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Back to You (TV series)

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Back to You
The Back To You title card
GenreSituation comedy
Created byChristopher Lloyd
Steven Levitan
Directed byJames Burrows
StarringKelsey Grammer
Patricia Heaton
Ayda Field
Josh Gad
with Ty Burrell
and Fred Willard
Narrated byTy Burrell
Kelsey Grammer
Josh Gad
Theme music composerAdam Anders
Country of origin United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes10 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersChristopher Lloyd
Steven Levitan
James Burrows
Kelsey Grammer
ProducerMaggie Randell-Blanc
Production locations20th Century Fox Studios,
Los Angeles, CA
EditorRon Volk
Camera setupMultiple-camera setup
Running time22 Minutes (Without Commercials)
Original release
NetworkFOX
ReleaseSeptember 19, 2007 –
present

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] The show airs 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]

On October 24, 2007 the show was picked up for an additional 11 episodes, bringing the total number of episodes to 24.[5]

Production on the show was halted on November 6, 2007 due to the 2007-2008 Writers' Strike.[6]

The show went on hiatus on November 14, but returned on Tuesday February 26, 2008 at 9:30/8:30c. It aired a new episode that night and another on Wednesday February 27, 2008, the following day, and new episodes began airing weekly, starting Wednesday April 16, 2008. On this day, Back to You moved to its new time slot at 8:30/7:30c, following 'Til Death, and replacing The Moment of Truth. [7]

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 newscast he originally left.[8][9] Chuck also learns that he is the father of Carr's 10-year-old daughter. Their daughter, Gracie, turns 11 years old in the episode, "Something's Up There".

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 New Year's Eve 1996 [10] , 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.[10] 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.[10] He and Gracie get along well, and despite the fact that Gracie is oblivious to his paternity, it seems that Chuck has passed on some of his personality traits to his daughter, which includes their mutual dislike for Kelly.[11] He was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut.
  • Kelly Carr (Patricia Heaton) is Chuck's co-anchor, and was formerly until New Years Eve 1996 when he left WURG.[10] As a result of doing a report on drunk driving, she now has a daughter with Chuck.[10] When Chuck returned, she wasn't happy, taking every chance to get angry at him. She revealed that her daughter Gracie is in fact Chuck's child.[10]
  • 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. She also has a difficulty pronouncing Monongahela.[12] Her name has disappeared from the credits as of Episode 10, but it is not known what has happened to her character or her relationship to the show.
  • 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 also has a crush on Montana, and repeatedly tries to impress her by doing stupid and dangerous things. [10] He formerly ran the station's internet division.[10]
  • Gracie Carr (Initially Laura Marano, currently Lily Jackson) 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,[10][11] 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, their allergy to pistachios and their generally disrespectful attitude towards Kelly.[11] She recently turned eleven.[13] Lily Jackson replaced Laura Marano starting with the tenth episode, The Wall of Fame and Gracie reverted to the age of 10.
  • Gary Crezyzewski (pronounced "Sure-shwoov-ski") (Ty Burrell) is WURG's field reporter, a position he has held for 12 years.[10] His ambition is to become an anchor, and it has been hinted that he holds a grudge against Chuck because Gary hoped to be the new anchor.[10] He always ends up in awkward and unwanted situations while reporting[10][14], 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.[14] His name is often mis-pronounced by his co-workers, especially Chuck. Gary is of Polish decent.[13]
  • Marsh McGinley (Fred Willard) is WURG's fairly dim-witted sports anchor. He throws up before the beginning of each show.[10] He also breaks down while reading Casey at the Bat, because his father used that poem to break his stutter.

