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'Til Death

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This article is about an American sitcom. For the British sitcom, see Till Death... For other uses, see 'Til Death (disambiguation).

'Til Death
Created byJosh Goldsmith
Cathy Yuspa
StarringBrad Garrett
Joely Fisher
Kat Foster
Eddie Kaye Thomas
J.B. Smoove
Timm Sharp
Lindsey Broad
Kate Micucci
ComposersBruce Miller
Jason Miller
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes81 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersJosh Goldsmith
Cathy Yuspa
Brad Garrett
Glenn Robbins
Doug Wald
Steve Skrovan
Tim Hobert
Don Reo
Dean Lorey
David S. Rosenthal
ProducersAlex Barnow
Marc Firek
Annette Sahakian Davis
DJ Nash
Brad Garrett
Glenn Robbins
Doug Wald
Camera setupMulti-camera
Running time30 minutes
Production companiesGoldsmith/Yuspa Productions
(2006-2009)
(seasons 1-3)
Impact Zone Productions
(2009-2010)
(season 4)
Sony Pictures Television
Original release
NetworkFox
ReleaseSeptember 7, 2006 (2006-09-07) –
June 20, 2010 (2010-06-20)[1]

’Til Death is an American sitcom which aired on the Fox network from September 7, 2006, to June 20, 2010. The series was created by husband and wife team Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa, who were also the writers and executive producers. The show focuses on Eddie and Joy Stark (Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher), a couple married for 23 years who live in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Premise

’Til Death centers on Eddie and Joy Stark, and their life, relationship and behavior after 23 years of marriage. The first two seasons often focus on the conflict between the Starks and their newlywed neighbors, Jeff and Steph Woodcock (Eddie Kaye Thomas and Kat Foster). The second season introduces a new character named Kenny Westchester (J. B. Smoove) who is Eddie's friend from the Big Brothers Organization.

The third season focuses primarily on Eddie and Joy's relationship with Kenny after he moves in with them.

The fourth and final season focuses on the Starks coping with life with their daughter Ally (Lindsey Broad, then Kate Micucci) and new son-in-law Doug (Timm Sharp), who live in a biodiesel-powered Airstream motorhome in the Starks' back yard. The series takes place in suburban Philadelphia in Cheltenham Township.

History

The first season of ’Til Death ran from September 7, 2006 to April 11, 2007 and contained 22 episodes. The series initially aired Thursdays at 8/7c alongside fellow freshman sitcom Happy Hour. In November, the series was given a full season order and then later paired with The War at Home.[2][3] Beginning in March 2007, the show was given the coveted time slot directly following American Idol's results show, which led to an improvement in its ratings. In May, ’Til Death was renewed for a second season.[4][5]

The second season ran from September 2007 to May 2008 and consisted of 15 episodes, during which it aired on Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. following a new comedy Back to You. Late in 2007, production was halted because of the 2007–2008 writers' strike; only 19 episodes were produced.[6] The series went on hiatus beginning November 28, but returned with a new episode on a special night in March 2008 at 9:30 p.m.[7] Then in April, ’Til Death moved again to Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. leading into Back to You.[8] In May, the series was given an 18-episode order for its third season, while comedy companion Back to You was canceled.[9]

The third season consisted of 22 episodes (four of which were produced during the second season) and initially ran from September to October 2008. During this brief run of seven episodes, ’Til Death aired Wednesdays at 9/8c alongside a new comedy Do Not Disturb. The ratings for both shows were low, and as a result, the network pulled the sitcom from its November schedule.[10] Despite not airing all of season three and low ratings, ’Til Death was renewed for a fourth season in January 2009.[11] Fox confirmed at its upfront presentation in May that the new season would air on Friday nights in the fall.[12][13] The surprise renewal was attributed to a significant licensing discount offered to Fox by the production company of ’Til Death (Sony Pictures Television), because it needed one more season to make the program viable for syndication.[14][15]

The fourth and final season premiered in October 2009 at a new time, Fridays at 8:30/7:30c, following a new sitcom, Brothers, starring former NFL player Michael Strahan.[16] This season is notable in that a large number of episodes produced for the third season, but previously unaired by Fox, were shown alongside new episodes produced for season four. Four new episodes of ’Til Death aired sequentially on Christmas Day from 8/7c until 10/9c. The schedule changed again, when ’Til Death moved to Sundays at 7/6c and 7:30/6:30c on January 31, 2010, with these first two episodes airing against Super Bowl XLIV.[17] Eventually, it was paired for three episodes with the soon-to-be-canceled comedy Sons of Tucson. The fourth season (and series) finale aired on May 23, 2010, although three unaired episodes formerly consigned for season three were burned off in June. Two months prior, Fox finally canceled production of ’Til Death after years of below-average ratings.[18]

