Back to You
Back to You | |
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The Back To You title card |
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Genre | Situation comedy |
Created by | Christopher Lloyd Steven Levitan |
Directed by | James Burrows |
Starring | Kelsey Grammer Patricia Heaton Ayda Field Josh Gad Laura Marano with Ty Burrell and Fred Willard |
Narrated by | Ty Burrell |
Theme music composer | |
Country of origin | United States |
Language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 3 (List of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Christopher Lloyd Steven Levitan James Burrows Kelsey Grammer |
Producer(s) | |
Supervising Producer(s) | |
Associate Producer(s) | Tony Hicks David Shafer |
Editor(s) | |
Location | 20th Century Fox Studios, Los Angeles, CA |
Camera setup | Multiple-camera setup |
Running time | 22 Minutes (Without Commercials) |
Broadcast | |
Original channel | FOX |
Picture format | 1.33:1 480i (SDTV), 1.78:1 1080i (HDTV) |
Original run | September 19, 2007 – present |
External links | |
Official website | |
IMDb profile | |
TV.com summary |
Back to You is an American situation comedy series created and executive produced by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan. The series is directed by James Burrows. [1] The show stars Emmy Award-winners Kelsey Grammer (Cheers, Frasier) and Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond) as squabbling anchors of a news program. [2]
Produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Levitan-Lloyd Productions, the series premiered on September 19, 2007 [3], airing on Wednesday nights at 8:00/7:00c on FOX leading out 'Til Death which features Heaton's former Everybody Loves Raymond co-star, Brad Garrett. The first episode rated a promising 9.44 million viewers for FOX. [4]
Contents |
Plot
Chuck Darling (Grammer) and Kelly Carr (Heaton) were co-anchors of a Pittsburgh news program that had great on-screen chemistry, despite constant quarreling off-screen. However, Chuck left to take a job elsewhere. After an embarrassing comment he made resulting in his firing from a large market LA newscast, Chuck has returned to Pittsburgh after 10 years to become anchor on the newcast he originally left.[5][6] Chuck also learns that he is the father of Carr's 10-year-old daughter.
Cast and Characters
- Chuck Darling (Kelsey Grammer) is the co-anchor at WURG-TV, News 9, and also the former co-anchor of WURG until late 1996, until he left for a better job, moving through different markets before finally moving to an anchor job in Los Angeles. Ten years later, he made a curse filled outburst towards a co-worker, Darcy Tanner, which became a massive YouTube sensation. He has now returned to WURG-TV and is once again co-anchor with Kelly Carr. He later finds out he has a child with Kelly named Gracie, a result of a one night stand the night before Chuck left. He and Gracie get along well, and despite the fact that Gracie is oblivious to her paternity, it seems that Chuck has passed on some of his personality to his daughter.
- Kelly Carr (Patricia Heaton) is Chuck's co-anchor, and was formerly until late 1996 when he left WURG. As a result of doing a report on drunk driving, she now has a daughter with Chuck. When Chuck returned, she wasn't happy, taking every chance to get angry at him. She revealed at the end of the pilot that her daughter Gracie is in fact Chuck's child.
- Montana Diaz Herrera (Ayda Field) is WURG's Latina weatherwoman. Montana isn't the most well educated person, but she will do a lot to make sure people in power like her.
- Ryan Church (Josh Gad) is the news director at WURG. He stated in the pilot that he is 26 (and a half) years old, and his birthday falls in the month of March. He formerly ran the station's internet division.
- Gracie Carr (Laura Marano) is Chuck and Kelly's daughter, though she remains unaware that Chuck is her father. She doesn't have the best relationship with her mother, saying to Chuck in the pilot, "Take me with you." She and her father Chuck seem to share many qualities, such as their sense of humor and their generally disrespectful attitude towards Kelly.
- Gary Crezyzewski (pronounced "Sure-shwoov-ski") (Ty Burrell) is WURG's field reporter, a position he has held for 12 years. His ambition is to become an anchor, and it is someone hinted on in the pilot that he holds a grudge against Chuck because Gary hoped to be the new anchor. He always ends up in awkward and unwanted situations while reporting, which have included, as he explains, "every freeway chase, toxic spill, and record snowfall". He was also seen to have been used as a test subject in a taser demonstration. His name is often mis-pronounced by his co-workers, especially Chuck.
- Marsh McGinley (Fred Willard) is WURG's fairly dim-witted sports anchor. He throws up before the beginning of each show.
Episodes
- Further information: List of Back to You episodes
Production history
Conception
Originally titled Action News, it was reported in January 2007 that Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton were in talks to lead the cast of the series which only had a script commitment with 20th Century Fox Television at the time.[7] The script was reportedly a hot commodity with numerous networks interested before FOX outbid the competition and gave it a blind thirteen-episode commitment in February 2007. Upon its pick-up, it also became Levitan and Lloyd's first project under their production banner, Levitan-Lloyd Productions. Grammer and Heaton were also confirmed to star in the series in the same month.[8] It was renamed Back to You in April 2007 due to the fact that Pittsburgh has a real life Channel 4 Action News.[9] The series was officially greenlit on May 11, 2007.[4] James Burrows who directed the first hour of the show joined the staff as an executive producer in June 2007.[10]
Back To You is filmed at 20th Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles, California.[11]
Casting
After the first two leads were found, Paul Campbell and Aimee Garcia were originally cast as Ryan Church and Montana Diaz Herrera respectively in February 2007 but the roles were re-cast in April 2007 with Josh Gad and Ayda Field replacing them.[12][9] Fred Willard was also cast as Marsh McGinley in February.[13] Casting continued throughout March with Ty Burrell and Laura Marano landing the last two regular spots in the series.[14][15] There was also talk of casting Sung Hi Lee in a recurring role as Chuck Darling's love interest, but the producers decided in April to go in a different direction. [16]
International broadcasters
Country | TV Network(s) | Series Premiere | Weekly Schedule |
---|---|---|---|
United States | September 19, 2007 | Wednesday 8:00pm ET | |
Canada | September 19, 2007 | Wednesday 8:00pm ET | |
Australia | Network Ten[18] | ||
United Kingdom | Channel 4[19] | ||
Iceland | Stöð 2 | ||
Belgium | KanaalTwee | ||
Ireland | RTÉ Two |
Reception
Critical Reaction
Back To You received generally mixed reviews, receiving a rating of 58 from Metacritic.[20] The most positive review being received from Entertainment Weekly.