Guest Stars

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.[15] 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.[16] It was renamed Back to You in April 2007 due to the fact that Pittsburgh has a real life Channel 4 Action News.[17] The series was officially greenlit on May 11, 2007.[4] James Burrows who has directed all the episodes so far of the show joined the staff as an executive producer in June 2007.[18]

Production Notes

Back To You is filmed at 20th Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles, California.[19]

In "A Night of Possibilities", the in-car shots involving Gary, Marsh, Kelly, and Montana, are all front projection shots which clearly show them driving down the 7900 block of Westheimer Road in Houston, Texas, and its various businesses show clearly.[citation needed] Pittsburgh's terrain does not allow for straight roads of that length, and its geography is too far north for palm trees.

Closed Captioning on the show sometimes misspells "Pittsburgh" with the common misspelling of "Pittsburg".

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.[20][17] Fred Willard was also cast as Marsh McGinley in February.[21] Casting continued throughout March with Ty Burrell and Laura Marano landing the last two regular spots in the series.[22][23] 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.[24]She did appear in the Pilot.

The role of Gracie Carr was re-casted starting the tenth episode, "The Wall of Fame", and is now played by Lilly Jackson.

Reception

Critical Reaction

Back To You received generally mixed reviews, receiving a rating of 58 from Metacritic.[25]

  • I'd rather just watch Grammer and Heaton trade barbs in the newsroom. — Entertainment Weekly[25]
  • Fox's Back to You is back to TV comedy basics: multiple cameras, live audiences but, mostly, laughs. — Los Angeles Times[25]
  • 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[25]
  • 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[25]
  • 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[25]
  • 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[25]

Controversy

On November 14, 2007, FOX aired the episode of Back to You, "Something's Up There", which contained a controversial Polish slur. The slur involved Marsh trying to convince the show's lone Polish character, Gary, to go bowling after work by saying: "Come on, it's in your blood, like kielbasa and collaborating with the Nazis."

FOX later apologized on November 20, 2007. They vowed never to air the line of dialogue again in repeats and/or syndicated broadcasts. FOX stated that, "The line was delivered by a character known for being ignorant, clueless, and for saying outlandish things. Allowing the line to remain in the show, however, demonstrated poor judgment, and we apologize to anyone who was offended."[26]

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.[27] The ranks come from The Programming Insider[28] or Google Groups.[29]

Season 1 (2007–2008)
# Episode Air Date Timeslot (EST) Rating Share 18-49 Viewers Rank
1 "Pilot" September 19, 2007 Wednesday 8:00PM 6.0 10 3.1 (#1) 9.44 (#2) #16
2 "Fish Story" September 26, 2007 4.6 8 2.8 (#2) 7.54 (#3) #56
3 "First Supper" October 3, 2007 4.4 7 2.4 (#3) 6.58 (#4) #65
4 "A Gentleman Always Leads" October 10, 2007 4.0 7 2.2 (#3) 6.55 (#4) #65
5 "A Night of Possibilities" October 17, 2007 4.5 7 2.3 (#3) 6.91 (#4) #60
6 "Gracie's Bully" November 7, 2007 4.2 7 2.2 (#2) 6.38 (#3) #66
7 "Something's Up There" November 14, 2007 4.6 8 2.5 (#2) 7.30 (#3) #55
8 "Cradle to Grave" February 26, 2008 Tuesday 9:30PM 7.4 11 4.4 (#1) 12.15 (#1) #14
9 "Business or Pleasure" February 27, 2008 Wednesday 9:30PM 7.5 12 4.4 (#1) 12.15 (#1) #17
10 "The Wall of Fame" April 16, 2008 Wednesday 8:30PM 4.5 7 2.4 (#3) 7.00 (#3) TBA
11 "Hug & Tell" April 23, 2008 TBA TBA TBA (TBA) TBA (TBA) TBA
12 "TBA" April 30, 2008 TBA TBA TBA (TBA) TBA (TBA) TBA
13 "House of Tomorrow" May 7, 2008 TBA TBA TBA (TBA) TBA (TBA) TBA
14 "The New Boss" May 14, 2008 TBA TBA TBA (TBA) TBA (TBA) TBA

Note: Episode 8 and 9 aired after American Idol.

