Ben Rappaport
Anisha Nagarajan
Diedrich Bader
Parvesh Cheena
Pippa Black
Rebecca Hazlewood
Rizwan Manji
Sacha Dhawan
Cast
Ben Rappaport, Parvesh Cheena, Rebecca Hazlewood, Rizwan Manji, Pippa Black
Outsourced is an American television sitcom set in an Indian workplace. It is based on the John Jeffcoat film of the same name and adapted by Robert Borden and Universal Media Studios for NBC. The series originally ran from September 23, 2010 to May 12, 2011. The show was officially picked up by NBC on May 7, 2010 and on October 18, 2010, the show received a full season order. Outsourced was filmed at Radford Studios in Studio City, Los Angeles, California.
When the renewal of the show was not announced with renewal of other NBC shows, the cast and crew started a campaign for fans of the show to request its renewal. On May 13, 2011, NBC announced that Outsourced was cancelled after one season.
Outsourced is set in a call center in Mumbai, India, where an American novelties company has recently outsourced its order processing. A lone American manages the call center and must explain American popular culture to his employees as he tries to understand Indian culture.
Main characters
Ben Rappaport as Todd Dempsy, a Kansas City native who is transferred to India to run the call center for Mid American Novelties. He does not understand Indian culture and is constantly unintentionally offending workers. Eventually he becomes more aware of Indian culture. He is currently employed as executive manager.
Rizwan Manji as Rajiv Gidwani, Todd's assistant manager at Mid American Novelties. He is hard-nosed and unapologetic and he aspires to be Todd's replacement (whether that happens due to either Todd's success or his downfall). When Todd is promoted to executive manager, he is promoted to manager. His intentions are not to be mean, but to only run the company professionally and business-like. It had been his lifelong dream to become a successful business manager so he can win the hand of Vimi, whom he had loved since childhood. Once he became manager, he married Vimi, his fiancée.
Sacha Dhawan as Manmeet, a call center employee for Mid American Novelties, who dreams of America and quickly becomes good friends with his boss, Todd Dempsy. He is known for being the "hip" one, who is fascinated by American culture. Manmeet is girl-crazy; he has had several "over the phone" relationships with American callers and flirts with almost every woman he meets. He seems more interested in American women than Indian women, stating in one episode that American women are not concerned with his father's occupation or where he went to school. This, along with his reluctance to ask one of Tonya's friends to dance at a Halloween party, indicates that Manmeet may actually have a bit of an inferiority complex.
Rebecca Hazlewood as Asha, a call center employee for Mid American Novelties and love interest of Todd, who is frequently the voice of reason in the office and plans to pursue an arranged marriage. There may possibly be a relationship or love situation going on between Todd and Asha despite there already being one with Tonya. Just before the series finale Tonya breaks up with Todd because he still has feelings for Asha. In the last scene of the finale, Asha tells Todd to fight for what he wants, and takes his hand as they look out over the nighttime ocean at Rajiv and Vimi's wedding, strongly implying that she wants him to fight for her because of her feelings for him as well.
Parvesh Cheena as Gupta, a very talkative call center employee for Mid American Novelties, who constantly yearns to be the center of attention. His alter ego is "Aluk". After Todd inspires him to grab some independence from his parents, Gupta rents his own place in the apartment directly above Todd's.
Anisha Nagarajan as Madhuri, a shy and soft-spoken call center employee for Mid American Novelties whose income alone supports her entire family. As time passes, Madhuri opens up, becoming one of the office gossips. Madhuri also has a beautiful singing voice, and the others convince her to enter a singing contest.
Diedrich Bader as Charlie Davies, another American call center manager for the company All-American Hunter. For several episodes, Charlie nurses a crush on Tonya, but eventually has a short term relationship with Tonya's mother.
Pippa Black as Tonya, an Australian call center manager for the company Koala Airlines who is easygoing with a sense of adventure; by mid-season, she and Todd are romantically involved until just before the end of the series.
