American Housewife is an ABC Dom Com created by Sarah Dunn and starring Katy Mixon and Diedrich Bader.
Katie Otto is an average American housewife who, along with her husband Greg, tries her best to provide a good home for her three children. Unfortunately, the Ottos live in Westport, an extremely wealthy suburb where everyone is seemingly perfect and live lifestyles that are well beyond the Ottos' more modest means. In this environment, Katie has her hands full trying to keep her two eldest children from turning into complete brats while helping her youngest cope with OCD.
After receiving a full 22-episode season order on November 4, 2016, ABC ordered an additional episode a month later for a total of 23 episodes. The show was renewed for a second season on May 11, 2017. A third season order was announced on May 11, 2018. The fourth season premiered in its new Friday night time slot on September 27, 2019. Mid-season, the show was announced to be moving to Wednesdays and the timeslot vacated by Modern Family, airing immediately after it for several weeks starting on March 18, 2020; the 21-episode order was pared down to 20 with the industry-wide cancellation of filming due to the coronavirus outbreak. A fifth season order was announced on May 21.
During the off-season, there were a number of cast changes, with Julia Butters (Anna-Kat) departing to pursue a movie career after her breakout role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and, more controversially, Carly Hughes (Angela) leaving due to her complaints about racist behavior and producers creating a "toxic environment". Ali Wong, who played the show's only other non-white regular character, Doris, officially remained part of the cast but appeared only via remote segments (and would stop appearing altogether mid-season). The show notably returned a week after all the other sitcoms in its new night of Wednesday, on October 28, 2020 at 8:30, running for only thirteen episodes (which brought the show over 100 total) before production was cut short for the season, ostensibly due yet again to coronavirus. The final episode aired on March 31, 2021.
The show was officially cancelled on May 14, 2021, after five seasons on the air.
This series provides examples of:
- Absurd Phobia: Anna-Kat develops a fear of water that causes her to stop showering.
- Alternate Timeline: "Sliding Sweaters", a spoof of Sliding Doors, has two timelines based on which color sweater Katie buys. If she buys a pink sweater, she has a good day; if she buys a blue one, she has a bad day. The Stinger includes a third timeline where she buys a green jacket instead and gets pregnant, followed by her deciding not to buy anything and just wear something old.
- American Title: What is Katie? An American housewife.
- Ballet Episode: In the first season finale, the whole family attends Oliver's ballet recital. Much to their amusement, Oliver is in a beginners' class and his co-performers are little girls half his age.
- Birthday Episode: Common throughout the seasons. By the end of season 4, every Otto has had one except for Taylor:
- Oliver turns 13 in the season 1 episode "Surprise".
- Anna-Kat turns 8 later in season 1, in "The Walk".
- The season 3 episode "Liar, Liar, Room on Fire" depicts Greg's birthday, though his age is never stated.
- Katie's big 4-0 is celebrated in the season 4 episode "Vacation" with a trip to Los Angeles.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Taylor (as played in the pilot) is at an age where she's rebelling against her parents and, due to the influence of her classmates, thinks that she should focus on landing a rich husband rather than improving herself. Greg eventually shames her into studying and improving her grades. (See also Early-Installment Weirdness below)
- A Boy, a Girl, and a Baby Family: A variant where the "baby" is older (but still a little girl). When the series begins, Taylor is 14, Oliver is 12, and Anna-Kat is seven.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Katie normally keeps her narration to voice-over only, but on two occasions when the situation merits it, she (or perhaps Katy Mixon) has directly addressed the audience:
- In "A Mom's Parade", she says "Yeah, it's a musical. Deal with it."
- In "Graduation", when the new actress playing Anna-Kat is revealed, she says "Yeah, kids change."
- Chained Heat: In "Sliding Sweaters", Katie handcuffs Oliver and Taylor together until they get along.
- Christmas Episode: Once a Season:
- "Krampus Katie" (Season 1): Katie chafes at being considered by Anna-Kat to be like Krampus and struggles to prove otherwise. Greg takes Taylor and Oliver to a retirement home, where his attempts at teaching Christmas lessons fail.
