Superstore (TV series)

Superstore
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Justin Spitzer
Starring	America Ferrera Ben Feldman Lauren Ash Colton Dunn Nico Santos Nichole Bloom Mark McKinney
Composer(s)	Mateo Messina
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	21 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Justin Spitzer Ruben Fleischer David Bernad Gabe Miller Jonathan Green
Producer(s)	America Ferrera Harry J. Lange Jr. Eric Ledgin Sierra Teller Ornelas
Cinematography	Damián Acevedo (pilot) Jay Hunter
Editor(s)	Mark Sadlek (pilot) Steven Lang James Renfroe
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Spitzer Holding Company The District Universal Television
Distributor	NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network	NBC
Picture format	1080i (16:9 HDTV)
Original release	November 30, 2015 (2015-11-30) – present
External links
Website

Superstore is an American single-camera sitcom television series that premiered on NBC on November 30, 2015.^[1] The series was created by Justin Spitzer, who also serves as an executive producer.^[2] Starring America Ferrera (who also serves as a producer) and Ben Feldman, Superstore follows a group of employees working at Cloud 9, a fictional big-box store in St. Louis, Missouri. The ensemble and supporting cast features Lauren Ash, Colton Dunn, Nico Santos, Nichole Bloom and Mark McKinney.

On February 23, 2016, the series was renewed for a second season by NBC.^[3] On May 15, 2016, NBC announced that Superstore is expected to lead off its Thursday night primetime programming in the 2016–17 season. The second season premiered on September 22, 2016,^[4] with a 22-episode order for the second season that was announced on September 23, 2016.^[5] A special Olympics-themed episode aired on August 19, 2016 during the network's coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.^[6][7]

Cast and characters

Main

• America Ferrera as Amy Dubanowski, a Cloud 9 employee of eleven years who worked as an associate, then floor supervisor, then assistant manager, and very briefly store manager before going on strike in the season one finale. At age 19, she married her high school sweetheart, Adam, with whom she has a daughter, Emma. Amy immediately clashes with new associate Jonah, as he strives for change and has a sometimes pretentious attitude that annoys her. In order to keep strangers from calling her by her real name, Amy wears a different name tag in each episode with the exception of the 2 episodes ("Labor" and "Strike", which took place over the course of the same day) where she wore her own name tag. In the season 2 Halloween episode, Amy didn't wear a name tag for the first time in the series. The name tags she's worn include the names Allison, Beatrice, Brittany, Diana, Elana, Ella, Esmé, Gemma, Joanne, Louise, Millie, Molly, Patti, Rachel, Ramona, Roxy, Sheila, and Sylvia. She is promoted to assistant manager in the episode "Demotion".
• Ben Feldman as Jonah, Cloud 9's newest sales associate. He and Mateo were both hired in the "Pilot" episode. Jonah makes a terrible impression on his first day and immediately clashes with Amy, but their relationship has since improved somewhat. Despite their rough start, Jonah has been attracted to Amy since the first time he saw her. He was caught off guard when he found out that Amy has a daughter and is married, as Amy never wears her wedding ring at work. As revealed in "Secret Shopper", Jonah is from a well-to-do background and came to Cloud 9 because he flunked out of business school in Chicago and ran up debt. He was driving aimlessly until he stopped at a Cloud 9 in St. Louis and saw the "help wanted" sign. Jonah prides himself on being worldly and well-read, and makes every effort to inject this into conversations with coworkers. In the season 2 episode Guns, Pills and Birds, Garrett confesses to Jonah that he maintains a list of "all the crazy white-person stuff" Jonah says, like "fencing", "wearing boat shoes", "BBC America", "making his own trail mix", and "fine, but I want my objection noted".
• Lauren Ash as Dina Fox, Cloud 9's assistant store manager, who is extremely connected to her pet birds, but out of touch with other people. Her by-the-book management style often clashes with employees, and even her boss, Glenn, when he espouses his religious beliefs in the workplace. In "Demotion", Dina takes a voluntary demotion to sales associate to pursue Jonah romantically. However, Jonah denies her and claims that the reason he resists her romantic advances is because she is his supervisor. After her coworkers stage a walkout in the episode "Labor", Dina does not participate and reassumes her assistant manager role. Dina has a very abrasive exterior but she also has a soft side. In the season 2 episode "Back to Work", she blackmails the district manager, Jeff, into shredding his report to corporate which could have resulted in Amy's termination. Dina also has a very healthy self-confidence, once referring to herself as a "solid 8.25" and the 3rd prettiest girl in ROTC.
• Colton Dunn as Garrett McNeill, a Cloud 9 associate who is paralyzed from the waist down. He is often heard making announcements over the store PA system. He enjoys pulling pranks on his coworkers and even customers, usually out of boredom.
• Nico Santos as Mateo Fernando Aquino Liwanag, a Filipino (mistaken as Mexican in Season 1, Episode 2) Cloud 9 associate. He is an ambitious new hire who wants to climb the ladder at Cloud 9 as quickly as possible. He immediately begins a rivalry with fellow new hire Jonah by pointing out his mistakes, and later admits to being overly competitive. He came out as gay to Glenn in the episode "Wedding Day Sale." It is further revealed in the episode "Olympics" that he is an undocumented worker, though Glenn is oblivious when Mateo tries to confess.
• Nichole Bloom as Cheyenne Tyler Lee, a Cloud 9 associate who is pregnant at the start of the series. Cheyenne is 17 years old, a high school student, and engaged to her boyfriend, Bo Derek Thompson. She delivers a baby girl named Harmonica in the episode "Labor".
• Mark McKinney as Glenn Sturgis, Cloud 9's store manager. Glenn is socially awkward and constantly positive, and he clashes with Dina when he brings his Christian religious beliefs into the workplace. Glenn and his wife have no children of their own, but they are foster parents. It is revealed that his family owned a hardware store before Cloud 9 took their business. Glenn's compassion is abundant and for everyone, whether they've been good or bad to him. For example, due to the fact that Cloud 9 doesn't provide paid maternity leave, Glenn faked anger with Cheyenne and suspended her for six weeks with pay, and a person from corporate overheard this and got Glenn fired at end of season 1. In another episode, Dina made a mistake and a customer demanded she be fired, so Glenn devised a plan to hide store merchandise on the customer so that the sensors would go off when the woman left. Glenn then offered to look the other way on the "theft" if the customer would ignore Dina's error.