Seasonal ratings

Seasonal ratings based on average total viewers per episode of Back to You on Fox:

Season Timeslot (EDT) Season Premiere Season Finale TV Season Rank Viewers
(in millions)
1 Wednesday 8:00 P.M. (September 19, 2007 - November 14, 2007)
Tuesday 9:30 P.M. (February 26, 2008)
Wednesday 9:30 P.M. (February 27, 2008)
Wednesday 8:30 P.M. (April 16, 2008-May 14 2008) 		September 19, 2007 May 14, 2008 2007-2008 #80 8.4

Ratings Competition

Further information: [[:Wednesdays in the 2007-08 Television Season]]

Back to You currently airs against Wife Swap, on ABC, Big Brother 9 on CBS, Deal or No Deal on NBC and America's Next Top Model on The CW.

References

  1. ^ "Back to You at the". The Futon Critic.
  2. ^ "Frasier star makes sitcom return". BBC News. 2007-05-18. Retrieved 2007-05-18.
  3. ^ Boedeker, Hal (2007-07-10). "Fox announces premiere dates; "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" returns Aug. 30". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 2007-07-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b FOX RENEWS 'DEATH' VOWS, PICKS UP SEXTET, The Futon Critic
  5. ^ Fox (2007-10-25). "FOX ORDERS ADDITIONAL EPISODES OF "BACK TO YOU"". The Futon Critic. Retrieved 2007-10-31.
  6. ^ "Production Stops on at least 6 Sitcoms". Retrieved 2007-11-06.
  7. ^ Breaking News - FOX RETURNS SERIES TO PRODUCTION | TheFutonCritic.com
  8. ^ "FOX's New Shows for the 2007-08 Season". zap2it.com. Retrieved 2007-05-22.
  9. ^ "Fox's fall schedule". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 2007-05-17. Retrieved 2007-05-22.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Pilot". Back to You. Season 1. Episode 1. 2007-09-19. Fox Broadcasting Company. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ a b c "First Supper". Back to You. Season 1. Episode 3. 2007-10-03. Fox Broadcasting Company. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ "Gracie's Bully". Back to You. Season 1. Episode 6. 2007-11-07. Fox Broadcasting Company. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ a b "Something's Up There". Back to You. Season 1. Episode 7. 2007-11-14. Fox Broadcasting Company. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ a b "Fish Story". Back to You. Season 1. Episode 2. 2007-09-26. Fox Broadcasting Comapny. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ DEVELOPMENT UPDATE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, The Futon Critic
  16. ^ DEVELOPMENT UPDATE: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, The Futon Critic
  17. ^ a b "Development Update: Thursday - Friday (April 12-13)". The Futon Critic. 2007-04-13. Retrieved 2007-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "WHO'S IN & WHO'S OUT NEXT SEASON". The Futon Critic.
  19. ^ "FREE TV STUDIO AUDIENCE TICKETS" (in English). Audiences Unlimited. 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  20. ^ DEVELOPMENT UPDATE: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, The Futon Critic
  21. ^ DEVELOPMENT UPDATE: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, The Futon Critic
  22. ^ DEVELOPMENT UPDATE: TUESDAY, MARCH 13, The Futon Critic
  23. ^ 2007 FOX PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT GUIDE - COMEDY SERIES, The Futon Critic
  24. ^ Sung-hi.com
  25. ^ a b c d e f g "Back to You SERIES: Fox, Wednesday 8:00p (30 minutes)". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  26. ^ Huff, Richard (2007-11-21). "Shamed Fox apologizes for Polish slur on 'Back to You'". NY Daily News. Retrieved 2007-11-28.
  27. ^ "Your One Stop Shop For All Things Entertainment". Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  28. ^ Berman, Marc. "Weekly Results (The Programming Insider)". Retrieved 2007-09-27.
  29. ^ "Google Groups". Retrieved 2007-10-05.

Back To You is a hit in Australia with average of 1 million viewers a week.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Back to You.


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