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Sean Saves the World

television series

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ13218438 ↗
Source-derived summary

Sean Saves the World is an American sitcom television series created by Victor Fresco and starring Sean Hayes that aired on NBC from October 3, 2013, to March 24, 2014, as part of the 2013–14 American television season. It was announced on January 28, 2014, that Sean Saves the World had been cancelled after 13 episodes had aired. Of the 18 ordered, only 15 were filmed.

Plot

Sean is a divorced gay father with a successful, yet demanding, career. When his 14-year-old daughter moves in with him full-time, he is forced to juggle his work life, his mom, and fatherhood. Determined not to give life a half-hearted attempt, he reads up on parenting and about keeping a vibrant family alongside a thriving career. However, sudden work pressures dampen his grand family plans and skew his work/life balance.

Cast and characters

Main

Sean Hayes as Sean Harrison

Linda Lavin as Lorna Harrison, Sean's mother

Samantha Isler as Ellie Harrison, Sean's street-smart teenage daughter

Thomas Lennon as Max Thompson, Sean's temperamental new boss

Megan Hilty as Liz, Sean's best friend and co-worker

Echo Kellum as Hunter, Sean's co-worker and friend

Recurring

Stacy Keach as Lee Thompson, Max's arrogant, lustful father

Parvesh Cheena as Jerry, Max's loyal assistant

Notable guest stars

Craig Ferguson as Andrew Summer, Sean's ex-boss who he had a one night stand with

Portia de Rossi as Jill, Sean's ex-wife and Ellie's mom

Guy Pearce as Liam Stone, Max's fencing instructor who dates Sean

Hayes' Will & Grace co-star Megan Mullally was set to guest star in the seventeenth episode as Sean's sister; however, the episode was not produced due to the series' cancellation.

Development and production

The series first appeared as part of the NBC development slate in December 2012, with Sean Hayes attached to star. On January 22, 2013, NBC placed a pilot order under the title Happiness.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Sean Saves the World” is television series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Sean, Saves and World, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2013, 2014, 2012—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Sean, Saves and World is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “television series” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q13218438. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2013, 2014 and 2012.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Sean Saves the World”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Sean Saves the World primary sources, Sean Saves the World archive and Sean research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sean Saves the World”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Sean Saves the World” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.