Shameless (American TV series)
American television comedy-drama series (2011–2021)

Shameless is an American comedy-drama television series developed by John Wells that aired on Showtime from January 9, 2011, to April 11, 2021. It is an adaptation of Paul Abbott's British series of the same name and features an ensemble cast led by William H. Macy. The series is set in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois.
With the premiere of the ninth season on September 9, 2018, Shameless became the longest-running scripted original series in Showtime's history. In January 2020, the series was renewed for its eleventh and final season, which was scheduled to premiere in mid-2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it instead premiered on December 6, 2020. On December 14, 2020, Showtime announced that they were airing a clip show series during Season 11, titled Shameless: Hall of Shame, containing new scenes juxtaposed with clips from the show to summarize the characters' journeys during the prior 10 seasons. The series finale aired on April 11, 2021.
Premise
Set in South Side, Chicago, this drama follows Frank Gallagher, a neglectful single father of six who spends his leisure time drinking at bars since his wife left the family due to bipolar disorder. Due to the absence of a parental figure, the Gallagher children try to get through their days by running countless scams, affairs, and petty crimes throughout Chicago.
Cast and characters
William H. Macy as Frank Gallagher, the patriarch of the Gallagher family and father to Fiona, Lip, Ian, Carl, Debbie and Liam.
“Shameless (American TV series)” enters the record as american television comedy-drama series (2011–2021). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Shameless, American and series can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23599. VIAF identifies the subject as 316569423. The Library of Congress control number is no2015090402. None of the 3 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2011, 2021, 2018 and 2020.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shameless (American TV series)” 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.