The Grubbs
unaired sitcom television series

The Grubbs is an unaired American sitcom. Based on the British sitcom The Grimleys, it starred Michael Cera as Mitchell Grubb, Randy Quaid as his father, and Carol Kane as his mother. It would have premiered on November 3, 2002, but was cancelled two days before its planned premiere.
History
The Grubbs was announced by Fox in May 2002, and was intended to premiere on November 3 of that year in Fox's 9:30 PM Sunday time slot, right after Malcolm in the Middle. The series was co-produced by Granada Entertainment USA and 20th Century Fox Television, in a partnership with Universal Television. In a statement when the series was originally announced, Granada Entertainment USA president Antony Root said, "With vivid characters, sharp writing and irreverent humour, The Grubbs has all the makings of a great success for Fox." But although Fox had originally ordered thirteen episodes of the series, in September 2002 they announced this would be reduced to eight, and the series ended up being cancelled in November 2002, two days before the show would have premiered.
Although no episodes of The Grubbs were ever aired, the series did help Cera land an audition for the sitcom Arrested Development, in which he played George Michael Bluth. The Grubbs also served as Cera's debut playing a role on American network television.
Plot
Like The Grimleys, The Grubbs revolved around an underachieving, blue-collar family. But while The Grimleys was set in Dudley, West Midlands, England in the 1970s, The Grubbs was set in the present day in the fictitious American town of Hackville.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Grubbs” 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.