s, including a brief stint ...

as Mike Davis ("Like Father, Like Son"), an accountant for the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), ...

and Jake's father *

Steve-O Stephen Gilchrist Glover (born June 13, 1974), known professionally as Steve-O, is an American stunt performer, comedian, media personality, and podcast host. His career is mostly centered on his shocking and pain-inducing stunts in the realit ...

as S10CIL ("Bland Gestures"), a tattoo artist *

Ben Simmons Benjamin David Simmons (born 20 July 1996) is an Australian professional basketball player who plays for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for one season with the LSU Tigers, a ...

as himself ("Bland Gestures"), an NBA star who plays a charity game with Jake *

Sam Lloyd Sam Lloyd (November 12, 1963 – April 30, 2020) was an American actor and singer who played lawyer Ted Buckland on the comedy-drama series '' Scrubs'' and the sitcom '' Cougar Town''. Early life Lloyd was born in Springfield, Vermont, ...

as Gene Johnston ("Til Death Do We Party"), a podiatrist and Jake and Claire's neighbor

Episodes

Production

Development

On January 31, 2018, it was announced that

had given the production a pilot order. The episode was written by Tim McAuliffe and Austen Earl who were expected to executive produce alongside Ben Winston, Michael Rotenberg, and Jonathan Berry. Production companies involved with the pilot include

Fulwell 73 Fulwell 73 is a British television, film and music production company based in London. It was founded in 2005 by brothers Gabe and Ben Turner, Leo Pearlman, and Ben Winston. James Corden became the fifth full time partner in January 2017. Fulwe ...

3 Arts Entertainment 3 Arts Entertainment, formerly 3 Arts Productions, is an American film and television production company founded in 1991 by Erwin Stoff, Michael Rotenberg and Howard Klein. The company has gone on to produce television series such as ''King o ...

, and

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

. On May 9, 2018, CBS officially ordered the pilot to series. A few days later, it was announced that the series, now titled ''Happy Together'', would premiere in the fall of 2018 and air on Mondays at 8:30 P.M. On July 9, 2018, it was announced that the series would premiere on October 1, 2018. On November 28, 2018, it was announced that CBS had declined to order additional episodes of the series beyond the initial order of thirteen, and that its timeslot on their schedule would be filled by the third season of '' Man with a Plan''. On May 10, 2019, CBS canceled the series after a single season.

Casting

In February 2018, it was announced that

and

had been cast in the pilot's lead roles. In March 2018, it was reported that

and

had also joined the pilot's main cast. On June 22, 2018, it was announced that

had been cast to replace

Tim Meadows Tim Meadows (born February 5, 1961) is an American actor and comedian. He was one of the longest-running cast members on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'', where he appeared for 10 seasons from 1991 to 2000. For his work on ''S ...

in the recurring role of Gerald, West's character's father. Meadows was forced to drop out of the role after the series '' Schooled'', which he had in first position against ''Happy Together'', was picked up to series by ABC.

Filming

''Happy Together'' was filmed at

Radford Studio Center Radford Studio Center, alternatively CBS Studio Center, is a television and film studio located in the Studio City district in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California, United States. The lot has 18 sound stages from , of office spac ...

Studio City, California Studio City is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 1 ...

, but it is set in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Release

Marketing

On May 16, 2018, CBS released the first official trailer for the series.

Premiere

On September 12, 2018, the series took part in the 12th annual PaleyFest Fall Television Previews which featured a preview screening of the series and a conversation with cast members including Damon Wayans Jr., Amber Stevens West, and Felix Mallard.

Reception

Critical response

The series has been met with a mixed response from critics upon its premiere. On the review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

, the series holds an approval rating of 53% with an average rating of 5.17 out of 10, based on 19 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Happy Together''s premise won't win many points for originality, but the show still earns laughs thanks to a winning trio of central performances."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 48 out of 100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Ratings

Home media

The complete series of ''Happy Together'' was released on DVD on March 2, 2021, via DeepDiscount.

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title, 7976568 2010s American multi-camera sitcoms 2018 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings American English-language television shows Television series about marriage Television series by 3 Arts Entertainment Television series by CBS Studios CBS sitcoms