From 2011 to 2014, Suburgatory was unlike anything else on television. Creator Emily Kapnek drew on her experience of spending her formative years with her mother in Larchmont, New York, and applied dizzying absurdity to the story of George and Tessa Altman (Jeremy Sisto and Jane Levy), who move from New York City to the suburban community of Chatswin and quickly discover that the cruel streets of Manhattan are nothing like the surrealism of the suburbs.
They soon become attached to their increasingly eccentric group of neighbors: mother and daughter Dallas and Dalia Royce (Cheryl Hines and Carly Chaikin), wealthy and completely out of touch with reality; husband and wife Noah and Jill Werner (Alan Tudyk and Gillian Vigman), who try to raise their son while trying to avoid real parenthood; And the larger-than-life personalities Sheila and Fred Shay (Ana Gasteyer and Chris Parnell), their son Ryan (Parker Young), a naive jock, and their daughter Lisa (Allie Grant), a neurotic who has spent her life in Ryan's shadow... to the point that her parents often forget she's even in the room. The ensemble comedy garnered critical acclaim for its constant dose of absurdity and quickly earned a reputation for deftly satirizing suburban life while maintaining a sweet and relatable tone.
Creator: Emily Kapnek
Stars: Jeremy Sisto, Jane Levy, Carly Chaikin
ABC canceled Suburgatory after three seasons, and the show wasn't available on any streaming service, meaning it faded into obscurity much faster than it should have. Now, however, Tubi and the Roku spinoff series Howdy have added all three seasons of the show to their streaming catalogs, providing the perfect opportunity for Kapnek and some of the cast to reflect on the series through the lens of one particular episode: the season two Christmas special, "Krampus," which broke budgets.
It's astonishing how much story is packed into this 22-minute installment: George selflessly sends Tessa to Manhattan to spend the holidays with his mother (guest star Malin Akerman), whom he barely knows; Ryan discovers he's adopted and runs away to the woods like a wounded animal; and Dalia, grieving the loss of her former housekeeper, Carmen (Bunnie Rivera), decides to win her back with the help of a video that's sure to go viral. For Kapnek, the episode was the most remarkable "because it faithfully reflected the style for which the series was known: a fusion of surreal comedy and sentiment."
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