''Single Parents'' 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 ...

that stars

Taran Killam Taran Hourie Killam (born April 1, 1982) is an American actor and comedian. He first garnered attention for his brief stint on the Fox comedy series ''MADtv'' during its seventh season between 2001 and 2002, followed by his wider success as a ca ...

Leighton Meester Leighton Marissa Meester ( ; born April 9, 1986) is an American actress, singer, and model. She is known for her starring role as Blair Waldorf on the CW television series ''Gossip Girl'', which ran from 2007 to 2012. She has also appeared in fi ...

, Kimrie Lewis,

Brad Garrett Brad H. Gerstenfeld (born April 14, 1960), known professionally as Brad Garrett, is an American actor and stand-up comedian. Garrett was initially successful as a stand-up comedian in the early 1980s. Taking advantage of that success in the la ...

, and

Jake Choi Jake Choi (born January 14, 1985) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Miggy on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC comedy ''Single Parents (TV series), Single Parents''. He previously starred in ''Front Cover'', an LGBTQ in ...

. It follows a group of adults who must venture through single parenthood with their young kids. The series premiered on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

on September 26, 2018, and had a full 23-episode first season. ABC renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on September 25, 2019. In May 2020, the series was canceled after two seasons.

Premise

The series begins when the group meets Will, a

divorced Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

man in his 30s who is so focused on raising his daughter that he has lost sight of who he is as a man. When the other single parents see just how invested Will has become with PTA, parenting, and princesses, they band together to get him out in the dating world and make him realize that parenthood does not mean sacrificing everything about one's own identity.

Cast

Main *

as Will Cooper, a 30-something single father with a daughter. He is a local weatherman. *

as Angie D'Amato, a single mother with a needy son and a love for punk rock music. She is a paralegal. *

as Dr Douglas Fogerty, an older widowed single father with identical twin daughters who often puts them to work and an adult son. * Kimrie Lewis as Poppy Banks, a single mother with a son. She owns the winebary - a feminist wine bar and book shop. *

as Miggy Park, a young single father with a baby son named Jack. * Marlow Barkley as Sophie Cooper, Will's daughter who is very smart and sensible. * Tyler Wladis as Graham D'Amato, Angie's needy and emotional son, who is named for the

craps Craps is a dice game in which players gambling, bet on the outcomes of the roll of a pair of dice. Players can wager money against each other (playing "street craps") or against a bank ("casino craps"). Because it requires little equipment, " ...

dealer in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

who helped Angie when she went into labor. He is known for dating most of his class. He is easily afraid. * Devin Trey Campbell as Rory Banks, Poppy's son who has a knack for fashion and love for musical theatre. * Mia and Ella Allan as Emma and Amy Fogerty, Douglas' genius identical twin daughters who have a superb skill for building and home renovation. Recurring *

Adam Brody Adam Jared Brody (born December 15, 1979) is an American actor. His breakout role was as Seth Cohen on the Fox television series '' The O.C.'' (2003–2007). For his performance as Noah in the Netflix romantic comedy series '' Nobody Wants T ...

as Derek, Angie's ex-boyfriend and Graham's father, who was in a punk rock band. *

Hannah Simone Hannah Simone (born 3 August 1980) is a British-Canadian actress from London, television host, and former VJ and fashion model. She portrayed Cece Parikh on the Fox sitcom ''New Girl''. Early life Simone was born in London to a British India ...

(season 1) the kids' pediatrician and Will's love interest * Andy Favreau (season 1) as Owen, Angies' boyfriend * Vannessa Bayer as Mia, Sophie's mom and Will's ex-wife *

Bashir Salahuddin Bashir Salahuddin (born ) is an American actor, writer, and comedian. Early life and education Salahuddin was born and raised in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. His father is originally from Panama and moved to Chicago with his family whe ...

as Ron, Rory's dad and Poppy's ex-husband *

Jama Williamson Jama Williamson (born March 12, 1974) is an American actress. She was active in New York City theater throughout the early 2000s, during which she appeared in such shows as Avery Crozier's ''Eat the Runt'', Hunt Holman's ''Spanish Girl'', A. R ...

as Tracy Freeze, Will's boss and love interest *

Quinta Brunson Quinta Brunson (; born December 21, 1989) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. She is best known for creating, executive producing, and co-writing the ABC comedy series '' Abbott Elementary'' (2021–present), in which she s ...

as Bess, a regular at the winebary *

Rebecca Creskoff Rebecca Creskoff is an American actress. Career Creskoff graduated from the University of Pennsylvania before attending New York University, where she received her master of fine arts degree. She has guest-starred in a number of notable televisi ...

as Big Red, Douglas's love interest * Jackie Seiden (season 1) as Jackie, a mom at the school *

Steve Zissis Steve Zissis (; born December 17, 1975) is an American actor, writer and producer. A longtime friend of Jay and Mark Duplass, he has appeared in and co-produced some of their productions, including the films '' Baghead'' (2008), ''Cyrus'' (2010) ...

