Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23
Also known as	Don't Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23 Don't Trust the B Apartment 23
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Nahnatchka Khan
Starring	Krysten Ritter Dreama Walker James Van Der Beek Liza Lapira Michael Blaiklock Eric André Ray Ford
Narrated by	Dreama Walker
Theme music composer	Steve Hampton John Adair Brad Hamilton
Opening theme	"The B---- in Apt 23" by Katie Hampton
Composer(s)	Craig Wedren Daniel Licht[lower-alpha 1] Erica Weis[lower-alpha 2] Michael Cassidy[lower-alpha 1] Orr Rebhun[lower-alpha 3]
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26[1] (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Nahnatchka Khan David Hemingson Jeffrey Morton
Producer(s)	Marshall Boone Justin McEwen Sally Bradford McKenna Casey Johnson David Windsor Corey Nickerson Laura McCreary Erik Durbin Tina Kil Barbara Black Daniel Hank
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Fierce Baby Productions Hemingson Entertainment 20th Century Fox Television
Distributor	20th Television
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV)
Original release	April 11, 2012 (2012-04-11) – May 13, 2013 (2013-05-13)

Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 is an American sitcom created by Nahnatchka Khan that aired on ABC in the United States from April 11, 2012, to January 15, 2013. The series originally aired as a mid-season replacement during the 2011–12 television schedule, following Modern Family.^[2]

Synopsis

The series follows June Colburn as she moves from Indiana to New York City to pursue her dream job – until she finds out that it no longer exists. She ends up moving in with a bon vivant party-girl named Chloe. Chloe keeps her apartment by inviting roommates to move in, asking for rent up front, and then behaving outrageously until they leave. June proves more difficult to dislodge than expected, and when June reverses Chloe's latest attempt to eject her in an unexpected fashion, they end up forming an unlikely friendship.