- I'd rather just watch Grammer and Heaton trade barbs in the newsroom. — Entertainment Weekly[20]
- Fox's Back to You is back to TV comedy basics: multiple cameras, live audiences but, mostly, laughs. — Los Angeles Times[20]
- Grammer and Heaton slip easily into characters who won't be easily mistaken for Frasier Crane or Debra Barone, the writing's professional, the supporting cast dependable (and in the case of Fred Willard, another "Raymond" veteran, dependably hilarious). — Philadelphia Daily News[20]
- You have to admire Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton for holding up their end of the bargain, even if the material in their show, Back to You, is such a drop from "Frasier" and "Everybody Loves Raymond". — Philadelphia Inquirer[20]
- The pilot's plot leads them in a direction where "this just in" becomes an obvious sexual metaphor--some of it is funny, but there's just too much. — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette[20]
- Absolutely nothing about it is original or seeks to transform the half-hour genre. Still, the fact that it is executed by sure-footed comedy veterans more than makes up for the sin of familiarity. — Seattle Post-Intelligencer[20]
U.S. Television Ratings
Standard Ratings
In the following summary, "rating" is the percentage of all households with televisions that tuned to the show, and "share" is the percentage of all televisions in use at that time that are tuned in. "18-49" is the percentage of all adults aged 18-49 tuned into the show. "Viewers" are the amount of viewers, in million, watching at the time. "Rank" how well the show did compared to other TV shows aired that week.
Unless otherwise cited, the overnight rating, share, 18-49 and viewing information come from Your Entertainment Now.[21] The ranks come from The Programming Insider[22] or Google Groups.[23]
# | Episode | Air Date | Timeslot (EST) | Season | Rating | Share | 18-49 | Viewers | Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Pilot" | September 19, 2007 | Wednesday 8:00PM | 2007–2008 | 6.0 | 10 | 3.1 (#1) | 9.44 (#2) | #16 |
2 | "Fish Story" | September 26, 2007 | Wednesday 8:00PM | 2007–2008 | 4.6 | 8 | 2.8 (#2) | 7.54 (#3) | #56 |
3 | "First Supper" | October 3, 2007 | Wednesday 8:00PM | 2007–2008 | 4.4 | 7 | 2.4 (#3) | 6.58 (#4) |
Ratings Competition
- Further information: Wednesdays in the 2007-08 Television Season
Back to You currently airs against fellow freshmen shows Pushing Daisies, on ABC and Kid Nation on CBS. It also airs against Deal or No Deal on NBC and America's Next Top Model on The CW.
References
- ^ Back to You at the. The Futon Critic.
- ^ Frasier star makes sitcom return. BBC News (2007-05-18). Retrieved on 2007-05-18.
- ^ Boedeker, Hal. "Fox announces premiere dates; "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" returns Aug. 30", Orlando Sentinel, 2007-07-10. Retrieved on 2007-07-10.
- ^ a b FOX RENEWS 'DEATH' VOWS, PICKS UP SEXTET, The Futon Critic
- ^ FOX's New Shows for the 2007-08 Season. zap2it.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-22.
- ^ Fox's fall schedule. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (2007-05-17). Retrieved on 2007-05-22.
- ^ DEVELOPMENT UPDATE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, The Futon Critic
- ^ DEVELOPMENT UPDATE: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, The Futon Critic
- ^ a b "Development Update: Thursday - Friday (April 12-13)", The Futon Critic, 2007-04-13. Retrieved on 2007-06-29.
- ^ WHO'S IN & WHO'S OUT NEXT SEASON. The Futon Critic.
- ^ FREE TV STUDIO AUDIENCE TICKETS (English). Audiences Unlimited (2007). Retrieved on [[2007-02-09]].
- ^ DEVELOPMENT UPDATE: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, The Futon Critic
- ^ DEVELOPMENT UPDATE: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, The Futon Critic
- ^ DEVELOPMENT UPDATE: TUESDAY, MARCH 13, The Futon Critic
- ^ 2007 FOX PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT GUIDE - COMEDY SERIES, The Futon Critic
- ^ [1]
- ^ Szklarski, Cassandra. "[http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20070606/ca_pr_on_en/tv_global_fall_launch_8 'Heroes,' 'House' back on Global in the fall, but network launch marred by protest]", The Canadian Press, 2007-06-06. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
- ^ Welsh, James. "Ten picks up Fox, NBCU programming", Digital Spy, 2007-07-02. Retrieved on 2007-07-02.
- ^ "C4 buys Grammer Show", The Sun, 2007-06-28. Retrieved on 2007-06-29.
- ^ a b c d e f g Back to You SERIES: Fox, Wednesday 8:00p (30 minutes). Metacritic. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
- ^ Your One Stop Shop For All Things Entertainment. Retrieved on 2007-09-21.
- ^ Berman, Marc. Weekly Results (The Programming Insider). Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
- ^ Google Groups. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
External links
- Back To You at Fox.com
- Back To You at the Internet Movie Database
- Back To You at TV.com
- Back To You at The Futon Critic