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Beef House

Beef House is an American sitcom created by and starring Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. The series premiered on Adult Swim on March 30, 2020.[1][2][3] The series is a parody of 1980s and 1990s American family sitcoms, featuring Wareheim and Jamie-Lynn Sigler as a married suburban couple who live with the former's best friend (Heidecker) and a trio of eccentric men.

Beef House
GenreSitcom
Created byTim & Eric
StarringTim Heidecker
Eric Wareheim
Jamie-Lynn Sigler
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes6
Production
Executive producers
ProducerMark Costa[c]
Running time11 minutes
Production companiesAbso Lutely Productions
Williams Street
Original release
NetworkAdult Swim
ReleaseMarch 30 (2020-03-30) –
May 4, 2020 (2020-05-04)

On January 1, 2021, Tim and Eric hosted a watch-along of Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie. As part of it, they mentioned that they had already written a second season of Beef House, but that any potential production would be delayed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] On August 8, 2021, Heidecker announced that although scripts have been written, Adult Swim has no plans in renewing the series for a second season.[5]

Premise

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Eric Wareheim plays Eric, a put-upon suburbanite who is married to Detective Megan (Sigler), a high-strung police detective with whom he shares a largely one-sided and acrimonious relationship characterized by her openly expressing her disdain for him and her attraction to other men. Living with Eric are his best friend, Tim (Heidecker), an Army veteran and aspiring rock musician, and a trio of middle-aged to elderly men: foul-mouthed handyman Ron Austar, psychic Tennessee Luke, and pervert Ben Hur. Each episode functions as a parody of the conventions of the traditional American family sitcom, beginning with traditional plotlines and story setups—such as an old friend coming to visit or trying to impress a neighbor—that are subverted as the episodes descend into absurdity and chaos.

Cast

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Episodes

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No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air date [6]US viewers
(millions)
1"Army Buddy Brad"Tim Heidecker & Eric WareheimTim Heidecker & Eric WareheimMarch 30, 2020 (2020-03-30)0.429[7]
Tim's old Army buddy Brad shows up to the Beef House and immediately moves in, trying to rekindle an old romance with Megan. The Beef Boys conspire to get him out by tricking him into thinking that a global war has started and he is needed on the frontlines.
2"Prunes"Tim Heidecker & Eric WareheimTim Heidecker & Eric WareheimApril 6, 2020 (2020-04-06)0.437[8]
Tim is constipated for days and a global prune shortage makes it impossible for him to defecate before his big date with neighbor Lana. Ron helps rig up a tube that will expel the feces whenever Tim gets in her hot tub, but it sprays diarrhea all over the Beef House.
3"Boro"Tim Heidecker & Eric WareheimTim Heidecker & Eric WareheimApril 13, 2020 (2020-04-13)0.483[9]
Eric's nephew Boro comes to stay at the Beef House for a brief time to discourage his misbehaving. When Tim's authoritarianism only results in Boro stabbing him dozens of times, Tennessee Luke uses his psychic powers to remap Boro's mind and the boy comes to stay at the Beef House indefinitely.
4"Beaver in the Beef House"Tim Heidecker & Eric WareheimTim Heidecker & Eric WareheimApril 20, 2020 (2020-04-20)0.467[10]
Tim uses performance-enhancing drugs to practice his darts, but his work is interrupted by a beaver crawling in the walls. Ben Hur dons a beaver costume to lure out the creature and Tim kills it with a dart to the brain as it has sex with Ben.
5"Bus Driver"Tim Heidecker & Eric WareheimTim Heidecker & Eric WareheimApril 27, 2020 (2020-04-27)0.406[11]
Eric gets a job as a bus driver, but his first day on the job ends in disaster when he gets a bad night of sleep due to the Beef House boys causing a ruckus and he drives off a bridge, killing all 64 passengers. Megan brings him into the station and is about to send him to jail for life when Boro and Ron sabotage the bus to make it look like a mechanical failure was to blame and they clear Eric's name.
6"Crab Dip"Tim Heidecker & Eric WareheimTim Heidecker & Eric WareheimMay 4, 2020 (2020-05-04)0.509[12]
When a flyer for a block party arrives, Tim insists on turning the Beef House into a haunted house and Eric only obliges under the precondition that he can make gallons of his famous crab dip. Tennessee Luke accidentally unleashes the ghost of Eric's mother, who committed suicide because her son was a loser, and she inhabits Megan's body. The crab dip is tainted with diarrhea from Tim's constipation in "Prunes".

Critical reception

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Reviewing series premiere "Army Buddy Brad", Randall Colburn of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A−, praising the aesthetic and its storytelling for capturing the absurdity of 1990s American family sitcoms.[13]

References

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  1. ^ Greg Evans (2020-01-15). "Adult Swim Announces New Tim & Eric Sitcom 'Beef House'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
  2. ^ Dan Snierson (2020-02-12). "Tim and Eric: First look at Adult Swim comedy Beef House". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
  3. ^ "Tim & Eric's New Show Beef House Premieres a Week Early". Pitchfork. 22 March 2020. Retrieved 2020-03-28.
  4. ^ Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie New Years Day Hungover Hunks Watch-A-Long
  5. ^ @timheidecker (8 August 2021). "We would do it in a second. Even have..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  6. ^ "Beef House – Listings". The Futon Critic. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
  7. ^ "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Sunday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 3.29.2020". Showbuzz Daily. 2020-03-31. Archived from the original on 2020-04-02. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
  8. ^ "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Sunday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 4.5.2020". Showbuzz Daily. 2020-04-07. Archived from the original on 2020-04-07. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  9. ^ "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Sunday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 4.12.2020". Showbuzz Daily. 2020-04-14. Archived from the original on 2020-04-15. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  10. ^ "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Sunday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 4.19.2020". Showbuzz Daily. 2020-04-21. Archived from the original on 2020-04-21. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
  11. ^ "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Sunday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 4.26.2020". Showbuzz Daily. 2020-04-28. Archived from the original on 2020-04-28. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  12. ^ "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Sunday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 5.3.2020". Showbuzz Daily. 2020-05-05. Archived from the original on 2020-05-05. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  13. ^ Colburn, Randall (March 29, 2020). "Tim and Eric's Grotesque Sitcom Beef House Is Cooked to Perfection". Retrieved March 29, 2020.

Notes

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  1. ^ a b Vera Drew and Andrew Porter are co-executive producers.
  2. ^ a b Keith Crofford and Walter Newman are executive producers for Williams Street.
  3. ^ Mark Costa is producer for Williams Street.
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