Superstore (TV series)



Superstore is an American single-camera sitcom television series that premiered on NBC on November 30, 2015. The series was created by Justin Spitzer, who also serves as an executive producer. Starring America Ferrera (who also serves as a producer), Ben Feldman and Mark McKinney, Superstore follows a group of employees working at "Cloud 9", store number 1217, a fictional big-box store in St. Louis, Missouri. The ensemble and supporting cast includes Lauren Ash, Colton Dunn, Nico Santos and Nichole Bloom.

On February 21, 2018, NBC renewed the series for a 22-episode fourth season, which premiered on October 4, 2018.

Main

 * America Ferrera as Amelia "Amy" Dubanowski (née Sosa), a Honduran-American Cloud 9 employee of eleven years who worked as an associate, then floor supervisor, then assistant manager, and very briefly store manager. Amy always wears a different name tag because she doesn't like strangers using her real name.
 * Ben Feldman as Jonah Simms, a Cloud 9 sales associate. He and Mateo were both hired in the series' pilot episode.
 * Lauren Ash as Dina Fox, Cloud 9's intense and no-nonsense assistant store manager.
 * Colton Dunn as Garrett McNeil, a sarcastic and indifferent Cloud 9 associate who is paralyzed from the waist down.
 * Nico Santos as Mateo Fernando Aquino Liwanag, a gay Filipino Cloud 9 associate who was hired at the same time as Jonah. He later goes on to secretly date Jeff, Cloud 9 district manager.
 * Nichole Bloom as Cheyenne Thompson (née Lee), a Cloud 9 associate. She is a pregnant 17-year-old high school student at the start of the series. She gave birth to her daughter, Harmonica, in the store in the first-season finale, and married her boyfriend Bo Derek Thompson (the baby's father) during the second season.
 * Mark McKinney as Glenn Sturgis, Cloud 9's constantly positive store manager. Glenn is a devout Christian and a foster-father to many children.

Recurring

 * Johnny Pemberton as Bilbo "Bo" Derek Thompson, Cheyenne's immature, wannabe-rapper husband and father of Harmonica. Worked briefly at Cloud 9.
 * Kaliko Kauahi as Sandra Kaluiokalani, a Cloud 9 employee who has trouble bringing up legitimate concerns and being heard. She will often attempt to make her voice heard only to shoot herself down shortly after, or during. She also has superior autobiographical memory in which she can remember every single day of her life. Dated Jerry after pretending to date Jeff.
 * Josh Lawson as Tate Stasklewicz, a Cloud 9 pharmacist who is often rude, panicky, sarcastic and full of himself.
 * Linda Porter as octogenarian Myrtle Vartanian, Cloud 9's longest serving employee (30 years). Her tenure has made her the highest paid sales associate, despite her constant confusion and forgetfulness.
 * Jon Barinholtz as Marcus White, a dim-witted, oft fired/rehired Cloud 9 employee. Following a mishap with a meat slicer in the Cloud 9 deli, he was promoted (without a pay increase) to warehouse supervisor on the condition that he would not sue the store.
 * Isabella Day as Emma Dubanowski, Amy's daughter with her ex-husband Adam.
 * Ryan Gaul as Adam Dubanowski, Amy's estranged husband and Emma's father. Adam and Amy were high school sweethearts, got married at 19 upon learning that Amy was pregnant, and had Emma thereafter. In the episode "Color Wars" it is revealed that he's a YouTube personality who makes real-time grilling videos.
 * Jon Miyahara as Brett Kobashigawa, Cloud 9's most productive employee. Said to be a sales machine, though always shown moving slowly if at all. To date, he has spoken only one word of dialogue, which fittingly was censored.
 * Michael Bunin as Jeff Sutin (season 2–), Originally the district manager who oversaw the St. Louis Cloud 9, among others. He is revealed to be gay, and had a romantic relationship with Mateo. After the secret relationship became public, Jeff resigned to continue dating Mateo. Late in season 3, however, Jeff is rehired to manage the Chicago district.
 * Kelly Schumann as Justine Sikowicz, a Cloud 9 employee. At times she pretends to be an alcoholic or promiscuous in order to seem more interesting. According to Glenn she is 40 years old and lives alone in a studio apartment.
 * Irene White as Carol, a man-hungry Cloud 9 employee who has a rivalry with Sandra, whom she accuses of stealing her boyfriend, Jerry.
 * Chris Grace as Jerry, Sandra's boyfriend who briefly dated Carol.
 * Kelly Stables as Kelly Watson, a divorcee who begins working at Cloud 9 in season 3, where she eventually starts a relationship with Jonah.
 * Kerri Kenney-Silver as Jerusha Sturgis (season 3–), Glenn's wife. She is mentioned in the first two seasons, but does not appear until season 3.
 * Dave Ferguson as Eugene, an obedient, overly cheerful sales associate. Hired as temporary seasonal help, he is quickly promoted, replacing Jonah as Glenn's assistant.
 * Jennifer Irwin as Laurie, the new district manager who takes over after Jeff resigns in season 3.
 * Sean Whalen as Sal Kazlauskas, who is a Cloud 9 employee known for being creepily obsessed with both women and children. His deceased body is found early in season 3.

