Allen Gregory

Allen Gregory is an American animated sitcom created by Jonah Hill, Jarrad Paul, and Andrew Mogul for the Fox Broadcasting Company.[1] The series follows pretentious seven-year-old Allen Gregory De Longpre, who is raised by his two rich homosexual fathers, Richard and Jeremy. The series received negative reviews from critics. On January 8, 2012, the series was cancelled after one season.[2]

Allen Gregory
Titular character (sitting in chair) with his parents Richard and Jeremy, and his sister Julie
Genre	Animated sitcom
Created by	Jonah Hill Andrew Mogel Jarrad Paul
Voices of	Jonah Hill French Stewart Nat Faxon Joy Osmanski Cristina Puccelli Will Forte
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	7
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jonah Hill Andrew Mogel Jarrad Paul Peter Chernin Katherine Pope David A. Goodman
Producer(s)	Jonah Hill Philip Hackinson Michael Colton (co-producer)
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Bento Box Entertainment Jonah Hill Films a J. Paul/A. Mogel/D. Goodman Piece of Business Chernin Entertainment 20th Century Fox Television
Distributor	20th Television
Release
Original network	Fox
Original release	October 30 – December 18, 2011 (2011-12-18)
External links
Website

Synopsis

The series follows Allen Gregory De Longpre (Jonah Hill), a pretentious seven-year-old raised by his two fathers, Richard and Jeremy. Allen has an adopted sister, Julie. Allen must start attending a public elementary school due to the effect of the recession on his family's finances. Richard also pressures Jeremy to secure employment due to the financial issues, although Richard avoids divulging information to Jeremy as to why they need additional income. Allen is enamored with an elderly school principal, Judith Gottlieb, much to her disapproval. She protests but is forced to accept his behavior due to pressure from the school superintendent, who is friends with Richard.

Cast

• Jonah Hill as Allen Gregory De Longpre, a precocious, pretentious, selfish, and spoiled seven-year-old who is forced to attend elementary school due to the recession. He has a warped perception on how the world works.
• French Stewart as Richard De Longpre, Allen's gay father. Richard is the so-called "Super CEO" of De Longpre International, but it turns out to be a fake title his father made up because his son is not capable of running the company. Richard is given fake jobs to be kept busy. Like Allen, Richard's views on the world are warped.
• Nat Faxon as Jeremy De Longpre, Richard's husband. Jeremy is a former social worker who had a loving wife and family, although this changed after Richard became one of his clients. Richard was attracted to Jeremy to the point where he started stalking him and his family until Jeremy finally agreed to be his husband. It is said that Jeremy is actually heterosexual but left his wife and children for Richard, who offered him an easy, no-maintenance life as his trophy husband. He is a nice guy and a bit of a pushover, and receives little to no respect from Allen or Richard.
• Joy Osmanski as Julie De Longpre, Allen's adopted Cambodian sister. Similar to Jeremy, Julie is constantly abused by both Allen and Richard.
• Cristina Pucelli as Patrick, a student who is Allen's best friend/assistant. He is one of the only kids at school who hangs out with Allen. When Patrick says something, Allen often does not listen unless it plays to his ego.
• Will Forte as Stewart Rossmyre, the school superintendent. He understands Allen's mistakes, and often tries to date Allen's first-grade teacher.

Supporting cast

• Renée Taylor as elderly school principal Judith Gottlieb. Allen is in love with Judith and persistently tries to win her attention, but Judith makes it very clear that she is not interested in a romantic relationship with the child. She once conspired with Julie to get him expelled. Judith is straightforward and has a serious, no-nonsense demeanor. She is in a long-term romantic relationship with Sidney, the school's counselor. They live together and have recently celebrated their 65th anniversary. Sidney has made comments about getting married which she has blown off, though she has referred to their relationship as marriage to herself.
• Leslie Mann as Gina Winthrop, a first-grade teacher who has Allen in her class. She tries to teach Allen but he continually disrupts the class and shows little to no respect for her or her job.
• Keith David as Carl Trent D'Avis aka Cole Train, an elderly African-American man whom Allen comes to when he has a problem, although Carl does not always give the best advice. He has shown violent and destructive tendencies, such as by attacking an unsuspecting diner manager and setting a records hall on fire in the same day.
• Lacey Chabert as Beth. She is one of Julie's best friends and wears a back brace.
• Nasim Pedrad as Val, another of Julie's best friends. She is of Indian descent and is obese.
• Jake Johnson as Joel Zadak, a popular kid at school. Allen tries hard to impress Joel but is mostly made fun of and picked on in return.
• Will Forte as Ian, one of Allen's classmates. He is often picked on by Joel and the other students because his mom is dead.
• Jonah Hill as Guillermo, an overweight Latino kid who is a sidekick of Joel.