Characters

Main

  • Eddie Stark (Brad Garrett): Eddie is a fun high school history teacher who has been married to Joy for over two decades.
  • Joy Stark (Joely Fisher): Joy is Eddie's sarcastic wife who initially works as a travel agent, and later takes a job at Eddie's school. She is also a singer, and her voice is large enough to blow out candles (Season 2 episode 1), Eddie gets embarrassed over how loud her voice is and so powerful that she blew out Steph's birthday candles with her singing voice.
  • Jeff Woodcock (Eddie Kaye Thomas) (seasons 1–2): Jeff is an optimistic newlywed next-door neighbor to the Starks and also the vice-principal at the high school where Eddie teaches.
  • Steph Woodcock (Kat Foster) (seasons 1–2): She is unemployed and developing her master's thesis, on which she is making little progress.
  • Kenny Westchester (J. B. Smoove) (recurring, seasons 2 and 4; main, seasons 3): Kenny is Eddie's "little brother" from the Big Brother program and a recent divorcé.
  • Allison Stark (Krysten Ritter (recurring, seasons 1–2); Laura Clery (recurring, season 3); Lindsey Broad (main, season 4);[19] Kate Micucci (main, season 4)):[20][21] Allison "Ally" Mayweather Stark is Eddie and Joy's adult daughter who is away at college in early episodes, but is referenced in the pilot and shows up from time to time. During the show's fourth and final season, she lives in a biodiesel-powered Airstream motorhome in her parents' backyard with her boyfriend and later husband, Doug. That she is played by different actresses becomes a running gag in later episodes.
  • Doug Von Stuessen (Timm Sharp) (recurring, seasons 1–3; main, season 4): Doug is Allison's boyfriend and later husband who lives in a biodiesel-powered Airstream motorhome in the Starks' backyard with Allison during the show's fourth and final season. He is an idealistic hippie who becomes convinced his whole life is a sitcom. His oil tycoon father George Von Stuessen, whom he doesn't see eye to eye with, was portrayed by Barry Bostwick in two episodes.

Notes

  • Kat Foster and Eddie Kaye Thomas, who played Steph and Jeff Woodcock, respectively, left the show after season 2, having "moved onto other projects".[22] However, their characters continued to appear in several episodes of season three, and even one episode of season four, as these were filmed during the season two production batch but were not aired until later because of the 2007 Writers strike.
  • Krysten Ritter, who played the recurring role of the Starks' daughter, Allison, was replaced in season three by Laura Clery.
  • J.B. Smoove, who began appearing late in season two, was added to the show's main cast in season 3, playing Eddie's friend Kenny. His ex-wife appeared in the premiere episode of the third season.[23] Smoove was subsequently dropped from the main cast in the episodes produced in the season 4 production batch.
  • Beginning with episodes produced for season 4, Lindsey Broad and Timm Sharp were added to the main cast as Allison Stark and Doug Von Stuessen, respectively.[24] Starting with tenth episode of the season 4 production batch, Kate Micucci replaced Lindsey Broad in the role of Allison Stark.

Recurring

Episodes

Main article: List of 'Til Death episodes
SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
122September 7, 2006 (2006-09-07)April 11, 2007 (2007-04-11)
215September 19, 2007 (2007-09-19)May 14, 2008 (2008-05-14)
37September 10, 2008 (2008-09-10)October 8, 2008 (2008-10-08)
437October 2, 2009 (2009-10-02)June 20, 2010 (2010-06-20)

Home media

DVD Name Region 1 Region 4 Episode Number
The Complete First Season August 21, 2007 February 13, 2008 22
The Complete Second Season January 13, 2009 TBA 18
The Complete Third Season November 3, 2015 TBA 18
The Complete Series November 8, 2017 81

The first season DVDs include all 22 episodes from Season one. The second season DVDs include 18 out of the 19 episodes produced for Season two in airdate order.

Syndication

On July 26, 2011, it was announced that the show was picked up for syndication by affiliates and WGN America, which debuted the program on September 12, 2011.[25] It was also announced on July 28, 2011 that Spike had picked up the show for syndication, which debuted on October 3, 2011. In June 2013, TV Land brought the show, but was removed later on.[26] Since January 2018, Sony's GetTV airs reruns of the show.

Ratings

Seasonal ratings based on average total viewers per episode of ’Til Death on Fox:

Season Timeslot (EDT) Season Premiere Season Finale TV Season Rank Viewers
(in millions)
1 Thurs. 8/7c (September 7 – February 15)
Wed. 9:30/8:30c (March 14 – April 11) 		September 7, 2006 April 11, 2007 2006-2007 #82 7.1[27]
2 Wed. 8:30/7:30c (September 19 – November 14)
Wed. 8/7c (April 16 – May 14, 2008) 		September 19, 2007 May 14, 2008 2007-2008 #131 6.1[28]
3 Wed. 9/8c (September 10 – October 8) September 10, 2008 October 8, 2008 2008-2009 #141 4.4[29]
4 Fri. 8:30/7:30c (October 2–23)
Sun. 7/6c (January 31 – June 20) 		October 2, 2009 May 23, 2010[30] 2009-2010 #116 2.4[31]

