Complete Savages is an American sitcom that was broadcast on ABC from September 2004 to June 2005. It was part of ABC's final TGIF comedy line-up. The show was created by Mike Scully and Julie Thacker and executive produced by Mel Gibson. It was cancelled after its first season due to low ratings.
The series focuses on single dad Nick Savage struggling to raise his five unruly sons (Jack, Chris, Sam, Kyle, and T.J.) alone, following the abandonment of their mother 10 years previously, while working on call day and night as a firefighter with his brother Jimmy. The boys constantly stir up trouble and create unpredictable circumstances for the entire family to somehow resolve.
The theme song was composed and performed by Joseph Interlande, and appears at the beginning of each episode as a jam session amongst the whole Savage family.
Main cast
Keith Carradine as Nick Savage – the irritable patriarch of the Savage family. His wife left him ten years previous to the pilot. He gets mad very easily. Although some of the stuff he does to the boys is regarded as unfair, he always shows that he has his sons' best interests at heart and is very concerned for their education and well being, despite his short temper and tendency to lash out at his boys. However, his solution to most problems is to get angry, a solution which seems to have been picked up by his sons Chris and Kyle and occasionally Jack. He works as a firefighter along with his younger brother Jimmy. Although up-tight and ill-tempered he is shown to be a "cool" dad allowing some things slide with his sons for their happiness usually with girls, such as in the episode Men in Uniform. He is shown to also have an addiction to smoking.
Shaun Sipos as Jack Savage – the eldest son. He is considered the "cool" brother and has many girlfriends. He sings and plays the guitar. He bought and drove a red motorcycle, until he destroyed the front porch with it. Jack often takes on the role of leader for the boys and always organises stages and tries to hold them together, mainly against their father. Jack is often envied tremendously by Sam mainly due to the reason that Jack is popular in school and has lots of girlfriends while Sam is nerdy and finds it hard to get girls. However, there are surprising changes through the series as Sam receives a hot girlfriends while Jack is single and when Sam gets promoted above Jack in a bra and panty store. Although Jack tries to seem independent, he often shows a lot of caring for his brothers, especially T.J.
Erik von Detten as Chris Savage – considered a dumb jock, as he fails five different school subjects. He does so badly in school, he has to pretend his last name is Rodriguez just to stay on the football team, but surprisingly learns to speak Spanish to do so convincingly. Chris seems to have a very strong conscience as opposed to Kyle, which is shown when he butchers his old class frog under peer pressure and then imagines the spirit of the frog coming back to haunt him. Chris often agrees with Jack due to Jack's great persuasion skills, combined with the fact that Chris is easily swayed. He also shows violence as a way of solving his problems as he's not good with words. He clearly shows his superiority over his younger brothers through his often used punishment "You're going in the pit" inherited from his father.
Andrew Eiden as Sam Savage – the middle son considered "black sheep" of the group, as he is responsible and does his school work. He enjoys studying and being with his girlfriend. Sam was always considered by the boys' father as the easiest one to break when the boys were staging a front. He often uses Sam and puts him under pressure to make him crack, this is shown in the pilot episode when the boys refuse to clean until their dad re-hires a maid. Nick tells Angela (Sam's dream girl) to come over to meet Sam, the boys then take pity on Sam and clean the house so Angela can come over. Another instance is when Jack buys a motor cycle, which Nick banned them to drive, which Sam falls off the back off and sprains his arm. When Nick finds out, he wants to arm wrestle Sam to try to get him to admit that they rode the bike. The majority of the plots surrounding Sam play him as the "straight" man in the comedy routine. He is not athletic shown by how he passed every subject but PE/Gym at school in the episode "Tutoring" and was still unable to successfully climb the rope.
Evan Ellingson as Kyle Savage – the is unruly and constantly causing chaos. He has little regard for the safety of himself or others. Unlike his brother Chris, Kyle shows a lack of a conscience. He rarely feels bad or guilty about anything he does. When he admits to smoking for $5 his dad expresses that he is disappointed in Kyle, Kyle merely shrugs and goes back to eating dinner. As an April Fool's joke he pushes a postman down the stairs, and laughs as he tells his brothers about it. He frequently hangs around with his younger brother T.J., whom he often convinces to do stupid things. He shows signs of selfishness, for example, the time when he and T.J. stole a game from a Christmas charity for kids and decided they want it for themselves, after a touching appeal on TV for presents, T.J. is convinced to give it back while Kyle simply states "wow...they almost had me". Also, when he gets his first girlfriend, he decides to take her out instead of going out with T.J. like he promised. Despite his misbehavior, he appears to be more mischievous rather than malicious. He does have a softer side, as seen by his willingness to quit smoking to help his dad quit, and also his baking of brownies for a girl he is smitten with. His favorite phrase is "Kyle Rules" as he spray paints it everywhere including on an elephant as a Halloween prank. He gets into lots of trouble in school resulting in detention nearly every day yet forging his dads signature on the slip to avoid being found out. He is reckless and proud.
Jason Dolley as T.J. Savage – the youngest son who basically does everything Kyle tells him to do. He constantly shows his obsession of farts, during Thanksgiving when everybody else claim to be thankful for girls, T.J. claims to be fond of farts. He asks his dads' girlfriend, who is a radio host, if she had ever said "fart" on the radio, to which she replies "no but when I do I will dedicate it to you". When Sam rings the White House in regards to a birthday card, before he can ring, he asks if Sam will ask if the president has ever said "fart" in the Oval Office. T.J. is a typical little brother. Nick Savage seems to be proud of T.J. introducing him to his girlfriend along with Sam. He is considered cute but deceiving with a reckless side.
Vincent Ventresca as Jimmy Savage – Nick's brother who works as a firefighter along with Nick. His personality is quite the opposite of his brother's, and more inline of Nick's sons, and he seemed to lead a careless life. He has participated in dating ads and seems to be a complete savage.
Minor cast
Brittany Curran as Josie – Kyle's equally delinquent girlfriend which he met in detention and quickly liked. She was his first kiss and is practically Kyle in girl form for example her conscience and impulsiveness.
Autumn Reeser as Angela Anderson – Sam's girlfriend. She is very much like Sam, in that she was very studious. She did not show interest in him at first even though Sam is quickly smitten with her and works extremely hard to get her attention.
Kylie Sparks as Brenda – the neighborhood bully. She is in the glee club, and is not very liked by the Savage family, even Nick pranks her house on Halloween. She is big, brutal and impulsive; expressed interest in dating Sam in one episode.
Mel Gibson as Officer Steve Cox – a cop in a series of cheesy safety videos especially on motorcycles Nick shows to Jack to stop him riding his motorcycle. His videos normally had a good looking woman, Misty (Candace Kita), in them, that would die at the end of it from a motorcycle related incident.
Betty White as Mrs. Agnes Riley – the crotchety old neighbor. She has a heart attack in one episode, and was saved by the boys' unconventional ways of CPR. In a different episode, it is revealed that she had a prosthetic leg.
Kelly as the Savages' nameless pet dog – she is not very fond of Sam but is practically part of the family; eating at the table and getting involved in all the mischief. She is well trained and probably more civil than the boys.
Mrs Savage - The unseen Matriarch of the family who Nick divorced after a string of incidents that ended with glass in his meatloaf. She is said to be insane by several members of the family and Nick threatens the boys several times with calling her back when they misbehave.
Syndication
The series began screening on Nickelodeon UK in September 2005.