- "Blue Christmas" (Season 2): Doris goes into labor on Christmas Day, but her family is stuck out of town, so Katie juggles being there for her at the hospital and maintaining Otto family traditions. Meanwhile, Greg faces his latest round of hypochondria, while Taylor and Oliver grapple with relationship troubles.
- "Saving Christmas" (Season 3): Katie's beloved father Marty makes a surprise visit for the holidays, even though he knows his ex-wife has been staying with the Ottos. They reconcile, surprisingly enough, when Katie's mom admits she's been envious of the happy relationship Katie and Greg have.
- "The Bromance Before Christmas" (Season 4): Greg's long-lost half-brother from his father's secret family in England is invited to visit the Ottos by Katie, much to Greg's dismay.
- Chubby Mama, Skinny Papa: Katie and Greg, respectively
- Cliffhanger: The fifth season ends on one with Oliver announcing he may drop out of high school, Taylor and Trip announcing their engagement, and Katie revealing that she's pregnant.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: "The Nap" builds to this. Katie punishes Oliver's attempt at insider trading by making him pick up trash along the street like a prisoner would. Also, because Taylor had been overloading on class work and activities, Katie punishes her by not letting her help pick up trash and making her relax instead.
- Continuity Nod: Oliver suffers a humiliating moment at ballet while practicing lifts with Gina Tuscadero, who is called out by name so that Katie can make a Happy Days joke and is otherwise neither seen (other than her legs) nor heard. A few episodes later, Taylor helps Oliver with his relationship woes. The girl in question? Gina.
- Deconstruction: The show consistently, albeit subtly, deconstructs many Dom Com and family sitcom tropes:
- Anna-Kat's OCD is portrayed realistically. Her condition is treated by the school therapist, averting There Are No Therapists, and she is shown growing out of it as she ages and gets the treatment she needs.
- Artistic License – University Admissions is averted hard, with Oliver and Taylor shown to put in lots of work to get into the schools of their choice, perhaps more than any other teens in a family sitcom. Oliver in particular starts taking extracurriculars several years ahead of his application.
- Katie's loner status in the community gets hit with this in the second season premiere. After she attempts an online apology for faking her pregnancy to the other mothers, one of them confronts her and states that the real reason they have so many problems with her is because of how she treats them; her judgment and resentment toward their lifestyle, healthy eating habits and volunteering for things at school has been rubbing them the wrong way for a long while. Katie attempts yet again to make amends, but has to resort to volunteering for a Gala after failing to make a proper apology.
- Oliver's status as a Spoiled Brat is also taken apart. Not only does Katie defend him to a snotty ballet teacher who thinks this, but by him showing a genuine interest and effort in ballet, Oliver becomes the only kid in the Otto family willingly doing anything related to school/extra-curricular activities.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Taylor's character changed significantly between the pilot and the second episode. In the pilot, as played by Johnny Sequoyah, she was on her way to becoming an entitled brat, much like her friends. For most of the first season, as played by
Meg Donnelly, she was a tomboy athlete. From the second season on, she lost interest in athletics and gravitated toward music. - Endearingly Dorky: Greg is endearingly awkward and has certain character tics that Katie finds amusing. For example, before writing a paper, he will strike a power pose (for confidence), listen to jazz (to unlock his brain's creative centers), eat exactly seven almonds (for energy), and drink a glass of port (to loosen up) before going to work.
- Evil Vegetarian: Tara Summers, who convinces Anna-Kat to become a vegan as retaliation for Taylor convincing Eyo, Taylor’s boyfriend and Tara’s son, to follow his dreams of being a cartoon artist instead of an anesthesiologist.
- Fake Guest Star: The show has built a large repertoire of supporting players but none of them has ever made it to the opening credits, which feature only the actors playing the Ottos and Katie's two Second Breakfast friends, Doris and Angela (who do appear in almost every episode but only get a Mandatory Line most of the time).
