''Raising Hope'' 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
Greg Garcia that aired on
Fox
Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush").
Twelve species ...
from September 21, 2010, to April 4, 2014.
Following its first season, the show received two nominations at the
63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, honoring the best in prime time television programming from June 1, 2010, until May 31, 2011, were held on Sunday, September 18, 2011, at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Fox televised the ...
.
Martha Plimpton
Martha Plimpton (born November 16, 1970) is an American actress and member of the Carradine family. She started her career as a teen actress in film before transitioning to adult roles on stage and screen. She has received several awards includ ...
was nominated for
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, and
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman (April 30, 1926 – January 27, 2021) was an American actress and comedian whose career spanned nearly eight decades. She received many accolades including 22 Primetime Emmy nominations and won eight, tying Julia Louis-Dreyfus ...
was nominated for
Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. Plimpton also won the 2011
Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.
The fourth season premiered Friday, November 15, 2013, at 9:00 pm Eastern/8:00 pm Central with back-to-back episodes. Greg Garcia left ''Raising Hope'' to work on ''
The Millers
''The Millers'' is an American sitcom television series that was created by Greg Garcia (producer), Greg Garcia and stars Will Arnett as Nathan Miller and Margo Martindale as Carol Miller. The Multiple-camera setup, multi-camera series aired fr ...
'' for
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 ...
. On March 10, 2014, Fox cancelled the show after four seasons. The series finale aired on April 4, 2014.
Premise
James "Jimmy" Chance is a 23-year-old living in the quirky fictional town of Natesville,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
who impregnates a
serial killer
A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone:
*
*
*
*
* (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...
during a
one-night stand
A one-night stand is a single sexual encounter in which there is no expectation that there shall be any further relations between the sexual participants. It draws its name from the common practice of a one-night stand, a single night performanc ...
. Earning custody of his unexpected daughter, Hope, after the mother is
sentenced to death
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
, Jimmy relies on his unorthodox but well-intentioned family for support in raising her.
Cast and characters
*
Lucas Neff as James "Jimmy" Bon Jovi Chance, Hope's father. A good-natured, wide-eyed 23-year-old who is clueless about raising a child and everything else. Jimmy goes to Howdy's Market in Natesville to get items for baby Hope, where he meets Sabrina.
*
Martha Plimpton
Martha Plimpton (born November 16, 1970) is an American actress and member of the Carradine family. She started her career as a teen actress in film before transitioning to adult roles on stage and screen. She has received several awards includ ...
as Virginia Slims Chance (née Thompson), Hope's paternal grandmother, Jimmy's mother, and Burt's wife. Virginia became pregnant with Jimmy at age fifteen, delivering him when she was sixteen. Virginia works as a maid, cleaning houses of upper-class people while the Chances appear to live just above the poverty line.
*
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 ...
as Engleburt "Burt" Jebbidiah Chance, Hope's paternal grandfather, Jimmy's father, and Virginia's husband. Burt conceived Jimmy with Virginia when he was seventeen. He has a lawn care/pool cleaning business with Jimmy as his assistant.
*
Shannon Woodward
Shannon Marie Woodward is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Sabrina Collins on the Fox sitcom '' Raising Hope'' (2010–2014), Elsie Hughes on the HBO science-fiction thriller series ''Westworld'' (2016–2018), and the ...
as Sabrina Chance (née Collins), Jimmy's coworker and eventual wife and Hope's adoptive mother.
*
Cloris Leachman
Cloris Leachman (April 30, 1926 – January 27, 2021) was an American actress and comedian whose career spanned nearly eight decades. She received many accolades including 22 Primetime Emmy nominations and won eight, tying Julia Louis-Dreyfus ...
as Barbara June "Maw Maw" Thompson (recurring season 1, starring seasons 2–4), Virginia's 84-year-old grandmother, Jimmy's great-grandmother, and Hope's great-great-grandmother. Her
dementia
Dementia is a syndrome associated with many neurodegenerative diseases, characterized by a general decline in cognitive abilities that affects a person's ability to perform activities of daily living, everyday activities. This typically invo ...
is a plot line of several episodes and forces her granddaughter to have to take care of her, while Virginia and Burt live in Maw Maw's house rent free.