Guest voices

• Lisa Kudrow as Sheila. She appeared in the episode "Mom Sizemore", in which Allen thought she was his biological mother. Allen brought her to live with him and Richard, which forced Jeremy to move out. When she started to get strict with him, Allen realized there was nothing wrong with Jeremy, so he got him back and she left. Later, Allen finds out that Carl just pulled a random file and that he still does not know who his real mother is.
• Jeff Goldblum as Perry Van Moon, Richard's long-time rival.

Episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	US viewers (millions)
1	1	"Pilot"	Bernard Derriman	Jonah Hill & Andrew Mogel & Jarrad Paul	October 30, 2011 (2011-10-30)	1ASB01	4.77[3]
Because of the Great Recession, successful seven-year-old Allen Gregory DeLongpre has been forced to attend elementary school. But because of his precociousness, he has difficulty fitting in. He becomes infatuated with school principal Judith Gottlieb.
2	2	"1 Night in Gottlieb"	Colin Heck	Michael Colton & John Aboud	November 6, 2011 (2011-11-06)	1ASB03	4.31
Allen Gregory attempts to make a sex tape with Principal Gottlieb. Meanwhile, Richard and Jeremy recruit some cool kids to hang out with Julie to make her seem cool.[4]
3	3	"Gay School Dance"	Tyree Dillihay	Jonah Hill & Andrew Mogel & Jarrad Paul	November 13, 2011 (2011-11-13)	1ASB02	4.24
Tension occurs when Joel Zadak invites Allen Gregory's best friend Patrick and not Allen to the school dance.[5]
4	4	"Interracial McAdams"	Bernard Derriman	Hayes Davenport	November 20, 2011 (2011-11-20)	1ASB06	3.97[6]
When Joel Zadak stays home from school because he's sick, the always presumptuous Allen Gregory steps in to help his popular "friend" by keeping tabs on the clique. As Allen Gregory gains some ground with the exclusive group, Zadak loses more than his friends. Meanwhile, Richard hits the boardroom at his father's company.
5	5	"Full Blown Maids"	Wes Archer	Guy Endore Kaiser	November 27, 2011 (2011-11-27)	1ASB04	3.18[7]
Gina decides to teach Allen Gregory a lesson by making him write a paper on racism after he mistakes Guillermo, a fellow Hispanic classmate, for the school janitor. Allen refuses to write the paper and instead produces a school play and presents it to the school, staff and student parents.[5]
6	6	"Mom Sizemore"	Jennifer Coyle	Sean Clements & Dominic Dierkes	December 4, 2011 (2011-12-04)	1ASB05	5.21[8]
Allen Gregory discovers that it is biologically impossible for a male to bear a child, contrary to the story that he was conceived by his two fathers, a lie his father told him. Allen decides to find his biological mother Sheila and reunite her with his father, while shutting Jeremy out, until he realizes it's a terrible mistake.
7	7	"Van Moon Rising"	Tyree Dillihay	Gene Hong	December 18, 2011 (2011-12-18)	1ASB07	3.32[9]
Allen Gregory attempts to blackmail Principal Gottlieb to date him. He succeeds at first, but then Judith turns her back on him by reading a love letter from her husband, the school's counselor.