- Logan Pepper, who plays Cooper Bradford, has appeared in every season and though initially his appearances were infrequent, he appeared in half the episodes in season 4 and then his character moves in with the Ottos in season 5. Despite this, the actor retains the same low guest billing he got in season 1. Notable in that he appeared in the most amount of episodes outside the main cast.
- Peyton Meyer, who joined the cast in season 2 as Taylor's boyfriend Trip, has appeared in more episodes with each successive season, including more than half of season 4, but continues to be billed as a guest star in the end credits.
- Likewise, Evan O'Toole, who first appeared in the second episode as Anna-Kat's classmate, Franklin, and gradually became her Only Friend and then boyfriend, appeared more and more with each passing season, culminating in appearing in all but one Season 5 episode. He was still only a guest star.
- Fake Pregnancy: Katie does this to get out of mandatory volunteer work at school. She's exposed by Anna-Kat, who was intentionally trying to fall out of favor with Katie.
- Fan Convention: Katie visits one in New York hoping to convince Nathan Fillion to attend her Spring Gala, riding an elephant, as she promised to the committee.
- Faux Affably Evil: Pierce seems like a nice guy on the surface, but his knowing smile after Taylor breaks up with Trip shows that he knew exactly what he was doing.
- Fiction 500: The Bradfords. Everybody (except the Ottos of course) in Westport is filthy rich, but the Bradfords are to them what everybody else is to the Ottos.
- Fire-Breathing Diner: Jealous of the attention Taylor’s boyfriend was receiving from Greg while helping him with the Otto family’s secret chili recipe, Oliver uses an insanely hot ghost pepper to sabotage their chili. However, Oliver was distracted when warned of the delayed effects and ends up consuming the chili when he thinks he got a dud pepper.
- Foreshadowing: In season two, one of the moms that bully Katie tells another mom that her diet pills are actually speed and to calm down. In the finale, it's revealed that her drugs are making her sabotage the other moms' work on the spring gala.
- Freudian Trio: The Second Breakfast Club, with Katie as The Kirk, Doris as The Spock, and Angela as The McCoy.
- Friend Versus Lover: In "All Coupled Up", Oliver's best friend Cooper and his new girlfriend Gina clash instantly (because of their very different backgrounds) and Cooper forces Oliver to choose between them. Oliver chooses Gina, leading a despondent Cooper to approach Katie (who was thrilled that she wouldn't have to deal with him anymore) to help him change his ways. At episode's end, Cooper approaches Oliver and Gina attempting to put the lessons he learned into practice, and though he isn't entirely successful, Oliver is so moved by the gesture that he goes to bat for him and asks Gina if she'll accept him. She does. Amusingly, Oliver and Gina would eventually break up and Cooper would continue to strengthen his bromance with Oliver as the years went on, meaning that although he may have lost the battle, he won the war in the end.
- The Ghost: Several.
- Cooper Bradford was mentioned in several episodes before finally appearing in the middle of season 1. His parents, the richest couple in Westport, have never been seen in person, to emphasize his isolation from them. Cooper's father Doyle Bradford finally appears in the fifth season finale.
- Doris and Angela frequently mention their (ex-)spouses, Richard and Celeste respectively. Both eventually appear towards the end of season 1. Their children are also almost never seen; one of Doris's four kids (her daughter Marigold) appears in one episode, and Angela's two sons are only ever seen in brief cutaways.
- Greg's oft-mentioned friend on the Recycling Committee at Westport Unified, Bill Doty. Finally seen in season four, played by none other than Diedrich Bader's old The Drew Carey Show castmate, Ryan Stiles.
- Good Parents: Katie and Greg, to the point that Oliver and Taylor begrudgingly admit they're turning out to be good people largely because of their influence. In fact they're such good parents, especially in a town full of evidently lousy ones, that other kids have come to see them as parental figures, most notably Oliver's best friend Cooper.
- Grand Romantic Gesture:
- Katie is annoyed by Greg's over-the-top celebration of Valentine's Day, which previously included horse-drawn carriages, minivans full of stuffed animals, and lots of confetti.
