Bill Burr’s Forgotten ’90s Sitcom With Molly Ringwald & Lauren Graham Slowed His Acting Career for 15 Years
What To Know
- Townies was a short-lived ABC sitcom featuring a cast that included Molly Ringwald, Lauren Graham, Jenna Elfman, Bill Burr, and Ron Livingston.
- The show failed to attract an audience and was canceled after just a few months.
- It is notable for bringing together several future stars before they became famous in later hit shows and films.
For every hit television show that succeeds in primetime, there are at least a dozen failed projects left in its wake that never made it past development and are remembered only by the cast, crew, and die-hard TV historians. Some of these forgotten projects even featured casts who would become megastars years later.
Such is the case with the ABC show Townies, a sitcom about three lifelong friends who work in a small-town restaurant. All share dreams of escaping to the big city, but for one reason or another are held back by obligations, leaving them to navigate adulthood from the confines of their hometown of Gloucester, Massachusetts, where they share “big dreams in a small town.”
Bob D’Amico / Carsey-Werner Company/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.
A simple premise, but what a stacked cast! The trio was a post-Breakfast Club Molly Ringwald as Carrie, a pre-Gilmore Girls Lauren Graham as Denise, and a pre-Dharma & Greg Jenna Elfman as Shannon.
This is the series I did in the 90s I spoke about with @SandraBernhard today. Crazy that it was me @JennaElfman Ron Livingston, Lauren Graham, Bill Burr all in the same show! #townies pic.twitter.com/4jf4bFUcFV
— Molly Ringwald (@MollyRingwald) April 11, 2018
In the supporting roles were Bill Burr (who was billed as “Billy Burr”), Ron Livingston as Kurt, and Two and a Half Men‘s Conchata Ferrell as Marge.
This was well before Burr became a household name as a stand-up comedian known for his sharp, unapologetic rants, or Livingston dumped Carrie Bradshaw via a Post-it. An almost unrecognizable Burr was the love interest of Graham, while Livingston played a lifelong friend with a crush on Ringwald.
Part Friends-rip off, part Mystic Pizza, the show was created by Matthew Carlson, who has since made a name for himself with his work on the series Malcolm in the Middle and The Wonder Years. Townies produced 15 episodes, but never connected with audiences. ABC’s attempt to replicate the lightning in a bottle that NBC had with Friends failed to spark much interest, and the series was canceled almost as soon as it arrived, airing only from September to December 1996.
Koury Angelo / Hulu/Disney / Courtesy Everett Collection
Townies would be the last time Burr had a major role in a television project until he reemerged on Breaking Bad nearly 15 years later. Though he worked steadily in between with standout gigs as a featured player on Chappelle’s Show and bit parts on Law & Order, his career shifted into a new gear when he was cast as Patrick Kuby in the fourth and fifth seasons of AMC‘s Breaking Bad. The role was one of his first substantial dramatic acting gigs and helped introduce him to a wider TV audience beyond stand-up. Around the same time Burr released his 2012 special Let It Go, and the success of that led to subsequent specials, which raised his profile, leading to additional acting roles, podcast success, and broader mainstream recognition.
A mere footnote in TV history, Townies will be remembered by few, but its stacked cast, including a young “Billy Burr,” and its role as a stepping stone for Livingston before he raised hell at Initech and for Graham before opening the Dragonfly make it noteworthy.
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