Main recurring principal characters
These two were featured and then became breakout characters.
Guru Singh as Ajeet, a tall, silent Sikh whose character was developed throughout the season. Shows displeasure at Todd's cultural gaffes throughout the series. Madhuri's love interest. He is a poet. He first speaks in the season finale episode and played a major role.
Thushari Jayasekera as Pinky, a fun and hard working call center worker at Mid America Novelties, who is adventure seeking, ready to learn and whose character was developed in depth through the season. Does funny and awkward things. Ready to defend her fellow call center team as well as party with the big boss. Played a leading role in the season finale.
Recurring characters
A-Team, a group of higher authorities, rude, snobby, and taunting, they on the higher class scale of value in their company which happens to be located in the same building
Jerry Stern (played by Matt Walsh), Todd's supervisor; he is often careless and somewhat of a jerk. After his wife left him he became a "party guy" for a moment then went back to professionalism, then promoted Todd to executive manager which put Rajiv at manager.
Santosh, the maid at Todd's apartment,
Vimi, (played by Sarayu Rao in Jolly Vindaloo day and Noureen DeWulf in the rest of the series), Vimi is Rajiv's wife, they married after Rajiv became manager.
Ashlynn (played by Melissa Stephens)
Reception
The show received mixed reviews, reaching a 46 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic. Another review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes, gives the show a rating of 21% based on 14 reviews, with the critical consensus, "This culture-clash sitcom is too mired in unfunny jokes and stereotypical characters to provide much insight into the global marketplace." Joel Keller of TV Squad in a review of the pilot episode stated, "As long as the show can examine the cultural divide, show how all offices are the same no matter where they are, and stay away from the easy jokes, NBC could have another Thursday comedy hit." Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times stated "The fact that it's neither embarrassing nor deeply offensive—once it gets rolling, the show is actually quite charming—is a credit to the cast and the writers." Critics such as blogger Mikey O'Connell have accused Outsourced of being racist. Matt Rouse of TV Guide wrote, "The culture clash premise drowns in a sewer of caricatures and lame jokes".
International broadcasts
Outsourced was picked up in Canada, for broadcast on Global at the same time as the American broadcast.
Outsourced has been broadcast in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Hong Kong on Universal.
In Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka, Outsourced has been broadcast on Comedy Central.
In Australia, Outsourced has been broadcast on Seven Network.
In Fiji, Outsourced has been broadcast on FBC TV
In Brazil, Outsourced has been broadcast on Rede Record, premiered on November 5, 2011, with the title Aprontando na Índia. It is also being broadcast on TBS.
In New Zealand, Outsourced has been broadcast on FOUR.
In the Philippines, Outsourced has been broadcast on 2nd Avenue.
In Norway, Outsourced has been broadcast on MAX.
In South Africa, Outsourced has been broadcast on SABC 3.
In Mexico, Outsourced has been broadcast on Warner Channel.
In Sweden, Outsourced has been broadcast on TV3 and TV6.
In Denmark, Outsourced has been broadcast on TV3+.
In Poland, Outsourced (Dostawa na telefon) has been broadcast on Comedy Central Poland.
In the Middle East, Outsourced has been broadcast on OSN COMEDY.
In Latin America, Outsourced has been broadcast on Warner Channel
In Malaysia, Outsourced has been broadcast on RTM's channel tv2.
In Italy, Outsourced has been broadcast on Mediaset Premium channel Joi.
In the Czech Republic, Outsourced has been broadcast on Prima Cool with title Haló, tady Indie.
In Iceland, Outsourced has been broadcast on SkjárEinn.
In Singapore, Outsourced has been broadcast on MediaCorp Channel 5.
In Hungary, Outsourced has been broadcast on Comedy Central.
In Greece, Outsourced has been broadcast on Star Channel.
In the Netherlands, "Outsourced" has been broadcast on RTL 5.