- Greg's skill with elaborate romantic gestures comes in handy when Oliver's first date with Gina Tuscadero bombs. The Ottos (and Taylor's dim-witted boyfriend) recreate the lantern scene from Tangled, her favorite movie.
- Half-Arc Season:
- Throughout season 2, Katie's plans for organizing the Westport Spring Gala inform the plots of several episodes, starting with the premiere and concluding with the finale.
- In the premiere of season 4, Taylor is given a list of tasks she must complete in order to prove she can function as an adult. Many of her subplots throughout the season feature her attempting to complete one or more of those tasks. The last - teach Greg to throw a three-pointer in basketball - features in the season finale.
- Halloween Episode: Once a Season:
- "Westport Zombies" (Season 1): As preparations for the Westport Zombie Run game ramps up, Katie gets jealous of Taylor bonding with Viv and worries she'll become a snob.
- "Boo-Who?" (Season 2): Every year, neighbors place gift baskets at each other's houses, and Katie thinks she's finally gotten one and been accepted. Meanwhile, Oliver Screams Like a Little Girl and worries about going to the local haunted house with his friends, so Anna-Kat repeatedly tries scaring him so he'll kick the habit.
- "Trust Me" (Season 3): Katie has planned a Halloween party which is attended by Oliver and Cooper, who plan on playing Seven Minutes in Heaven with Gina and her cousin. However, Viv is also in attendance, and any makeout plans are kiboshed when she goes into labor. Meanwhile, Taylor lies that a party she'll be attending will have adult supervision, and Greg decides to let this play out and see what happens.
- "The Maze" (Season 4): For one reason or another, all of the Ottos wind up going through the haunted Halloween maze - except for Taylor, who finds herself being pursued by a relentless driver.
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: Oliver and Cooper increasingly find themselves having to say this when everyone else assumes them to be boyfriends. Including the other Ottos.
- High-School Dance:
- The season 3 episode "The Dance", although apparently the entire student body of Westport Unified is allowed to attend.
- The season finale of Season 4, appropriately titled "Prom." The episode ends before they actually get to the Prom.
- Hilarious Outtakes: In every season finale thus far, a blooper reel plays over the end credits.
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine:
- Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly's co-star in Z-O-M-B-I-E-S (2018), gets a recurring role in the third season as Pierce, the actor who plays Seymour in the school's production of Little Shop of Horrors, who frequently rehearses with her even though she's only playing Plant Bud #3.
- The subplot in "Bigger Kids, Bigger Problems" reunites Diedrich Bader with castmates from The Drew Carey Show. Kathy Kinney plays a cantankerous lunch lady that Greg is at odds with on recycling, while Drew Carey and Ryan Stiles play Greg's environmentally-minded friends. The episode premiered during ABC's Cast From the Past Week, which was built on this trope.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Oliver develops one with an 80s Wall Street broker named Spencer, who mentors him in how to be successful. Unfortunately, it's a short one, as Spencer dies.
- Ivy League for Everyone: Played with.
- Fittingly averted by Katie, who attended Duke University (a fine school, but not an Ivy), where she got a bachelor's degree in marketing. This is where she met Greg, at the time a graduate student who was working as a TA in one of the classes she was taking.
- Greg is a tenured college history professor, though the name of the college he teaches at isn't stated. But it's near Westport, and it isn't Yale, so it's not an Ivy.
- Overachieving Oliver has his sights set on Harvard, but he's fully cognizant of the hurdles he'll have to jump in order to get accepted - along with maintaining a strong GPA, he's shown taking ballet classes to take advantage of a perpetual need for male ballet students in Harvard's ballet program (starting at age 13) and later on begins volunteering at a teen helpline to fill out his extracurriculars. Strangely he only seems interested in Harvard despite another highly-regarded Ivy, Yale, being less than an hour's drive from Westport.
