Sons of Tucson - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Sons of Tucson was an American comedy television series starring Tyler Labine, Frank Dolce, Matthew Levy and Benjamin Stockham. It premiered on Fox on March 11, 2010. The show was announced as a midseason show to air on Sunday nights at 8:30 pm ET/PT in between animated hits, The Simpsons and Family Guy, although it was changed to 9:30 ET/PT, replacing American Dad!.

Premise

The series is about the Gunderson brothers. They own a house in Tucson, Arizona, but since their mother left and their father is in prison, they hire Ron (Tyler Labine) to be their father. At first, the boys just need a father in specific situations, but then they find they have to keep Ron around because he is needed to shake off suspicions.

Main characters

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Ron Snuffkin (Tyler Labine) is a thirty-something sporting goods employee who is discovered by the Gunderson brothers to substitute for their imprisoned father. He is hired to shake away any suspicions from teachers and neighbors, who suspect that the boys are fending for themselves. He is considered a slacker and is always ready to take the easy way out of certain situations.

Gary Gunderson (Frank Dolce) (age 11) is the middle child of the Gunderson brothers and is the mastermind of hiring Ron as their fake father. Although he is very intellectual, he can get easily stressed by certain situations. In one episode, his stress causes him to take blood pressure medication. His serious attitude always bothers people around him.

Brandon Gunderson (Matthew Levy) (age 13) is the oldest of the brothers. Out of all of brothers, he is most confused about life, but is always ready to say what is on his mind when it needs to be said. He is considered a free-spirit.

Robby Gunderson (Benjamin Stockham) (age 8) is the youngest of the brothers. Like many children his age, he enjoys junk food and watching television for many hours. He is the most troublesome of the brothers.

Minor characters

Glenn (Joe Lo Truglio) is Ron's childhood friend. He is very impressionable and is always willing to follow Ron's schemes. He is frequently pushed around by his wife, Angela.

Angela (Sarayu Rao) is Glenn's wife. She is very bossy (especially towards Glenn) and does not like the fact that her husband is friends with Ron. She is very suspicious of Ron's "fatherly care" for his "sons" and frequently pesters Glenn about wanting to have children.

Maggie Morales (Natalie Martinez) is Robbie's third grade teacher. She is very serious about her job and sometimes worried about the environment Robbie is being raised in. It is assumed that Ron has a crush on her, after a failed attempt at getting a kiss, unbeknownst to her.

Mike Proudfoot (Michael Horse) is one of the employees at Ron's job, Sport Space. He is a Native American, who Ron always asks for advice on what a Native American would know about. Their conversations usually consist of Mike denouncing that he knows more about life than what he already knows about his heritage.

Joker (Edwin H. Bravo) is one of Ron's friends who is always ready to let him in on his illegal but profitable activities.

Guest stars

Guest stars during show's run included Allen Alvarado, Alexandra Breckenridge, Jake Busey, Stephanie Courtney, Kurt Fuller, Jamie Gray Hyder, David Lambert, Keegan-Michael Key, Michael Kostroff, Sydney Park, Stefanie Scott, Hailee Steinfeld, Stacey Travis, Andrew Walker, Nikki Ziering, Buddy Handleson and series producer Justin Berfield.

Production

The show was produced by 20th Century Fox Television, WalkingBud Productions and J2TV (Justin Berfield's production company).

Executive producer Todd Holland said Tyler Labine is "an actor who is funny" rather than a comedian. Labine needs to know the appropriate emotional response for his character. Frank Dolce, who plays 11-year-old Gary, said Gary is in charge because his 13-year-old brother just does what makes him feel good and goes along with what others want. His 8-year-old brother couldn't be in charge because he is "anti-authority". Co-creator Tommy Dewey said having an 11-year-old in charge was "more interesting".

Recasting

In July 2009 Fox announced they were recasting the two principal roles of Robby and Brandon. Producer Justin Berfield states this was due to scheduling issues. Robby Gunderson was originally played by Davis Cleveland and Brandon Gunderson was originally played by Troy Gentile.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, the pilot episode was viewed by 4.514 million viewers and received an 18-49 Nielsen Rating of 2.1/5 coming fourth in its timeslot and becoming the least viewed show on Fox that night. Sandra Ganzalez of Entertainment Weekly gave the episode a positive review saying "Like I said, there is not much by way of plot, but the individual pieces of the show give it promise. As EW critic Ken Tucker said in his take, if you liked Tyler Labine’s laid-back-dude vibe in Reaper, you'll probably enjoy Sons of Tucson. Labine does a great job at making Snuffkin a lovable buffoon without crossing the line into campy. The pilot also rested on Labine’s ability to portray the undeniably creepy Snuffkin as likable, considering the premise." Todd VerDan Werff of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B- saying " Tucson has a premise too potentially creepy for it to be as mediocre as it is. Don't get me wrong. This isn't a bad show. It's not a particularly good one either, but it's average enough that it would be pretty unobjectionable (and, honestly, fit rather well into the rather average Sunday night animated bloc) without the fact that its premise is ... problematic.".

Broadcast history

The series premiered on March 11, 2010 in Canada on Global at 9:30 pm ET, and on March 14, 2010 in the United States on Fox at 9:30 pm ET. This schedule remained until its cancellation was announced on April 5, 2010 after only four episodes. It returned to air its remaining episodes on June 6, 2010, airing Sundays at 7:30 pm ET (then at 7:00 pm ET on June 27, 2010) on Fox, and at 10:30 pm ET on Global.

References

Sons of Tucson Wikipedia

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