(season 1) as Mark, dad at the school who briefly dates Poppy, and is an ex-colleague of Douglas' * Patrick Birkett as Tony, Douglas's butler * Lamar Woods as Dwayne, Miggy's best friend * Sarah Yarkin as Homily Pronstroller, the kid's second grade teacher, and part of Miggy's throuple *

Steve Tom Stephen Wilson Tom (born September 20, 1953) is an American actor best known for hosting the HBO comedy series '' Funny or Die Presents''. Career He has guest-starred in a number of television series including '' Parks and Recreation, Major Cr ...

as Guy McCormick, Will's weatherman co-worker who is an alcoholic * Chloe Perrin (season 1) as Zoe/Bunny ears, a kid in the school who briefly dates Graham *

Chris Geere Christopher William Geere (born 18 March 1981) is an English actor. He is known for playing the lead role of Jimmy Shive-Overly in the FX and FXX dark comedy series ''You're the Worst'' (2014), Roger Clifford in the 2019 film '' Detective Pik ...

(season 2) as Colin, a new single parent in the school who Angie is romantically interested in

Production

The series initially received 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 from

in October 2017, written by

Liz Meriwether Elizabeth Hughes Meriwether (born October 11, 1981) is an American writer, producer and television showrunner. She is known for creating the Fox sitcom ''New Girl'', and for writing the play ''Oliver Parker!'' (2010) and the romantic comedy fil ...

and J.J. Philbin, which later evolved to a series order with

Jason Winer Jason Winer is an American director, producer, writer, actor, and comedian. He is best known for directing the pilot and 22 additional episodes of the American sitcom ''Modern Family'', and for the 2011 film ''Arthur''. Early life Winer was bor ...

directing the pilot. In March 2018,

, and

were announced to star in the series. The first season premiered on September 26, 2018 and a full season was ordered in October, plus an additional episode, for a total of 23 episodes. ''Single Parents'' was renewed for a second season by ABC which premiered on September 25, 2019. On May 21, 2020, ABC canceled the series after two seasons.

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2018–19)

Season 2 (2019–20)

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregation

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 75% with an average rating of 7.14/10, based on 16 reviews. The site's critic consensus states: "While the jokes can be a little juvenile, ''Single Parents'' earns brownie points for a likable cast and a funny focus on parental struggles."

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 67 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Giving the show a B+, TVLine called it " hands down the fall's funniest new sitcom." Caroline Framke with ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' says "even when ''Single Parents'' stumbles, it's refreshing to see a comedy that acknowledges a different experience than most hangout sitcoms do," and that "hopefully, with a strong cast and writing team behind it, ''Single Parents'' can tap into lenty of material thereand find a specific groove all its own." In a ''

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 ...

'' review, Malcolm Venable said the show "has an insightful goofiness about it that's absolutely endearing, and will likely be a balm for exhausted single parents keen to see a show that knows their struggle is real," but added, "It needs just a little more finesse to find its

true north True north is the direction along Earth's surface towards the place where the imaginary rotational axis of the Earth intersects the surface of the Earth on its Northern Hemisphere, northern half, the True North Pole. True south is the direction ...

in terms of tone, and how to best employ the marquee talents

Meester Meester is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Brad Meester (born 1977), American football player *Leighton Meester (born 1986), American actress, singer, songwriter and model *Veronique Meester (born 1995), Dutch rower Meester i ...

and

Garrett Garrett may refer to: Places in the United States * Garrett, Illinois, a village * Garrett, Indiana, a city * Garrett, Floyd County, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Garrett, Meade County, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Garrett, ...

, who sometimes feel underused as Killam's adorkable dad thing hogs most of the spotlight." He also noted that "what really makes ''Single Parents'' sparkle are the kids who are "legit funny, deft actors who steal pretty much every scene they're in." ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' said "''Single Parents'' feels like a comedy that goes for simple snark and believes it's a little more clever than it really is, but then had a bunch of network notes stuck to it about softening those right angles," with "a kind of

paint-by-number Paint by number or painting by numbers kits are self-contained painting sets, designed to facilitate painting a pre-designed image. They generally include Paintbrush, brushes, tubs of paint with numbered labels, and a Canvas#For painting, canva ...

s approach." Along the same lines, 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 ...

'' said the show "takes its cues from the network's other family comedies, such as ''

black-ish ''Black-ish'' (stylized as black·''ish'') is an American sitcom television series created by Kenya Barris. It aired on ABC from September 24, 2014, to April 19, 2022, running for eight seasons with 176 episodes. ''Black-ish'' follows an uppe ...

'', but the jokes are too sophomoric to come close to the brilliance and humor of that award-winning show or the Emmy-amassing ''

Modern Family ''Modern Family'' is an American television sitcom, created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, that aired on ABC for 11 seasons from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. The series follows the lives of three diverse but interrelated fa ...

''."

Ratings

Season 1

Season 2

References

External links

* * * {{Instagram, singleparentstv 2010s American single-camera sitcoms 2018 American television series debuts 2020 American television series endings 2020s American single-camera sitcoms American English-language television shows Television series about dysfunctional families Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series by ABC Studios Television series about single parent families American Broadcasting Company sitcoms