- Subverted by his best friend Cooper - the two were planning for several years to attend Harvard together (with Cooper, a mediocre student, planning to buy his way in) but eventually Cooper admits to Oliver that "their" plan is really just Oliver's plan, and he's only along for the ride. Once he discovers his passion is cuisine, he then decides to enroll in the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, a real cooking school just a stone's throw from Harvard.
- Taylor meanwhile applies to the music program at a (real) non-Ivy, Carnegie Mellon. She gets in, but pretends she was rejected so she can raise money to pay her tuition. Again, she is shown going through a lot of hoops to get admitted, starting with filming and sending in an audition tape, and then being interviewed by an alum, an interview she nearly bombs until she impresses him at the last minute with a life skills checklist her father made her prepare.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Oliver can be a brat at times, but he cashed out his business partner, Viv's housekeeper Luz, using his savings so she could return to her native country and be with her young daughter.
- Takes after Katie, who is often rude and irrational and sarcastic, but cares a lot about her family (especially Anna-Kat) and hates how materialistic and phony Newport is.
- Lady Drunk: Katie's mom, who is often seen with a drink in her hand.
- Local Hangout: Stewart & Kingston's, where the Second Breakfast Club meets every morning.
- Mandatory Line: Doris and Angela in most of their appearances. According to Dietrich Bader, the "Second Breakfast" scenes are typically filmed on Monday mornings - in other words, Ali Wong and Carly Hughes do half a day's work per week. (This is especially convenient for Wong, who maintains an active touring stand-up career.) However, a few times a season, Doris and/or Angela will have a more prominent role.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Katie confronts Greg when she gets suspicious and finds a receipt for a bar in Greg's wallet. Turns out he was secretly seeing Celeste — Angela's ex — who was helping him with his book.
- Mistaken for Gay: Katie thought that Oliver was gay after discovering a vision board hidden in his closet filled with guys in expensive clothing, guys without shirts, and Ashton Kutcher. It continues further when they see him acting with Eko.Greg: He's either as good an actor as Ian McKellen, or he's as gay as Ian McKellen.
- Moral Event Horizon: In-Universe, Katie may have have finally crossed this. She pretended to be pregnant in order to avoid the other moms in Westport. Thanks to Anna-Kat, this backfired and she will have to deal with the consequences in the second season.
- Musical Episode: The third season finale "A Mom Parade". Lampshaded by Katie.Katie: Yeah, it's a musical. Deal with it.
- My Beloved Smother: Katie's family calls her "Colonel Beatrice von Beige Underpants Control Freak" behind her back. Or just "the Colonel" for short.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Viv.
- Narrator: Katy Mixon narrates in-character as Katie Otto. However, she's not an omniscient narrator and only narrates over her own scenes, so it functions more as an inner monologue.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Greg and Katie get paranoid about Taylor spending all of her free time with a new guy instead of her boyfriend and think that he is trying to ruin the relationship. They then feed their paranoia to him, which leads to him yellng at Taylor and demanding that she quit the play. She dumps him instead.
- Even worse? Greg turns out to be right in the end!
- Once an Episode: Katie has second breakfast with Doris and Angela and discusses her problems with them. Generally the only scene in which Doris or Angela appear in the episode, but occasionally either or both will have a larger role. On more than one occasion the characters have gone to the restaurant only to not be served breakfast - once when they went on a Saturday and they were stuck in a long line, and again when they had an emergency meeting on Thanksgiving and sat outside as the place was closed.
- One-Steve Limit: Tragicomically averted in "Family Secrets" when it turns out that Greg has a secret half-brother named Greg because their father didn't want to get caught having an affair by calling one son by the wrong name.
- In "Field Day" Suzanne introduces Katie to another Katie. When the other mothers try and tell them apart she suggests being referred to as "Katie O" but the other Katie says that won't work either as her name is Katie Owens.
- Papa Wolf: In Season 1's Christmas Episode, a Prima Donna Director is demanding absolutely perfect singing from Anna-Kat's class during the performance, which makes the kids all uncomfortable and nervous on stage. Just when Katie is about to say something, Greg stands up and yells at the guy for treating Anna-Kat and the other kids badly.
