Bless the Harts is an Animated Sitcom on FOX, premiering on September 29, 2019. The show centers on the titular Hart family and their daily lives in North Carolina. Jenny Hart is a single mom trying to make ends meet; Betty Hart is her rebellious mother; Violet Hart is her gloomy, artistic daughter, and Wayne Edwards is Jenny's laid-back live-in boyfriend.
Bless the Harts is notable for several things: it is FOX's first animated series to be created by a woman (Emily Spivey, who wrote for Saturday Night Live), the first animated series since Bob's Burgers to get more than one season (thus breaking the network's nine-year losing streak of critical and commercial failures), the first animated series to premiere on the new incarnation the network's "Animation Domination" block, and the first animated series to premiere on the network since it was spun-out from Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox. It's also Fox Entertainment's first animated series.
On April 1, 2021
, the show was announced to end after 2 seasons due to declining ratings.
Tropes:
- Accents Aren't Hereditary: Betty and Jenny have a noticeable twang in their vocal patterns but Violet does not.
- Ambiguous Situation: Are Jenny's interactions with Christ during her waitressing shifts really happening or are they all in her head?
- Catchphrase: Louise and "Do-do-do-do-doooh."
- Confirm Before Reveal: In Season 2 "Mega-Lo-Memories: Part Deux", while waiting in line during Black Friday at Mega-Lo Mart, Jenny talks about the time she discovered she's pregnant with Violet while Wayne talks about the time he worked as delivery driver for dairy products. In Jenny's story, after everyone in the store discovered Jenny is pregnant, she ran to the back of the store to avoid confronting Betty and has a conversation with someone who was stocking up the eggnogs in the fridge on the other side and they can't see each other's face. When Wayne asks Jenny if the part of the store she ran to was the dairy section and Jenny confirms it and asks him why, everyone realizes that Wayne was the one who was stocking up the eggnogs and that this moment is the first time Wayne and Jenny met without realizing it, and it's when Wayne inadvertently gave Violet her name when he gave Jenny a violet flower to cheer her up.
- Duels Decide Everything: The Edwards, Wayne's hick family, still believe in dueling. Wayne's own father challenges him for the perceived slight of siding with his mother over him; Wayne tries to fake being killed with a packet of steak sauce, but his dad sees right through it.
- Epunymous Title: Bless the Harts, on "Bless the hearts". It's about the Hart family.
- Fat Best Friend: Brenda to Jenny. She's a lot more rebellious and has less grown-up responsibilities.
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme:
- Betty tries to pull one of these in the pilot.
- Wayne tries one in the second episode, breeding ostriches for their eggs. Unfortunately, the pair he bought were both males, so he tries to ride them.
- In "Myrtle Beach Memoirs", Jenny competes in a mini golf competition to win the cash prize.
- Gilligan Cut: As soon as Marjune Gamble propositions Betty, it cuts immediately to her driving off in a panic.
- The Ghost: Violet's father, Don Reynolds, has been mentioned a few times, but his only appearance (in a flashback) stopped short of showing his face. Violet doesn't seem to have any photos of him.
- Groin Attack: The ostriches Wayne buys keep pecking him in the crotch.
- Half-Witted Hillbilly: Wayne's family the Edwards, as seen in "Hoot 'n Haw!" Despite the fact that they live not ten minutes from an international airport, they act like they came from the deepest part of the Deep South. Wayne for one is deeply embarrassed by them.
- Hollywood Board Games: In 'When You Lose, You Win', Jenny gets fed up at her friends because they are screwing with the Scrabble game they're playing. She accuses them of not admitting purportedly common words. In truth, Jenny is just a Sore Loser who cheats to win at games and is enabled by Tracy — something that Travis and David won't allow.
- Is This Thing Still On?: In "Last Supper", Jenny has enough of the people of Greenville ruining the shooting of her commercial for Last Supper, so she goes to the manager's office to vent. Unfortunately, the PA system was on, so everyone heard her call them all butts.
- It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: In-Universe. In "Pound Pinchers", Violet and David want to go see The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but when they get there, they find that everyone in town is also there, including Jenny, Betty and Wayne. Violet and David decide that Rocky Horror has become too mainstream and go see Eraserhead instead.
- Joins to Fit In: Violet and David try to formalize this process by holding auditions for a third friend and think they have a moldable blank slate but it turns out he just loves making friends.
- Loved by All: To Jenny's annoyance, Don Reynolds is regarded as such by those who know him (despite being a wealthy, deadbeat, Disappeared Dad).
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: One episode has Wayne meet a thinly-veiled version of Guy Fieri in parody of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Another episode has a judge who has a voice and sense of humor uncannily close to Joan Rivers.
- Perky Goth: Violet has the look of it, resists mainstream culture adamantly, and is into hipsterism. At the same time, she's not necessarily ashamed of her white trash family and reluctantly shows emotion at times.
- Pun-Based Title: The name is a play on the phrase 'bless your heart', a common sarcastic insult used in the South. (For some examples, see here.)
- Putting the Pee in Pool: When Wayne is too busy hosting a party on his hot tub to help her, Jenny gets even by peeing in the tub.
- Shared Universe:
- This show loosely shares the same universe with King of the Hill as a Mega Lo Mart is shown.
- "Toni With an I" suggests that it also shares the same universe as Home Improvement, as Jenny buys Wayne an Al Borland-branded chainsaw.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Jenny quickly fell for Wayne after he rescued a then three-year-old Violet in the middle of a Black Friday fiasco.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Betty has Crystalynn, who both go after the same things in the supermarket, both want to be groupies to the Beach Boys cover band, both like to steal the spotlight at funerals, etc.
- Slice of Life: Has this as the plot, save for the wacky situations the Harts get themselves into.
- Sucky School: Violet's school is implied to be this.
- Straight Gay: Violet attempts to accuse the new gym teacher of being homophobic because she's picking on David, but it turns out he's out and married. He just doesn't have any gay characteristics.
- Teen Pregnancy: Implied because Betty is in her early fifties and her granddaughter, Violet, is a teenager. This seems to be averted with Jenny, who's implied to be in her 30s (putting her at about early-mid 20s when Violet was born).
- Those Two Guys: Two men (Jimmy Lee and Charles Lee) have been in several episodes, commenting and occasionally lampshading the events happening in front of them. Usually while yelling, even in situations where the volume is not needed.
