IN THE MOTHERHOOD: IT TAKES A VILLAGE IDIOT {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)

Summary

The premiere of this comedy series about the lives of three mothers based loosely on the experiences of real women.

Jane, a divorced mother, sets herself up on a date with her co-worker Shep, much to the appreciation of her younger sister Emily and friend Rosemary. She is quite nervous about it, as she has not gone on a date in years. The next day, Rosemary becomes angry that a pregnant woman gets to cut in line in front of her in the coffee shop, and she tries to do the same by pretending to be pregnant herself. Jane asks her babysitter Horatio to look after her kids while she’s out on her date, and she plans an early dinner to allow Horatio to go on a date of his own. Rosemary decides to keep up the pretense that she is pregnant, using a stuffed animal to make it appear that she is carrying a child. Jane gets to work and speaks to Shep, who explains that he considers their upcoming date their third after two previous minor encounters. Emily’s son Bill learns that Santa Claus is not real, and passes on this information to his kindergarten class, thus causing chaos.

Rosemary uses her fake pregnancy to gain sympathy and favors from strangers. She tells Horatio about the deception and he poses as her “stay-at-home dad friend,” passing Jane’s daughter Sophie off as his own child. Jane talks to Emily and Rosemary about the fact that she is going on a “third date” and contemplates whether she is obligated to have sex with Shep. Rosemary and Emily encourage her to do so. Emily and her husband Jason have a parent-teacher conference with Bill’s teacher, who refers to Bill’s actions as “the death of innocence.” They argue about whether Emily made the right decision or not and Emily ends up leaving in a huff. Jane and Shep find that their date is interrupted by surprise sexual harassment seminar at their job. The seminar proves to be so time-consuming that at the end of it Jane rushes everyone except Shep out of the office and prepares to have sex with him there, hoping to leave herself enough time to get back home before Horatio has to leave. Their boss Blair catches them and sends security guards to apprehend Shep as Jane leaves.

Rosemary’s new friends throw a baby shower for her, but a scuffle with Horatio ends up revealing her deception. They are angry at her and reject her excuse that she wanted to enjoy the same sort of attention and respect that pregnant women seem to enjoy. Emily decides to resolve her problem by having Horatio dress up as Santa Claus for her kids. However, this goes awry when he ends up falling off her roof, leading Emily’s children to believe that she killed Santa Claus. Includes commercials.

Details

• NETWORK: ABC
• DATE: March 26, 2009
• RUNNING TIME: 0:30:03
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: 106907
• GENRE: Comedy
• SUBJECT HEADING: TV - Comedy
• SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2009
• COMMERCIALS:
  • TV – Commercials – Arm & Hammer baking soda
  • TV – Commercials – Discover credit cards
  • TV – Commercials – First Response pregnancy test
  • TV – Commercials – Hershey’s chocolate
  • TV – Commercials – Honda automobiles
  • TV – Commercials – Hyundai automobiles
  • TV – Commercials – Patanese nasal spray
  • TV – Commercials – Sprint phone service
  • TV – Commercials – Suave hair products
  • TV – Commercials – Subaru automobiles
  • TV – Commercials – Subway restaurants
  • TV – Commercials – TaxAct tax service
  • TV – Commercials – “17 Again” motion picture
  • TV – Promos – “Grey’s Anatomy”
  • TV – Promos – “In the Motherhood”
  • TV – Promos – “Samantha Who?”
  • TV – Promos – “Surviving Suburbia”

CREDITS

• Richard Shepard … Executive Producer, Director
• Jennifer Konner … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
• Alexandra Rushfield … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
• David Lang … Executive Producer, Based on the web series created by
• Stu Bloomberg … Executive Producer
• P. Todd Coe … Producer
• Denise Pleune … Associate Producer
• Kevin Townsend … Associate Producer
• Anna Waronker … Music by
• Roddy Bottum … Music by
• Cheryl Hines … Cast, Jane
• Jessica St. Clair … Cast, Emily
• Horatio Sanz … Cast, Horatio
• RonReaco Lee … Cast, Jason
• Megan Mullaly … Cast, Rosemary
• Ken Marino … Cast, Shep
• June Diane Raphael … Cast, Liz
• Tiffany Haddish … Cast, Teddy
• Rachael Harris … Cast, Blair
• Tig Notaro … Cast, Rhoda
• Charlotte Foley … Cast, Annie
• Yara Shahidi … Cast, Esther
• Sayeed Shahidi … Cast, Bill
• Annie Mumolo … Cast, Person #1 at Coffee Place
• Jeff Snyder … Cast, Person #2 at Coffee Place
• Steve Little … Cast, Guard