Nikki and Annie, looking happier than they are.
I Hate My Teenage Daughter is an American Sitcom that ran on FOX from November 30, 2011 to March 20, 2012. The series stars Jaime Pressly and Katie Finneran as the mothers of two highly problematic girls (Kristi Lauren and Aisha Dee, respectively).
The series followed two mothers who fear their daughters are turning into exactly the kind of girls they had to endure in high school. And with good reason: Annie Watson (Pressly), who grew up in an ultra-strict conservative family, begins to notice that she has allowed her daughter Sophie (Lauren) to do what she wants to do, which she takes advantage of by embarrassing and mocking her mother; her best friend Nikki Miller (Finneran), who grew up unpopular and overweight and has reinvented herself as a Southern Belle, begins to notice how manipulative her daughter Mackenzie (Dee) has become. They declare their mission in no uncertain terms: remedy their misfires, straighten out their daughters, before it's too late.
Even the ex-husbands are not good fathers: Annie's ex Matt is too clueless, prompting his lawyer brother Jack (Kevin Rahm) to step in (and become an object of Annie's crush) while Nikki's ex Gary is letting their complicated relationship become more complicated in the parenting department. These situations are among the major challenges Annie and Nikki face to keep their daughters from turning into the people they were afraid of at that age.
This show contains examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: The girls' fathers are not as helpful with them as they should be. Averted with Annie and Nikki, who are trying their best to keep their daughters from turning into their worst nightmares.
- Affably Evil: Mackenzie and Sophie. Deanna also counts as this.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Averted in "Teenage Dating", where Annie allows Sophie to date an older boy, but it turns out that he is a teenage father with a baby.
- Alliterative Name: Deanna Dunbar and Mackenzie Miller.
- Alpha Bitch: This is what Annie and Nikki are afraid of how their daughters will end up.
- Deanna was the former mean girl who went to the same school as Annie and Nikki.
- Amicable Exes: Annie and Nikki are quite friendly with their ex-husbands when it comes to parenting or disciplining their daughters.
- Antagonistic Offspring
- Arch-Enemy: Deanna was also this to Annie and Nikki back in school.
- Back to School: In "Teenage Escuela", Annie and Nikki both take Spanish classes at a local community college to try to prove a point to their daughters that grades are important.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Both of the families.
- Birthday Episode: Annie and Nikki both throw a double birthday party for their daughters, but all hell breaks loose when the girls decide that they want a Mad Men-themed birthday party instead.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Mackenzie and Sophie.
- Deanna can also qualify as this.
- Bratty Teenage Daughters: Mackenzie and Sophie both own this trope!
- Bumbling Dad: Matt and Gary both qualify as this.
- Comedy Series
- Cool Uncle: Jack.
- Cut Short: The show was canceled because of poor ratings and only 10 episodes were aired.
- Daddy's Girl: Mackenzie and Sophie are extremely close with their dads.
- Dark And Snarky / Deadpan Snarker: Mackenzie.
- Sophie is more of a Stepford Snarker.
- Education Mama/Higher Education Is for Women: Annie and Nikki both attend Spanish classes at a local college, specifically to prove a point to Sophie and Mackenzie about grades.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Annie, Nikki, and Deanna all went to school together.
- Formerly Fat: Nikki used to be overweight in high school.
- Generation Xerox: Annie and Nikki are afraid that their daughters are set to turn out exactly like the kind of girls that bullied and tormented them when they were in school.
- Glamorous Single Mother: Annie and Nikki.
- Gone Horribly Right: What happened to Annie and Nikki. They went out of their way to provide everything for their daughters and do what it took to ensure they'd never be bullied like their mothers were. It worked...only by spoiling them so much, the pair ended up turning their daughter into the bullies.
- Good Parents: Annie and Nikki try to be good parents to their daughters. Averted and subverted with their exes, who are far from perfect trying to be better parents.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Annie and Nikki. Matt and Gary can sorta qualify as well since their ex-wives and daughters are best friends.
- Mackenzie and Sophie, also.
- High-School Dance: In the first episode.
- Hormone Addled Teenagers: And how!
- Hot Teacher: Alejandro "Alex" Castillo, Annie and Nikki's Spanish teacher.
- Hot for Teacher: In "Teenage Date Night", Annie goes on a date with her Spanish teacher.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each episode begins with "Teenage".
- Jerkasses: Mackenzie and Sophie. Their brattiness and teen angst comes across as jerk-like and snobbish.
- Even their dads can qualify as this as well.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: From time to time, Mackenzie and Sophie would show compassion towards their parents and would respect them.
- Matt and Gary both deeply care about their daughters and love them as much as their exes. They even try to be friendly with their exes, despite their different parenting styles.
- Last-Minute Project / Parent Produced Project: In "Teenage Escuela", Matt and Gary both help their daughters with their school projects.
- Manipulative Bitch: Mackenzie. Sophie also has her moment.
- Nice Guy: Jack.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Verbatim in its IMDb entry.
- Open-Minded Parent: Annie and Nikki.
- Parental Abandonment: Matt and Gary weren't exactly involved in their daughters' lives very often.
- Parental Obliviousness: Neither of the girls' fathers have any clue of how to help their exes of raising their daughters right.
- Parents as People
- Parents Know Their Children
- Redheads Are Uncool: Nikki was very unpopular and overweight back in school.
- She's All Grown Up: How Gary saw his daughter in "Teenage Cotillion". He starts to cry when he saw how much Mackenzie has grown up to become a lovely young lady.
- Short-Runners
- Southern Belle: Nikki.
- Spoiled Brats: Mackenzie and Sophie.
- Stepford Snarker: Sophie.
- Teens Are Monsters / Kids Are Cruel: How Annie and Nikki view their daughters.
- Token Minority: Gary and Mackenzie, though Mackenzie is half-black.
- Twofer Token Minority: Mackenzie can also count as this since she's bi-racial.
- Tough Love: Annie and Nikki always use this on their daughters when their behavior gets out of control.
- Vacation Episode: Annie takes the gang on a road trip in an RV during spring break just like what she used to do when she was her daughter's age.
- Visit by Divorced Dad: Both of the girls' fathers show up frequently on the show.
- Where Did We Go Wrong? The point of the series.
- Will They or Won't They?: Annie and Jack. Annie has a crush on Jack while Jack started to develop feelings for Annie when she went on a date with her Spanish teacher. Now that the show is canceled, will never know if those two will end up as a couple.
- You Are Grounded!: Annie and Nikki ground both of their daughters from going to the dance for locking a disabled student in a bathroom at their school.
