Oliver Beene

Oliver Beene is an American sitcom that aired on Fox from March 9, 2003 to September 12, 2004. The show was created by Howard Gewirtz. Set in 1962 and 1963, the show chronicled the trials and tribulations of the 11-to-12-year-old Oliver Beene (played by Grant Rosenmeyer), in first person perspective. Oliver Beene's other main characters are his parents Jerry and Charlotte Beene, his older brother Ted Beene, and his two friends Joyce and Michael. The narrator, an older Oliver reflecting on his experience, is voiced by David Cross. Often in episodes, the story is interrupted by flashbacks and flashforwards.

Oliver Beene
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Howard Gewirtz
Starring	Grant Rosenmeyer Grant Shaud Wendy Makkena Andrew Lawrence Daveigh Chase Taylor Emerson
Narrated by	David Cross
Opening theme	"The Future Is Now" by The Solids
Composer	Paul Buckley
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	24 (2 unaired)
Production
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	21 minutes
Production companies	Steven Levitan Productions (ge.wirtz) Films DreamWorks Television 20th Century Fox Television
Original release
Network	Fox
Release	March 9, 2003 (2003-03-09) – September 12, 2004 (2004-09-12)

Premise

Oliver (born c. 1951), attempts to sustain normality in an often unpredictable family. Oliver's father Jerry spends his days drilling teeth as a dentist, while his mother attempts to play the traditional homemaker. Oliver's older brother, Ted is a sports nut and a womanizer. Oliver's life is often made more bearable with friends Michael, Joyce and his crush Bonnie, who appears at his most embarrassing moments. In the second season, both brothers have a crush on a Swedish girl, Elke, who moved into their apartment building.

Cast

Main

• Grant Rosenmeyer as Oliver Beene
  • David Cross as future Oliver Beene (voice only)
• Grant Shaud as Dr. Jerry Beene
• Wendy Makkena as Charlotte Beene
• Andrew Lawrence as Ted Beene
• Daveigh Chase as Joyce
• Taylor Emerson as Michael

Recurring

• Maggie Grace as Elke
• Amanda Michalka as Bonnie

Broadcast history

Season	Time
2002–03	Sunday at 8:30 (Episodes 1–6) Sunday at 9:30 (Episodes 7–8)
2003–04	Wednesday at 9:30 (Episode 1) Sunday at 7:30 (Episodes 2–6) Sunday at 7:00 (Episodes 7–14)

Episodes

The series first aired on March 9, 2003, as a Fox program to replace the animated series Futurama. The first season was relatively successful, and the show was brought back for a second season. However, poor ratings throughout the second season led to the show's cancellation in September 2004, with the two last episodes of the season being left unaired in America. (the last episode to air in the show's original timeslot was broadcast on September 12, 2004). In the UK and Ireland, Sky One broadcast both seasons, in their entirety. In Germany, Das Erste HD broadcast both seasons, in their entirety, twice, once in 2006, and once in 2010, dubbed in German. In The Czech Republic, ČT1 broadcast both seasons, in their entirety, dubbed in Czech.

Season	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
1	8		March 9, 2003 (2003-03-09)	May 4, 2003 (2003-05-04)
2	16		February 4, 2004 (2004-02-04)	September 12, 2004 (2004-09-12)

Season 1 (2003)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	1	"A Day at the Beach"	Michael Spiller	Story by : Eric Abrams & Matthew Berry Teleplay by : Howard Gewirtz	March 9, 2003 (2003-03-09)	103	13.79^[1]
The Beenes hope to join a popular country club, while Oliver has a crush on a girl named Bonnie.
2	2	"Home, a Loan"	Jeff Melman	Bill Callahan & Philip Wen	March 16, 2003 (2003-03-16)	106	10.97^[2]
Jerry and Charlotte visit Jerry's old college friend, Mitch (Kurt Fuller), While Ted's friend Harvey (A. J. Trauth), gets him and Oliver in trouble with a creepy neighbor.
3	3	"Space Race"	Michael Spiller	Steven Levitan	March 30, 2003 (2003-03-30)	105	10.19^[3]
Oliver finds himself in trouble after accidentally hurting a new black student at school.
4	4	"The Nudie Mag"	Jeff Melman	Carter Bays & Craig Thomas	April 6, 2003 (2003-04-06)	104	8.32^[4]
Oliver may get in big trouble when he and Michael go looking for something in Michael's closet. They end up finding a porno mag belong to Michael's dad.
5	5	"Lord of the Bees"	Matt Shakman	Chris Harris	April 13, 2003 (2003-04-13)	111	9.37^[5]
Oliver cheats on a test to beat Susan grade-wise.
6	6	"Dancing Beene"	Jeff Melman	Carter Bays & Craig Thomas	April 20, 2003 (2003-04-20)	109	6.80^[6]
Oliver has a dream to become like Fred Astaire, so he takes a ballroom class. He later learns he can't dance at all.
7	7	"Divorce-O-Rama"	Jeff Melman	Jace Richdale	April 27, 2003 (2003-04-27)	102	7.87^[7]
Oliver and Joyce try to get tickets to a TV show. Meanwhile, Oliver thinks his parents are getting a divorce after learning that Joyce's parents are headed for divorce.
8	8	"Oliver's Best Friend"	Lev L. Spiro	Jim Bernstein & Michael Shipley	May 4, 2003 (2003-05-04)	110	9.25^[8]
After convincing his parents to get him a dog, Oliver learns that having a dog is more trouble than he can handle.