Recurring

• Johnny Pemberton as Bo Derek Thompson, Cheyenne's immature, wannabe-rapper fiancé and her baby's father.
• Kaliko Kauahi as Sandra, a Cloud 9 employee who has trouble bringing up legitimate concerns and being heard. She will often attempt to make her voice heard only to shoot herself down shortly after, or during. In "Labor," she revealed that she is a midwife.
• Sean Whalen as Sal, a creepy, older Cloud 9 employee. It is implied that he harasses Sandra sexually, making comments about her breasts both at work and at her home.
• Josh Lawson as Tate Stasklewicz, a Cloud 9 pharmacist who is often rude, panicky, sarcastic and full of himself. He often passes his job onto other employees whenever he can.
• Linda Porter as Myrtle, an old Cloud 9 employee who is often quite confused and forgetful.
• Jon Barinholtz as Marcus, a dim-witted Cloud 9 employee who briefly dates Dina after Jonah rejects her.
• Ryan Gaul as Adam Dubanowski, Amy's husband and Emma's father. Adam and Amy were high school sweethearts, got married at 19, and had Emma thereafter. In the episode "Color Wars" it is revealed that he's a YouTube personality who makes grilling videos.
• Michael Bunin as Jeff Sutin (season two), District Manager who oversees the St. Louis Cloud 9, among others. He is revealed to be gay, and has a romantic interest in Mateo.

Episodes

Production

Development and filming

The series was one of three pilots picked up by NBC on January 14, 2015, along with the sitcom Crowded; both were green lighted to series status the same day (May 7, 2015).^[9] The series was the first project for Ruben Fleischer's newly formed company The District as part of a two-year deal with Universal, as he directed the pilot episode.^[10] Superstore was officially picked up as a series on May 7, 2015, by NBC.^[11] The first season consisted of eleven episodes, after the episode order was reduced from thirteen on October 19, 2015.^[12] It was announced on November 2, 2015, that the show would air the premiere on January 4, 2016, but would be airing two back-to-back episodes on November 30, 2015, following The Voice.^[13]

The full cast in front of the Cloud 9 Superstore

Casting

It was announced on February 20, 2015, that Lauren Ash had been cast as a series regular, and would be playing Dina, the store’s assistant manager.^[14] On March 2, 2015, Deadline reported that Superstore had added three other cast members, which was Colton Dunn, Mark McKinney and Nico Santos. The website reported that Dunn would be playing Garret, the often-sarcastic narrator of the piece, McKinney would be playing Glenn, the intense store manager, and Santos would be playing Mateo, another new employee and a brown-noser from an impoverished background.^[15] On March 12, 2015, Nichole Bloom was announced to have joined the show as Cheyenne, a very pregnant teenage employee.^[16][17]

Deadline announced on March 13, 2015, that Ben Feldman had landed the male lead in Superstore, as Jonah, a new employee in the superstore Cloud 9.^[18] Three days later, TVLine announced on March 16, 2015, that America Ferrera had landed the female lead as the floor supervisor Amy in the Cloud 9 store. It was also reported that Ferrera was also a producer for the show.^[19]

The Mindy Project crossover

The series is implied to take place in the same fictional universe as Hulu's The Mindy Project, another series also produced by NBCUniversal Television. The episode "Under the Texan Sun" has Mindy Lahiri and Peter Prentice shopping at an Austin, Texas Cloud 9 location.

Reception

Ratings

The series debuted as a "preview" on November 30, 2015 following an episode of The Voice with 7 million viewers making the second highest new comedy behind Life in Pieces.^[20] The series then moved to its regular Monday at 8:00 pm timeslot on January 4, 2016 with more than 6 million viewers making the highest rated comedy that did not have The Voice as a lead-in since The Michael J. Fox Show back in September 2013.^[1][21]

Critical reception

Early reviews for the series were mixed. According to Metacritic, the first season of Superstore holds a score of 58 out of 100, indicating "mixed to average reviews" based on 21 critics.^[26] On another review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds a 54% with a "Rotten" rating, based on 24 critics, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The general consensus is: "Superstore's talented cast and obvious potential are slightly overshadowed by a tonally jumbled presentation and thin, formulaic writing."^[27] As the first season went along, however, reviews started to become more positive. Following the finale "Labor", the Los Angeles Times called it one of TV's best new comedies."^[28] Pilot Viruet of The A.V. Club wrote that the "first season ... got better and more confident as it moved on", and that the first season finale "is a nice little cap to a nice little sitcom that could’ve used a little more attention."^[29] After the series aired its Olympics special, Variety wrote that the show was "a funny, pointed and essential workplace comedy", and that "there are no weak links in [the] ensemble".^[30]

Accolades

References

External links

• Official website
• Superstore at the Internet Movie Database
• Superstore at TV Guide