- Parental Favoritism: Katie has a clear pecking order: Anna-Kat > Taylor > Oliver. She's blatant and unapologetic in favoring Anna-Kat over her other two children.
- Greg is much more subtle about it than Katie but he generally seems to favor Taylor over the others.
- Poor Little Rich Kid: Cooper's parents are the wealthiest couple in Westport - so rich even all the other rich people fawn over them. But tellingly, both are unseen characters who are completely neglectful of their son, and Cooper is so desperate to be parented that he's latched onto Katie as a surrogate mother, and relishes her tough love approach. In later seasons he even starts referring to Katie and Greg as "Mom and Dad".
- Product Placement: Season 2's "Selling Out" (no pun intended) has Greg ditching his old Accord for a new Toyota Camry. Cementing the placement, an actual commercial for the Camry aired during the next ad break.
- Put on a Bus: Taylor's first boyfriend, Eyo, stops appearing after they break up in season 2, though he continues to be mentioned (he apparently started dating the male co-captain of the water polo team) and his adoptive mother Tara continues to appear.
- The Bus Came Back in the season 5 premiere when Eyo is revealed to be the class valedictorian at graduation.
- Real Women Have Curves: For early episodes, the show played this straight, with large Katie having more common sense and wit, and putting down all the other mothers for being thin. In later episodes, the show begins to deconstruct this (see Deconstruction above for more), saying that it's not right for Katie to be rude to them just because they happen to be slender.
- Relaxo Vision: In "Disconnected" Anna-Kat tells her parents a dirty joke but we don't hear the bulk of it as dramatic music plays over it, coupled with Greg and Katie's mortified expressions.
- Ridiculous Counter-Request: Oliver, who is often characterized as a Spoiled Brat, asks his parents for $480 Golden Goose sneakers. In response, his parents laugh and start listing off absurdly expensive things they want too:Katie: Greg, I want a yacht, what do you want?
Greg: I want a Lamborghini!
Katie: I want-
Oliver: Okay, okay, I get it! - Right for the Wrong Reasons:
- In "All Coupled Up" from Season 2, Oliver changes his ways in order to not scare Gina off for seeing him as the usual selfish jerk and ends up ending his friendship with Cooper for acting the exact same way. However, the lesson is instead being learned by Cooper for learning to be better himself rather than Oliver for pushing his friend away just for being himself when that was not really what he himself was doing.
- In Season 3’s "The Code", Gina gets into the prestigious ballet school when Oliver did not and this is after they made the agreement that if one of them did not go, the other one would not either. Rather than be happy for her anyway, Oliver insists she honor their deal (which neither of them should have made in the first place), but Gina knowing it is a big opportunity for her that she cannot pass up, goes anyway.
- Say My Name: Katie's Catchphrase is a short, sharp shriek of "GREG!". Both of her daughters have been known to imitate her doing this.
- The Scapegoat: Upon meeting his half-brother of the same name, Greg is displeased, revealing he had not even bothered to try to get in touch with him for two years. While apologizing to his brother, Greg admits he still has a lot of anger for their father and was unfairly taking it out on him.
- Secret Other Family: Greg's dad has one, and the son is even named Greg so he won't mix them up.
- Ship Tease: During the song sequence of "You Can Do You" from "A Mom's Parade", Taylor and Cooper are often trading very admiring looks with each other and probably share way more physical contact (arm touching, arm on shoulder and hand holding) than any other characters in that scene. There's also the singing right after each other and standing next to each other for large portions too.
- Significant Reference Date: The episode "Surprise" takes place on Oliver's 13th birthday, and the party his parents throw for him involves an escape room with a secret code. Oliver deciphers the code to read 01-17-2004, his birthday. The episode originally aired on January 17, 2017.
- Skipping School: Katie cuts out of the French immersion class she joined to prove to Greg that she wasn't a quitter. She's caught red-handed by Greg when he lets his class — held next door and only consisting of one student — out early.
- Show Within a Show: Anna-Kat's Real Horsewives of Connecticut starring Donnatello Morningstar. Trip is genuinely interested. Pierce, not so much.