Cast and characters

Main cast

• Krysten Ritter as Chloe, the eponymous "Bitch in Apartment 23". She is an amoral and irresponsible party girl, freeloading, scamming, free-spirit, and swindler described as having "the morals of a pirate," who becomes June's roommate. After first attempting to run her "roommate scam" on June by convincing her to pay several months' rent in advance before driving her out of the apartment, Chloe eventually comes to welcome her after June proves capable of turning Chloe's scams back on her. Chloe, who usually finds other women boring, discovers that she genuinely likes June and tries to be both protective and helpful in her own borderline sociopathic ways (such as slipping June illegal Chinese pharmaceuticals to help her "loosen up" and turning June's small homemade jam business into a lucrative internet erotica site). Chloe's only steady work is "providing entertainment" to diplomats at the United Nations once a year, during which she pays her share of rent for the year, while in the meantime running day-to-day scams to provide her with free food, free drinks, and spending money. Her scams have gotten her in trouble with the law more than once.
• Dreama Walker as June Colburn, who moves to New York from Indiana when her dream job at a mortgage company provides her with a huge apartment. However, on her very first day, the company is shut down when the owner is arrested for stealing millions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme and the apartment building is sealed, leaving June desperate for a job and another place to live. She ends up moving in with Chloe. June is optimistic, trusting, and tries to be honest and friendly with everyone she meets, which often lead her to be taken advantage of by more cynical New Yorkers, including her own roommate. She tries to be tolerant to Chloe's reckless lifestyle and tries to find her place in New York because she is too ashamed to return to her Indiana hometown over losing her job and career and facing her overbearing parents. She works as a barista at a local coffee shop for most of the series, but is eventually hired as a junior analyst for a Wall Street firm.
• James Van Der Beek as a fictionalized version of himself, the former TV star of Dawson's Creek, who is a good friend of Chloe's and desperate to revamp his sagging acting career. As a parody of himself, he is arrogant, self-centered, and shamelessly self-promoting as he takes on increasingly bizarre roles to revitalize his career, culminating in a stint on Dancing with the Stars. He uses his influence amongst the now-thirty-something demographic of female Dawson's Creek fans to get ahead personally and professionally, and he allows Chloe to name-drop him to advance her own scams. In spite of this, he is the person who seems to know Chloe best, and he seems genuinely invested in seeing Chloe and June's friendship succeed, often giving them both advice on how to handle one another's quirks.
• Eric André as Mark Reynolds, who would have been June's supervisor at the mortgage company. He becomes manager of a local coffee shop within four hours of losing his job and hires June. He lives with a domineering, unseen girlfriend who takes advantage of his good-natured meekness. At one point in Season Two, Mark manages to break up with his girlfriend and kick her out of his apartment, but he quickly becomes depressed and untethered without someone to tell him what to do. Mark has a hopeless crush on June and occasionally tries to approach her, but a combination of his girlfriend's emotional control and June's obliviousness always gets in his way.
• Ray Ford as Luther Wilson (season 2; recurring previously),^{[lower-alpha 4]} an effeminate man and personal assistant to James Van Der Beek. Luther and Chloe have a rocky relationship: Luther once denied Chloe money for rent and Chloe wouldn't read Luther's screenplay. He is extremely devoted to James and believes wholeheartedly in James' inevitable comeback. To that end he gladly micromanages James' life to the smallest detail, even as James takes advantage of him. He also demonstrates a stronger moral center than most of the main cast, which leads him to becoming closer to June as the seasons progress.
• Michael Blaiklock as Eli Webber, the peeping-tom next-door neighbor who spies on the girls through a window across an alleyway. He works as a city health inspector. In spite of being a self-proclaimed pervert, Eli is hard-working and successful in his own limited field, often offers solid advice to June from his window across the alley, and is grateful for Chloe's casual lack of concern for his peeping-tom tendencies.
• Liza Lapira as Robin (main cast season 1; recurring season 2),^{[lower-alpha 5][3]} one of Chloe's former roommates, who was swindled like the others and now lives in the apartment down the hall, where she tries to warn potential roommates "don't trust the bitch in apartment 23" before they make the same mistake. In spite of this, she is still obsessed with Chloe to the point of stalking her. Robin works as a nurse in a local hospital.

Recurring cast

• Eve Gordon as Connie Colburn, June's mother, whom June, then James, occasionally turns to for advice.
• Peter MacKenzie as Donald Colburn, June's father.
• Rosalind Chao as Pastor Jin, the pastor at the First Korean Baptist Church^[4] where June attends worship services.
• Jennie Pierson as Pepper, June and Mark's socially awkward coworker at the coffee shop.
• Tate Ellington as Steven, June's ex-fiancé.
• Katherine Tokarz as Nicole, a nurse with whom Steven cheats on June.
• Teresa Huang as Hillary, June's coworker at Harkin Financial.

Guest cast

• Keith Allan as Peter, an employee at People magazine.
• Michael Landes as Scott, Chloe's father, who has a brief relationship with June.
• Marin Hinkle as Karen, Chloe's paraplegic mother.
• David Krumholtz as Patrick Kelly, the creator of the graphic novel Shitagi Nashi (Tall Slut, No Panties), based on Chloe.
• Ben Lawson as Benjamin Lovett, an Australian director, who is friends with James and becomes a love interest for Chloe.
• Jonny Cruz as James Martinez, June and Luther's yoga instructor.
• Missi Pyle as Angie Beckencort, a lousy pro dancer who ends up paired with James on Dancing with the Stars.
• Meg Chambers Steedle as Emily, a girl who briefly dates James.
• Meagen Fay as Katherine, James' mother.
• Sarah Wright as Trish, Chloe's first New York roommate.