*
Gregg Binkley
Gregg Binkley (born March 20, 1963) is an American actor. He is known for playing Kenny James on ''My Name is Earl'' (2005–2009), Barney on ''Raising Hope'' (2010–2014), Harold in '' Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation'' (1992), a ...
as Barney Hughes (recurring season 1, starring seasons 2–4), Manager of the store where Jimmy and Sabrina work.
* Baylie and Rylie Cregut as Hope Chance (born Princess Beyonce Carlyle), Jimmy's and Lucy's daughter and adopted daughter of Sabrina, Virginia and Burt's granddaughter and Maw Maw's great-great-granddaughter.
Episodes
Development and production
In June 2009, Fox announced it had booked a
put pilot
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...
commitment with show creator
Greg Garcia.
Actress
Olesya Rulin
Olesya Yurivna Rulina (; born March 17, 1986) is a Russian-American actress. She is best known for co-starring in all three films of the ''High School Musical'' franchise as Kelsi Nielsen. She also starred in the films '' Private Valentine: Blo ...
was originally cast as Sabrina, the love interest for Jimmy, and
Kate Micucci
Kate Micucci ( ; born March 31, 1980) is an American actress, comedian, and musician who is half of the musical comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates with Riki Lindhome. Some of her roles include Stephanie Gooch in '' Scrubs'', Ally in '' 'Til Death' ...
was added to the cast as Jimmy’s cousin. The pilot was filmed in December 2009.
In March 2010, Fox decided to recast two roles from the pilot.
Shannon Woodward
Shannon Marie Woodward is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Sabrina Collins on the Fox sitcom '' Raising Hope'' (2010–2014), Elsie Hughes on the HBO science-fiction thriller series ''Westworld'' (2016–2018), and the ...
replaced Rulin as Sabrina. Also recast was the role of Jimmy's cousin, changing from Micucci to male actor
Skyler Stone
Skyler Joseph Clipner, professionally known as Skyler Stone (born January 1, 1979) is an American actor who starred in '' Con'' which ran on Comedy Central for two months in the spring of 2005.
Early life and education
Stone was born in St. Louis ...
as Mike.
With this, Micucci's role changed from Jimmy's cousin to become Shelley, Sabrina's cousin.
Fox
green-lit
In the context of the film and television industries, to greenlight is to give permission to proceed with a project. It specifically refers to formally approving its production finance and committing to this financing, thereby allowing the projec ...
the pilot to series with an order in mid-May 2010 for a fall premiere in its 2010–11 television schedule.
On January 10, 2011, Fox renewed ''Raising Hope'' for a second season.
On April 9, 2012, ''Raising Hope'' was renewed for a third season.
On March 4, 2013, ''Raising Hope'' was renewed for a fourth season. On March 10, 2014, Fox announced the cancellation of the show after four seasons.
Reception
Critical reception
''Raising Hope'' has received positive reviews from critics. On the
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
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 show's first season holds a 87% based on 38 reviews, with an average score of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads, "Thanks to a talented and well-matched cast, ''Raising Hope'' largely manages to balance crude, absurdist humor with moments of charm without languishing in one or exploiting the other." On
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 ...
, the season holds an
weighted average
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
score of 75 out of 100 on
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 ...
based on 24 critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Tom Gliatto of ''
People Weekly
''People'' is an American weekly magazine that specializes in celebrity news and human-interest stories. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC. With a readership of 46.6 million adults in 2009, ''People'' had the la ...
'' called the show the best new sitcom of the season, favorably comparing it to ''
Malcolm in the Middle
''Malcolm in the Middle'' is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 9, 2000, and ended on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons consisting of 151 episodes.
The ...
''. Mary McNamara of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' was lukewarm towards the show, stating that "''Raising Hope'' is funny, sweet, occasionally provocative, and occasionally over-the-top in a regrettable way." James Poniewozik of ''
Time Magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...
'' was upbeat, stating that "Neff is amiably charming, Dillahunt and Plimpton give their characters a realism that belies the pilot's often-contemptuous jokes, and maybe 20% of the first episode shows a sweet-heartedness that rises above the easy white-trash humor." While not all of the reviews were positive, they were mostly positive by the end of the first season. Much of the show's praise went to the performances of Martha Plimpton and Garret Dillahunt.