Season 2 (2004)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
9	1	"Dibs"	Lev L. Spiro	Howard Gewirtz & Steven Levitan	February 4, 2004 (2004-02-04)	202	10.62^[9]
Oliver and Ted have a crush on the new girl in the neighborhood, named Elke (Maggie Grace). Meanwhile, Jerry and Charlotte try to get into an old club unaware that it's all about jazz and marijuana.
10	2	"Soup to Nuts"	Lev L. Spiro	Chris Harris	February 8, 2004 (2004-02-08)	205	5.88^[9]
On a school field trip Oliver loses his lunch due to the bus hitting a bump and spills on his lap with everyone thinking he's thrown up on himself.
11	3	"Daughter for a Day"	Lev L. Spiro	Jim Bernstein & Howard Gewirtz & Michael Shipley	February 15, 2004 (2004-02-15)	208	4.78^[10]
Oliver and Jerry do some father-and-son bonding for the day, while Charlotte feels left out and spends the day with Joyce hoping to know her better.
12	4	"X-Ray Specs"	Michael Spiller	Carter Bays & Craig Thomas	February 22, 2004 (2004-02-22)	207	6.39^[11]
Oliver orders X-Ray glasses from a comic book and finds out that they don't work. He decides to get revenge on Barnaby Rollins (Richard Kind) the company owner, in order to get his money back.
13	5	"Ward Have Mercy"	Matt Shakman	David M. Stern	March 7, 2004 (2004-03-07)	203	6.07^[12]
Oliver creates a door knocker that Mr. Stitt (Ethan Phillips) does not approve of and instructs that it be removed. Charlotte gets help from Carl the building Superintendent (Kenneth Mars) on how to beat Mr. Stitt in the upcoming election.
14	6	"Disposa Boy"	Brent Carpenter	Kristofor Brown	March 14, 2004 (2004-03-14)	107	5.24^[13]
Oliver learns that he is going to the lowest level of the grade levels in his school because his former teacher Mrs. Heller punished him. So, Oliver tries to figure out how to get back to level one without taking the Iowa test. Meanwhile, Jerry tries to get people interested in his latest invention "The Disposa Toothbrush". Note: This episode was originally produced for season 1.
15	7	"Idol Chatter"	Matt Shakman	Stephen Lloyd	June 6, 2004 (2004-06-06)	206	2.67^[14]
Jerry tries to out do his neighbors the O'Shaughnessy's by having a famous comedian entertaining the guests at the Beene party.
16	8	"Oliver and the Otters"	Michael Spiller	Carter Bays & Craig Thomas	June 13, 2004 (2004-06-13)	209	3.33^[15]
Oliver forms his own band called "Oliver and the Otters" to impress Bonnie. Meanwhile, Jerry asks Charlotte to fill in as his dental assistant after his previous one got hurt.
17	9	"Kissing Babies"	Jay Chandrasekhar	Jim Bernstein & Michael Shipley	June 20, 2004 (2004-06-20)	204	2.24^[16]
Oliver is about to attend his first make-out party and seeks advice from Ted about the games that will be played there.
18	10	"Girly Dad"	Marcos Siega	Jace Richdale	June 27, 2004 (2004-06-27)	108	N/A
Charlotte and Ted try to teach Jerry how to throw a ball... in a more manly fashion. Note: Originally produced for season 1, this episode was seen only on West Coast stations as the 7:00 timeslot was pre-empted by NASCAR coverage on Fox.
19	11	"Fallout"	Jeff Melman	Howard Gewirtz	August 15, 2004 (2004-08-15)	101	2.35^[17]
Oliver tries out for the annual talent show hoping he can impress Bonnie. Meanwhile, Jerry turns the basement into a fallout shelter as a 15-anniversary present for Charlotte. Note: This is the pilot episode of the series.
20	12	"Catskills"	Michael Spiller	Jim Bernstein & Michael Shipley	August 22, 2004 (2004-08-22)	213	2.40^[18]
Charlotte is desperate for some time with her family so she decides to take her family to the Catskills Mountains.
21	13	"A Trip to Coney Island"	Jeff Melman	Carter Bays & Craig Thomas	August 29, 2004 (2004-08-29)	201	2.89^[19]
Jerry and his family decide to take a trip to Coney Island. The vacation causes a feud to spark between Jerry and his neighbor over a parking spot. Meanwhile, Oliver gets his dream job of being a paper boy, But realizes that it's not all that it's cracked up to be.
22	14	"Babysitting"	Howard Gewirtz	Brenda Hsueh	September 12, 2004 (2004-09-12)	211	N/A
Oliver is conned into baby-sitting for Joyce, but she gets more than she bargained for when Oliver steals her steady job. Note: This episode was seen only on West Coast stations as the 7:00 timeslot was pre-empted by NFL coverage on Fox.
23	15	"Superhero"	Joe Pennella	David M. Stern & Chris Harris	Unaired (Unaired)	210	N/A
Oliver can never seem to take a good photo and therefore hates picture day. This year he is determined to take control of the situation and do things on his terms, so he wears a superhero costume as a method of protest. Meanwhile, Ted learns that his baseball coach (Sam Horrigan) is dating Elke.
24	16	"The King & I"	Fred Savage	Stephen Lloyd	Unaired (Unaired)	212	N/A
The owner of a sports store offers Ted all that he wants from the store. But to get it, he must go out with the owner's daughter.

