We Are Men

*We Are Men*
We Are Men
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Rob Greenberg
Starring	Kal Penn; Christopher Nicholas Smith; Jerry O'Connell; Tony Shalhoub; Rebecca Breeds;
Composer	John Swihart
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10 (8 unaired)
Production
Executive producers	Rob Greenberg; Eric Tannenbaum; Kim Tannenbaum;
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	30 minutes
Production companies	The Tannenbaum Company; Roughhouse Productions; CBS Television Studios;
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 30 –; October 7, 2013

We Are Men is an American sitcom television series created by Rob Greenberg starring Christopher Nicholas Smith, Tony Shalhoub, Jerry O'Connell, Kal Penn, and Rebecca Breeds. The series aired on CBS as part of the 2013–14 American television season, and premiered on September 30, 2013.^[1]^[2]^[3] On October 9, 2013, after the airing of two episodes, which performed poorly, CBS cancelled the series.^[4]^[5]

Premise

After Carter is left at the altar by his bride, he moves into a short-term rental complex, where he forms a friendship with three divorced older men.

Cast

Kal Penn as Gil Bartis
Christopher Nicholas Smith as Carter Thomas
Jerry O'Connell as Stuart Strickland
Tony Shalhoub as Frank Russo
Rebecca Breeds as Abby Russo

Development and production

On July 10, 2012, it was announced that CBS had picked up Rob Greenberg's single-camera comedy, then called Ex-Men, as the first pilot order of the 2013–14 season.^[6] The show, which is written, directed and executively produced by Greenberg, centers on a young man "learning the ways of the world from the older and more experienced men in his short-term rental complex."^[6] Dominic Patten from Deadline Hollywood reported that We Are Men had been around for a few years, before it was picked up.^[6]

Chris Smith was cast as Carter Thomas, the young man who befriends a group of divorced men, while Kal Penn was cast as Gil Bartis.^[7] On August 15, 2012, it was announced that Tony Shalhoub would play Frank, who is "a four-time divorcé who still fancies himself a ladies man".^[7] Shortly after, Australian actress Rebecca Breeds joined the cast as Frank's daughter.^[8] Filming of the pilot episode was pushed back to January 2013, after casting of the fourth male lead stalled. The role of Stuart was eventually filled by Jerry O'Connell.^[9]

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	"Pilot"	Rob Greenberg	Rob Greenberg	September 30, 2013 (2013-09-30)	WAM101	6.61^[10]
2	"We Are Dognappers"	Adam Arkin	Bob Daily	October 7, 2013 (2013-10-07)	WAM103	5.41^[11]
3	"We Are One Night Stands"	Walt Becker	Lesley Wake Webster	Unaired	WAM104	N/A
4	"We Are Learning to Swim"	N/A	Gabrielle Allan & Jennifer Crittenden	Unaired	WAM105	N/A
5	"We Are Divorced Dads"	N/A	N/A	Unaired	WAM102	N/A
6	"We Are Gentlemen"	N/A	Tad Quill	Unaired	WAM106	N/A
7	"We Are Carpe Pontiac"	N/A	Mathew Libman & Daniel Libman	Unaired	WAM107	N/A
8	"We Are Franksgiving"	N/A	Tony Dodds	Unaired	WAM108	N/A
9	"We Are Stuart's Anniversary"	N/A	N/A	Unaired	WAM109	N/A
10	"We Are for the Tots"	N/A	Lesley Wake Webster	Unaired	WAM110	N/A

Critical reception

We Are Men was panned by critics. Metacritic gave the show an aggregate rating of 33/100; similarly Rotten Tomatoes currently has a rating of 4% (rotten) for the program.^[12] Melissa Maers of Entertainment Weekly said that the show was "The male version of Sex and the City with more shirtless scenes (courtesy of Jerry O'Connell) and way less wit",^[13] while The Hollywood Reporter was much more harsh, saying “‘We Are Men’ is about four single guys you wouldn't ever want to be around or be related to in any way … [it] made me feel stupid almost immediately and then bitter that I'd wasted the time.”^[14] The show failed to catch an audience and adversely affected other programming, especially the sitcom 2 Broke Girls. The show earned the lowest rating of any 2013 premiere on CBS and was cancelled after just two episodes, leaving the remaining 8 episodes that were produced unaired.^[15]