Notable guest stars

 * Howie Mandel as himself, a comedian whom Dina mistakes as a newly-hired Cloud 9 employee.
 * Tony Plana as Ron Sosa, Amy's father.
 * Marlene Forte as Connie Sosa, Amy's mother.
 * Brian Howe as Neil Penderson, Cloud 9 CEO.
 * Fred Melamed as Richard Simms, Jonah's father.

Development and filming
The series was one of three pilots picked up by NBC on January 14, 2015, along with the sitcom Crowded; both were green lighted to series status on May 7, 2015. The series was the first project for Ruben Fleischer's newly formed company The District as part of a two-year deal with Universal, as he directed the pilot episode. Superstore was officially picked up as a series on May 7, 2015, by NBC. The first season consisted of eleven episodes, after the episode order was reduced from thirteen on October 19, 2015. It was announced on November 2, 2015, that the series would air the premiere on January 4, 2016, but would be airing two back-to-back episodes on November 30, 2015, following The Voice.

On February 23, 2016, the series was renewed for a second season by NBC. On May 15, 2016, NBC announced that the series would lead off its Thursday night primetime programming in the 2016–17 season. The second season premiered on September 22, 2016, with a 22-episode order that was announced on September 23, 2016. The season concluded on May 4, 2017. A special Olympics-themed episode aired on August 19, 2016 during the network's coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Casting
It was announced on February 20, 2015, that Lauren Ash had been cast as a series regular, and would be playing Dina, the store’s assistant manager. On March 2, 2015, Deadline reported that Superstore had added three other cast members: Colton Dunn, Mark McKinney and Nico Santos. The website reported that Dunn would be playing Garret, the often-sarcastic narrator of the piece, McKinney would be playing Glenn, the intense store manager, and Santos would be playing Mateo, another new employee and a brown-noser from an impoverished background. On March 12, 2015, Nichole Bloom was announced to have joined the show as Cheyenne, a very pregnant teenage employee.

Deadline announced on March 13, 2015, that Ben Feldman had landed the male lead in Superstore, as Jonah, a new employee in the superstore Cloud 9. Three days later, TVLine announced on March 16, 2015, that America Ferrera had landed the female lead as the floor supervisor Amy in the Cloud 9 store. It was also reported that Ferrera was also a producer for the show.

Crossovers
The Cloud 9 store has also appeared in other series produced by NBCUniversal Television, including Hulu's The Mindy Project and NBC's Good Girls.

Cloud 9 Superstore
The Cloud 9 Superstore is a fictional hypermarket discount store. In addition to typical American hypermarket products, Cloud 9 also sells guns and liquor, and has a pharmacy. Additionally Cloud 9 has their own credit union for their employees. They also previously had a photo studio. The former spokesman for Cloud 9 was Daniel Hertzler (as Kyle the Cloud 9 Cloud), until he was arrested and charged with cannibalism.

The corporation does not offer paid maternity leave, health insurance or paid overtime to its employees. Under Cloud 9 policy employees may take one bathroom break per shift, and are allotted 15 minutes for lunch.

In an effort to control whats happening in the individual stores, all locks and lights, as well as temperature control, are controlled from the corporate office. In 2017, Cloud 9 changed their store brand from Halo to Super Cloud.

The main characters for the show work at store 1217, the "Ozark Heights" store which is located in St. Louis, Missouri, on Ozark Highlands Road. The store falls under district manager Jeff Sutton. The store was destroyed by a tornado during the season 2 finale, and reopened during the season 3 premiere. Other area locations include Kirkwood, Fenton and Easton. Additionally there are locations in Austin, Texas, and in Detroit, Michigan. Cloud 9 has locations in multiple countries, with stores in Beijing, Mumbai, Paris, Vancouver and Mexico City.

The pilot was shot at a redressed Kmart in Burbank, California, though the rest of the series has been shot on sets constructed on two soundstages.

Ratings
The series debuted as a "preview" on November 30, 2015 following an episode of The Voice with 7 million viewers making it the second highest new comedy behind Life in Pieces. The series then moved to its regular Monday at 8:00 pm timeslot on January 4, 2016 with more than 6 million viewers making the highest rated comedy that did not have The Voice as a lead-in since The Michael J. Fox Show back in September 2013.

Critical reception
Early reviews for the series were mixed. According to Metacritic, the first season of Superstore holds a score of 58 out of 100, indicating "mixed to average reviews" based on 21 critics. On another review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds a 54% with a "Rotten" rating, based on 24 critics, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The general consensus is: "Superstore's talented cast and obvious potential are slightly overshadowed by a tonally jumbled presentation and thin, formulaic writing." As the first season went along, however, reviews started to become more positive. Following the finale "Labor", the Los Angeles Times called it one of TV's best new comedies." Pilot Viruet of The A.V. Club wrote that the "first season ... got better and more confident as it moved on", and that the first-season finale "is a nice little cap to a nice little sitcom that could’ve used a little more attention." After the series aired its Olympics special, Variety wrote that the show was "a funny, pointed and essential workplace comedy", and that "there are no weak links in [the] ensemble". The second season was lauded by critics and the season has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.