Special cameos

These guest stars made special cameo appearances as themselves in the series:

• Dean Cain
• Kevin Sorbo
• Karina Smirnoff
• Kiernan Shipka
• Frankie Muniz
• Mark-Paul Gosselaar
• Busy Philipps
• Richard Dean Anderson
• Charo

Development and production

The show's former title card, when it was titled Apartment 23

The series was originally titled Don't Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23 and was developed at Fox as a 2009 fall contender, but was eventually passed on.^[5][6] In January 2011, ABC green-lit the production of a pilot episode.^[6] In February and March 2011, Dreama Walker, Krysten Ritter, and James Van Der Beek were cast as the three leads. On May 13, 2011, ABC picked up the project to series under the shortened title Apartment 23.^[7] A few days later, ABC announced that the show would most likely debut in the 2011–12 mid-season.^[8]

On October 11, 2011, ABC again renamed the show, this time to a bowdlerized version of its original name, censoring the word "Bitch" and replaced with "B----".^[9]

The first two episodes were made available on iTunes, Hulu,^[10] ABC.com,^[11] and on Xfinity in the United States before the premiere on April 11, 2012.^[12][13] In Canada, the first episodes were made available on Rogers on Demand and on Citytv.com,^[14][15] also before the April 11, 2012 premiere. On May 11, 2012, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 was renewed for a second season, with the remaining six episodes of season one airing as a part of it.^[16] The second season premiered on October 23, 2012.

ABC announced on January 22, 2013, that it was removing Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 from its schedule immediately.^[17] The next day, the cast of the show confirmed its cancellation.^[18] On April 18, 2013, ABC announced that the remaining eight unaired episodes would be streamed online beginning May 17^[19] and ending June 2.^[20]

In July 2014, it was announced that Logo TV had acquired the full run of the series—including the eight episodes that were previously unaired in the United States—and would air it in the correct order beginning July 19.^[21]

A total of 26 episodes have been produced over two seasons.

Series overview

Each episode is styled as "...in Apartment 23".

Notes

Episodes

Season 1 (2012)

The first season consisted of seven episodes and aired from April 11 to May 23, 2012.

Season 2 (2012–13)

On May 11, 2012, ABC renewed Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 for a second season.^[29] The remaining six episodes of season one (with production codes beginning 1A in the table) aired as part of season two bringing the total to 19 episodes for the season.^[16] ABC elected to air these episodes out of order, interspersing first and second-season episodes without regard to continuity. As a result, some multi-episode plot arcs (particularly James' appearance on Dancing with the Stars and June's travails at a new job outside the coffee shop) are almost incomprehensibly jumbled in the original broadcast order.

Ray Ford, who plays Luther, was promoted to a series regular for season two.^[30] Liza Lapira was originally announced as having been demoted to a recurring role; ultimately she appeared in only one episode ("Dating Games...") that was produced for the second season.

Although series star Krysten Ritter originally stated in February 2013 that ABC was committed to airing the eight unaired episodes in the summer of 2013,^[31] she later confirmed that the show would not return to ABC's schedule, but that all eight episodes would be made available on ABC.com, iTunes and Hulu starting May 17, 2013.^[32] The additional episodes have since been removed from Hulu, without announcement. It was later announced that the episodes would air on Logo TV Network in July 2014.^[33]

Broadcast

In addition to premiering on ABC, the show has since been sold to various international markets.

Reception

In June 2011, Apartment 23, as it was called at the time, was one of eight honorees in the Most Exciting New Series category at the Critics' Choice Television Awards, voted by journalists who had seen the pilots.^[53] The series received positive reviews from critics, with many critics praising Ritter for her performance in what could be called her first "leading role".^[54][55] The first season getting a score of 71 on Metacritic based on 29 critics.^[56] On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds a 91% and the second season has a score of 75%. The site's consensus states: "An odd couple sitcom with a modern twist, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 is sleeker and smarter than expected, thanks to strong acting and snappy dialogue."^[57]

Ratings

Awards and nominations

Home media

Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 was released on DVD (with 4-set discs) on October 8, 2013 and contains all unaired episodes.

Notes

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23

• Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 at the Internet Movie Database
• Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 at TV.com