tek's rating:

Sullivan & Son, on TBS
IMDb; Sitcoms Online; TV Tropes; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Google Play; Vudu; YouTube

There's this corporate attorney from New York City named Steve Sullivan, who visits his family in Pittsburgh for his father's birthday, and when he finds out his parents are selling their bar (Sullivan & Son, named for Steve's father and grandfather), he decides to buy it, quit his job as a lawyer, and run the bar himself (though his parents continue working there). Steve's father, Jack, is Irish-American (played by Dan Lauria, best known from The Wonder Years), and his mother, Ok Cha, is Korean-American (they met when Jack fought in the Korean War). Steve has a sister named Susan, who is married to a doctor named Jason (Ken Jeong, whom we only see in two episodes). One of the main running jokes of the series is that Ok Cha almost constantly criticizes Susan. Of course, Ok Cha is generally unpleasant to pretty much everyone, which is also played for laughs.

I suppose I should mention some of the main characters, aside from the Sullivans themselves. There's an EMT named Melanie, who's rather pretty, but basically just one of the guys. In the first season it seemed, for awhile, like she was a potential love interest for Steve, though that never really went anywhere. Some of the other regulars include Steve's best friends since they were kids, Owen, Roy, and Ahmed. Owen is a goofy man-child who lives with his mother, Carol (whose promiscuity is frequently played for laughs). Actually, Owen and Carol are best friends, to a disturbing degree. They're each other's wing-man, and sometimes they seem more like a couple than mother and son. As for Roy and Ahmed, I don't really know what to say. Roy's married, but I don't remember if we've ever seen his wife. And I guess the fact that Roy is Black and Ahmed is of Arabian descent is sometimes used for comedic purposes, mostly via another bar regular, Hank. Hank is the resident cranky old white guy who's sort of a racist, but basically harmless.

And that's pretty much all there is to say. The show is not particularly original or memorable, but I do find it amusing enough to keep watching, since it's on in the summer when there's nothing on that I'd rather be watching. But if I miss an episode, I don't feel too bad about it.


comedy index
summer series