The second season received critical acclaim on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% based on 11 reviews, with an average score of 7/10. The consensus reads, "''Raising Hope'' nurses a winsome sweetness in an improved second season that shears off the comedic bits that didn't work while expounding upon the blue collar charm and gleaming heart that lured viewers in." Matt Roush of ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media
In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
'' called the show in his season 2 review "A treat for anyone who loves a good call-back to classic sitcoms."
The third and fourth season also received critical acclaim on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% based on 6 reviews for season 3 and based on 8 reviews for season 4.
Ratings
Awards and nominations
International broadcasts
In the United Kingdom,
Sky1
Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989 ...
picked up the broadcast rights and added the show to its 2010–2011 UK & Ireland autumn schedule, beginning in November 2010.
In Australia,
Ten
Ten, TEN or 10 may refer to:
* 10, an even natural number following 9 and preceding 11
* one of the years 10 BC, AD 10, 1910, 2010, 2110
* October, the tenth month of the year
Places
* Mount Ten, in Vietnam
* Tongren Fenghuang Airport (IATA c ...
originally broadcast the series before moving it to
Eleven
Eleven or 11 may refer to:
*11 (number)
* One of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011
Literature
* ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn
*''Eleven'', a 1970 collection of short stories by Patricia Highsmith
*''Eleven'' ...
.
In
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
, the series premiered on January 29, 2011, on
Fox Life
Fox Life, now rebranded as Star Life and FX Life, was an international pay television network, launched by the Fox Networks Group in 2004. The network has been discontinued in several markets over time.
The network's scheduling has varied wi ...
.
In
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
, the series premiered on September 22, 2010, on
FOX
Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush").
Twelve species ...
.
In Italy, the series premiered on February 3, 2011, on
Fox
Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush").
Twelve species ...
. The Italian title is ''Aiutami Hope!''.
In the
Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe is a geopolitical term encompassing the countries in Baltic region, Northeast Europe (primarily the Baltic states, Baltics), Central Europe (primarily the Visegrád Group), Eastern Europe, and Southeast Europe (primaril ...
, the series broadcasts on
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
, where it premiered on February 1, 2011. The Czech title is ''Vychovávat Hope''.
In
Latin America
Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
, the series broadcasts on
I.Sat, where it premiered in March 2011.
In Canada, the first season aired on the
Global Television Network
The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English language, English-language terrestrial television, terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's se ...
at the same time as Fox in the United States. In 2011,
City
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
bought rights from the Global Television Network, and began broadcasting the show.
On the morning show that City airs,
Breakfast Television
Breakfast television (Europe and Australia) or morning show (Canada and the United States) is a type of news broadcasting, news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts Live television, live in the morning (typically broadcast pro ...
, they announced on May 29, 2011, that the series will start airing at 8:00 pm on Tuesdays instead of 9:30 pm on Tuesdays due to other Fox series ''
Glee
Glee may refer to:
* Glee (music), a type of English choral music
* ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy
* ''Glee'' (Bran Van 3000 album)
* ''Glee'' (Logan Lynn album)
* Gle ...
'' moving to Thursdays at 9:00pm. This started on September 18, 2012.
In
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
, the first season aired on
Sub
Sub or SUB may refer to:
Places
* Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, IATA code SUB
People
* Bottom (BDSM), or "sub" for "submissive"
* Substitute teacher
Christianity
* Sub tuum praesidium, an ancient hymn and prayer dedicated t ...
on January 10, 2013. The Finnish title is ''Isän Tyttö''.
In Germany, the series broadcasts on
RTL Nitro
NITRO is a German free-to-air television channel owned by RTL Deutschland. It was launched on 1 April 2012 as ''RTL Nitro''. It was renamed ''Nitro'' on 30 July 2017.
Conception
NITRO's slogan is „Fernsehen für Helden“ (television for h ...
, where it on September 10, 2012.
Seasons 3 and 4 premiered on NOW!.
In Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia, the series was broadcast on
Fox Adria. In January, 2018
RTL 2 picked up series for Croatia.
References
External links
*
{{GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Individual Episode
2010s American single-camera sitcoms
2010 American television series debuts
2014 American television series endings
Mass media portrayals of the working class
Television series by 20th Century Fox Television
Television series about families
Television shows filmed in Los Angeles
American English-language television shows
Parenting television series
Fox Broadcasting Company sitcoms