Sullivan & Son Information

Sullivan & Son is an American comedy television series created by Rob Long and Steve Byrne that is broadcast on TBS. It stars Byrne as Steve Sullivan, who surprises his parents when he leaves his job as a corporate lawyer to take over a bar owned by his father in Pittsburgh. The series is executive-produced by Vince Vaughn, Peter Billingsley and Long, who also serves as showrunner. It premiered on July 19, 2012.

Overview

The series centers on Steve Sullivan (Steve Byrne), a corporate attorney from New York City who visits his Irish American father Jack (Dan Lauria) and Korean mother Ok Cha (Jodi Long) just as they are preparing to sell their bar in a Pittsburgh working-class neighborhood and retire. To their surprise, he decides to stay and run the bar. The bar is a popular venue among the locals, and is the unofficial "town hall" to the neighborhood.

Cast and characters

• Steve Byrne as Steve Sullivan, a half Irish and half Korean lawyer who leaves his job to take over his parents' bar in Pittsburgh.
• Dan Lauria as Jack Sullivan, Steve's father.
• Jodi Long as Ok Cha Sullivan, Steve's mother.
• Owen Benjamin as Owen Walsh, a dopey and unemployed childhood friend of Steve's.
• Brian Doyle-Murray as Hank Murphy, a regular at the bar.
• Christine Ebersole as Carol Walsh, a regular at the bar and Owen's mother.
• Vivian Bang as Susan Sullivan, Steve's younger sister.
• Valerie Azlynn as Melanie Sutton, an EMT and love interest of Steve.
• Roy Wood, Jr. as Roy, a bar regular and childhood friend of Steve and Owen.
• Ahmed Ahmed as Ahmed Nassar, a tow truck driver, bar regular and childhood friend of Steve and Owen.

Recurring

• Brian Scolaro as Doug, a bar regular.
• Jesus Trejo as Javier, a bar regular.
• Joshua David Gray as Father Perry, a bar regular.
• Billy Gardell as Lyle Winkler, Steve's rival.
• John Michael Higgins as Gary

Special guest stars

• Chris D'Elia as Ryan Capps
• Will Sasso as Robert Sherman
• Kerri Kenney-Silver as Jo
• Ken Jeong as Jason, Susan's overachieving MD husband.
• Kunal Nayyar as Neal
• Ryan Miller as himself
• Brad Keselowski as himself
• Pat Sajak as himself
• Charles Shaughnessy as Darryl

Episodes

See List of Sullivan & Son episodes for more information

Production

Sullivan & Son was ordered to pilot by cable channel TBS on September 30, 2011. It was among three half-hour pilots being considered by the channel, the others being Men at Work and BFF. The pilot was written by Steve Byrne and Rob Long with Byrne in the starring role. Valerie Azlynn, Jodi Long, Vivian Bang, Owen Benjamin, and Dan Lauria were added to the cast in October. The show is filmed and shown, on TV, in front a live studio audience.

TBS had been developing comedies that could be paired with reruns of The Big Bang Theory. After greenlighting Men at Work to series in January 2012, TBS was to choose between Sullivan & Son and BFF to fill its new hour-long comedy slot. On February 10, 2012, TBS picked up Sullivan & Son to series with a ten-episode order with a premiere date set for summer 2012. TBS announced that it had renewed Sullivan & Son for a second season of 10 more episodes that premiered on June 13, 2013. It was announced on August 20, 2013, that TBS has renewed the series for a 13 episode third season that will air in mid-2014.

Reception

Sullivan & Son has received mixed to negative reviews, garnering a score of 47 out of 100 on Metacritic.