Production

The series was a co-production of 20th Century Fox Television and Chernin Entertainment. Hill co-created the series with Mogel and Paul. All three, along with Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope, served as executive producers.[10] David A. Goodman, who was with the series Family Guy until its ninth season after its 2005 return to television, was the showrunner and a further executive producer.[11]

Fox placed an order for seven episodes in October 2010.[10] On July 12, 2011, Fox ordered six additional scripts of the series.[12] As of 2011, there had been no further report regarding completion of the scripts, or of any work to shoot the scripts to create further episodes.[13]

Reception

Allen Gregory received negative reviews from critics. Chris Swanson of WhatCulture gave the pilot episode a rating of 0.5 out of 5, saying "There is nothing charming, witty or interesting about this show. It's just one horribly stupid, cringe-inducing moment after another with characters who are truly loathsome and unpleasant."[14] Robert Bianco of USA Today also gave the show a negative review, saying it was "nasty and brutish", "rarely funny", and made them "hate every character except Julie".[15] Metacritic gave the show an overall review of 40 out of 100.[16]

Broadcast

Allen Gregory aired on Global in Canada, simsubbed in most regions. In the UK, it was shown on E4.[17][18]

References

1. Seidman, Robert (June 23, 2011). "Fox Announces 2011 Fall TV Premiere Dates". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on March 13, 2012. Retrieved October 31, 2011.
2. Ausiello, Michael. "Fox Boss Offers Renewal Updates on House, Fringe, Terra Nova and More!". Archived from the original on 29 October 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
3. Seidman, Robert (November 1, 2011). "Sunday Final Ratings: 'Cleveland Show' Adjusted Up; 'Pan Am' Adjusted Down + Unscrambled CBS Shows & 'Sunday Night Football'". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on September 2, 2012. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
4. "Allen Gregory Makes Principal Gottlieb the Subject of a Sex Scandal in an All-New 'Allen Gregory' Sunday, November 6, on Fox". Thefutoncritic.com.
5. "So November, So Fox – So Huge, So Bold, So Fox Television Events". Thefutoncritic.com.
6. "TV Ratings Sunday: Of Course Football Wins; 'American Music Awards' Steady; 'Simpsons,' 'Allen Gregory' Slip With No NFL Help – Ratings | TVbytheNumbers". Tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com. Archived from the original on 2012-08-13. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
7. "Sunday Final Ratings: Big Adjustment Up for 'Amazing Race'; No Adjustment for 'Once Upon a Time' + Steelers-Chiefs – Ratings | TVbytheNumbers". Tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com. Archived from the original on 2012-02-21. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
8. "TV Ratings Sunday: 'Simpsons,' 'Family Guy' Get A Boost; 'Once Upon A Time,' 'Housewives,' 'Pan Am,' 'Good Wife' Hit Lows; As Of Course 'Sunday Night Football' Wins – Ratings | TVbytheNumbers". Tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com. Archived from the original on 2012-08-13. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
9. Gorman, Bill (December 19, 2011). "TV Ratings Sunday: Preliminary 18–49 Ratings Have CBS (Incl. 'Survivor' Finale) Over NBC, But Hold On..." TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on January 7, 2012. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
10. Andreeva, Nellie (October 11, 2010). "Fox Orders 'Napoleon Dynamite' Toon Series" Archived 2011-08-12 at the Wayback Machine. Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 31, 2011.
11. Andreeva, Nellie (December 7, 2010) "David Goodman To Run 'Allen Gregory'" Archived May 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Deadline Hollywood.
12. Jeffery, Morgan (July 12, 2011). "Fox Orders More 'Napoleon Dynamite', 'Allen Gregory'". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on September 4, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
13. "Jonah Hill Talks the Fate of 'Allen Gregory,' '21 Jump Street' & Co-Hosting 'Live! With Kelly'". Aoltv.com. Archived from the original on 2012-05-17. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
14. "TV Review: ALLEN GREGORY 1.1, "Pilot"". Whatculture.com. 2011-11-02. Archived from the original on 2012-09-09. Retrieved 2011-11-18.
15. "'Allen Gregory': A nasty, brutish show". Usatoday.com. October 27, 2011. Archived from the original on September 9, 2012. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
16. "Metacritic reviews: Allen Gregory: Season 1". metacritic.com. Archived from the original on 2012-09-09. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
17. "Channel 4 Acquires Homeland and New Girl in Twentieth Century Fox Deal". Channel 4. July 18, 2011. Archived from the original on September 9, 2012. Retrieved August 20, 2011.
18. "Allen Gregory – Episode Guide". Channel 4. Archived from the original on 2012-06-26. Retrieved 2012-07-16.

External links

• Allen Gregory on IMDb