References

1. "National Nielsen Viewership (March 3–9)". The Los Angeles Times. March 12, 2003. Retrieved December 11, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. 
2. "National Nielsen Viewership (March 10–16)". The Los Angeles Times. March 19, 2003. Retrieved December 11, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. 
3. "National Nielsen Viewership (March 24–30)". The Los Angeles Times. April 2, 2003. Retrieved December 11, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. 
4. "National Nielsen Viewership (March 31-April 6)". The Los Angeles Times. April 9, 2003. Retrieved December 11, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. 
5. "National Nielsen Viewership (April 7–13)". The Los Angeles Times. April 23, 2003. Retrieved December 11, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. 
6. "National Nielsen Viewership (April 14–20)". The Los Angeles Times. April 23, 2003. Retrieved December 11, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. 
7. "National Nielsen Viewership (April 21–27)". The Los Angeles Times. April 30, 2003. Retrieved December 11, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. 
8. "National Nielsen Viewership (April 28-May 4)". The Los Angeles Times. May 7, 2003. Retrieved December 11, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. 
9. "National Nielsen Viewership (Feb. 2-8)". The Los Angeles Times. February 11, 2004. Retrieved December 11, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. 
10. "National Nielsen Viewership (Feb. 9-15)". The Los Angeles Times. February 20, 2004. Retrieved December 11, 2021 – via Newspapers.com. 
11. "Weekly Program Rankings (Feb. 16-22)". ABC Medianet. February 24, 2004. from the original on December 21, 2008. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
12. . ABC Medianet. March 9, 2004. Archived from the original on December 21, 2008. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
13. "Weekly Program Rankings (Mar. 8-14)". ABC Medianet. March 16, 2004. from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
14. . ABC Medianet. June 8, 2004. Archived from the original on April 21, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
15. "National Nielsen Viewership (June 7–13)". The Los Angeles Times. June 16, 2004. Retrieved June 13, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. 
16. "National Nielsen Viewership (June 14–20)". The Los Angeles Times. June 23, 2004. Retrieved June 13, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. 
17. "National Nielsen Viewership (Aug. 9–15)". The Los Angeles Times. August 18, 2004. Retrieved June 13, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. 
18. "National Nielsen Viewership (Aug. 16–22)". The Los Angeles Times. August 25, 2004. Retrieved June 13, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. 
19. "National Nielsen Viewership (Aug. 23–29)". The Los Angeles Times. September 1, 2004. Retrieved June 13, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. 

External links

• Oliver Beene at IMDb  
• Oliver Beene at amblin.com