References

  1. ^ Schnieder, Michael (April 6, 2010). "Fox axes 'Sons of Tucson'". Variety. Retrieved November 11, 2010.
  2. ^ Sullivan, Brian F. (November 16, 2006) "Fox extends 'Death,' ...". TheFutonCritic.com. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
  3. ^ Sullivan, Brian F. (November 28, 2006) "Fox Gives 'War'...". TheFutonCritic.com. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
  4. ^ "'Til Death: FOX's Brad Garrett Sitcom Renewed", TVSeriesFinale.com, May 11, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
  5. ^ Boedeker, Hal (July 10, 2007). "Fox announces premiere dates; "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" returns Aug. 30". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on August 24, 2007. Retrieved July 10, 2007.
  6. ^ AP (November 7, 2007). "Production Stops on at least 7 primetime shows". Fox News. Archived from the original on November 20, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
  7. ^ Fox Broadcasting (February 29, 2008) "Breaking News - Fox returns series to production". Press release, via TheFutonCritic.com. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
  8. ^ "Breaking News - FOX Overhauls Spring Lineup: New 'House' to Anchor Mondays". TheFutonCritic.com, February 19, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
  9. ^ "FOX Cancels Back to You, Renews 'Til Death". TVSeriesFinale.com. May 9, 2008. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved May 10, 2008.
  10. ^ Fox Pulls 'Til Death From Lineup, 'Til Death Cancelled? - Ratings | TVbytheNumbers.Zap2it.com Archived October 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Hibberd, James (January 9, 2009) "Fox Orders More 'Til Death". The Hollywood Reporter, The Live Feed. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
  12. ^ "Fox 2009-10 Schedule Announced". TV by The Numbers. Archived from the original on May 20, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  13. ^ Gorman, Bill (May 18, 2009). "Fox 2009-10 Schedule Announced". TV by The Numbers. Archived from the original on May 20, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  14. ^ Schneider, Michael (March 23, 2010). "Fox finally finds a way to kill "'Til Death"". Variety. Archived from the original on March 26, 2010. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  15. ^ "Nobody's watching: The strange genius of the fourth season of 'Til Death".
  16. ^ Mitovich, Matt (July 28, 2009). "Fox Moves Up Two Fall Premieres; Plus a Glee Video Preview". TV Guide. Archived from the original on July 31, 2009. Retrieved July 28, 2009.
  17. ^ Sullivan, Brian F. (October 28, 2009) "Exclusive: ’Til Death to get Sunday slot in January". TheFutonCritic.com. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
  18. ^ Schneider, Michael (March 23, 2010) "Fox Finally Finds a Way to Kill 'Til Death" Archived March 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Variety.com. Retrieved March 24, 2010.
  19. ^ Fox Broadcasting. " 'Til Death Fact Sheet" Archived July 22, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. FoxFlash.com. Press release. Retrieved March 8, 2010.
  20. ^ Longsdorf, Amy (January 24, 2010) "Kate Micucci: 'Really exciting things are starting to happen'" The Morning Call. Retrieved March 8, 2010. Archived September 4, 2010, at WebCite
  21. ^ Fox Broadcasting. (March 2010) "Primetime Schedule Mar 7-13". FoxFlash.com. Press release. Retrieved March 28, 2010. Archived September 4, 2010, at WebCite
  22. ^ Chandra (September 10, 2008). "Interview with Brad Garrett from 'Til Death". EveryJoe.com. Archived from the original on May 27, 2013. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  23. ^ Chandra (September 6, 2008). "'Til Death Season Three Premiere Details" Archived September 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. EveryJoe.com. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  24. ^ "The Futon's Upfront Notes: Fox's Returning Series Descriptions". TheFutonCritic.com, May 18, 2009. Retrieved March 8, 2010. Archived May 27, 2009, at WebCite
  25. ^ "WGN America Fall 2011 Schedule; MeTV Network Celebrates Lucille Ball's 100th Birthday With 100 Episodes of Lucy Series - SitcomsOnline.com News Blog".
  26. ^ "Spike TV Fall 2011 Schedule Adds 2 Sitcoms; TCA Summer 2011 Press Tour: Cable - SitcomsOnline.com News Blog".
  27. ^ "2006-07 primetime wrap". The Hollywood Reporter. Internet Archive Wayback Machine. May 25, 2007. Archived from the original on May 28, 2007. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
  28. ^ ABC Medianet (May 28, 2008) "Season Program Rankings". Press release. Retrieved March 8, 2010.
  29. ^ ABC Medianet (May 27, 2009). "Season Rankings". ABC Medianet. Archived from the original on August 11, 2009. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
  30. ^ "ABC Changes Premiere Date for Romantically Challenged; Fox Cancels Sons of Tucson, Finale Date for 'Til Death; NBC Renews Unscripted Series". SitcomsOnline.com News Blog. April 6, 2010.
  31. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (May 27, 2010)."Full Series Rankings For The 2009-10 Broadcast Season". Deadline.com blog.
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