- Slobs vs. Snobs: The Ottos, with their humble lower-middle class values, are frequently at odds with the more upper-class Westport citizens. Specifically, Katie's rivalry with next-door neighbor Viv.
- Spanner in the Works: Katie, with her outspoken common sense views and values, is a highly disruptive force within Westport. In fact, the Ottos were given such a good deal on their house because their landlady was sick and tired of the town's superficiality that she wanted to see its smug housewives get taken down a few pegs.
- Stereotype Flip: A common conceit, consistent with the show's pattern of deconstructing tropes:
- This being a Dom Com, you'd expect the married couple to consist of an overweight, opinionated, politically-incorrect, quick-to-anger sports fanatic and an intelligent, studious, sensitive, and progressive bookworm. And you'd be right, except the former is the wife and the latter is the husband, instead of the other way round.
- Angela turns the "nesting lesbian" stereotype on its head by being the only adult female character who isn't married for a good chunk of the show's run, and indeed she is shown to dislike relationships in general, preferring casual hookups.
- In a town where all of the rich people are obsessed with their (and everyone else's) status and fortunes, the wealthiest character of all (Cooper Bradford) is also the one who cares least about how much money everyone else has.
- Take That!: Greg delivers a furious rant against Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, declaring that it makes no sensenote .Greg: Batman, the world's greatest detective, doesn't know Superman's weakness until Lex Luthor tells him! There are five dream sequences in the movie! None of them reveal anything about any character! And most importantly: Superman has heat vision! He should have melted Batman in the first act—movie over!
- Take This Job and Shove It: Thinking they are inheriting Spencer's wealth, Greg lets loose on the tenure board. Luckily, they found his brazen attitude refreshing, especially when Greg learns they've inherited nothing.
- Teacher/Student Romance: A variant - Katie was a college student and Greg was a TA in a course she was taking at Duke University.note Greg admits he broke the rules when they started dating, but given that Katie was over 18 and Greg presumably ceased to be her TA after the semester was over, there were no lasting repercussions from this. (Other than the marriage and three kids, of course.)
- Thanksgiving Episode:
- "The Blow-Up" (Season 1): Katie has to grapple with her mother coming over to visit, how Anna-Kat reacts to their arguing, and Viv being an unexpected guest.
- "Family Secrets" (Season 2): Greg's parents are coming to dinner, and he is desperate to impress his father and make everything perfect.
- The Unfavorite: Katie very openly finds Oliver to be her most frustrating child and will loudly talk about how she hates his behavior and Upper-Class Twit aspirations.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Inverted, Katie is consistently described as the "second-fattest housewife in Westport" and her husband Greg is a tall, fairly strapping man who is fawned over by many of the women in town (particularly Doris). In reality, Katy Mixon and Diedrich Bader are about evenly matched looks-wise, a rarity for Dom Com couples.
- Upper-Class Twit: Oliver aspires to become one, to Katie's chagrin.
- Video Wills: Oliver's friend Spencer leaves him, Katie, and Greg one on a recycled VHS tape.
- Weight Woe: Generally averted. Though at time she shows slight insecurities, Katie is generally very pleased with her weight.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Katie and Greg wake up in bed after a hard night of partying with Celeste, Angela's ex. While their memories of the night are vague, Celeste's Instagram feed of them hanging out was perfectly clear, and Katie is busted by Angela.+
- Written-In Absence: Stan Lawton was set up to be Greg's BFF in Westport but is said to have gone off on a spiritual quest after just a few appearances. This was due to actor Timothy Omundson suffering a stroke and needing to take time to recover.
- Wrong Side of the Tracks: A milder example. Oliver's girlfriend Gina is from South Branford, a less affluent area than Westport. The clash of cultures comes to head when Cooper makes Oliver choose between him or Gina.
- Young Entrepreneur: Oliver, upon finally realizing that his parents won't simply buy him whatever he wants, starts a lucrative career repairing and selling defective designer shirts and enlists the local housekeepers to to do the repair work.
