I grew up on Must-See TV Thursdays. Wings, Seinfeld, Cheers, Frasier, Mad About You, and then later Caroline in the City, Friends, Suddenly Susan, and Just Shoot Me! were the comedy shows that dominated my childhood. So did shows like Will & Grace and Scrubs. Though they started calling it “Comedy Night Done Right” after 2006, NBC Thursdays was also the home of The Office, 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation, Community, Superstore, and The Good Place. That’s not to say that NBC didn’t also air excellent drama shows on Thursday nights—ER began on Must-See TV Thursdays, and later shows like Parenthood, The Blacklist, Chicago Med, and Chicago Fire all spent time in a Thursday night slot. It wasn’t until 2018 that Law & Order: SVU became a staple on NBC Thursday’s, and since 2021 the network has dedicated Thursday nights to the Law & Order franchise and similar shows.
I say all of this because, for as long as I can remember, NBC was synonymous with Comedy. But since 2020, NBC’s presence in Comedy has dropped dramatically. For a network that used to have 4-6 comedies airing on just one night of the week, having just 5 comedies airing in the last year feels like a missed opportunity. NBC has become the network of police and first responder procedurals. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for a One Chicago Crossover event or a solid episode of Law & Order: SVU, but I’ve been missing a good television sitcom (and not just on NBC, either, but that’s a conversation for a different day).
Given my desire for a solid sitcom, I was thrilled when I discovered NBC’s newest mockumentary sitcom, Stumble. Set in the world of junior college competitive cheerleading, Stumble stars Jenn Lyon as Cheerleading Coach Courteney Potter, who is being followed by a documentary crew as she pursues her 15th National Cheerleading Championship—the one that will make her the winningest cheer coach in history. The problem is, Courteney has just been fired by her longtime employer, Sammy Davis Senior Junior College, after a video of her giving out an award for “Best Booty” at the Cheerleading Victory party was sent to the Dean, and now she has to start over.
Stumble Makes Ragtag Exceptional
Courteney and her husband, Boon E. Potter (Taran Killam), live in Wichita Flats, Texas, where Boon coaches Football at Sammy Davis Senior Junior College (SDSJC). After Courteney gets fired, she takes a job 80 miles away in a tiny town that constantly gets mispronounced—Heådltston, Oklahoma, home of the ẞlimpfh Candy Button Factory—to teach typing and coach the Candy Buttons, Heådltston State Junior College’s Cheer Team. She starts her new team with Madonna (Arianna Davis), the narcoleptic cheerleader who was the sole member of the Candy Buttons the previous year; Dimarcus (Jarrett Austin Brown), who she scooped from SDSJC when he quit football after Boon tried to make him share the ball; Steven Vaughn (Ryan Pinkston), a 37-year-old rental car salesman who was on one of Courteney’s very first cheerleading teams; and four cheerleaders she found on TikTok, who were kicked off their previous team for inappropriate behavior. It starts wild, and only gets wilder.
One of the things I love most about Stumble, besides the concept of the show as a whole, is the ragtag group of misfits that Courteney puts together. Bringing together a group of unusual players might not be a unique concept, but Stumble manages to make it feel brand new. By the end of Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot,” the Candy Buttons is a team of 10 cheerleaders, and while they aren’t good, Courteney can, will, and must get them to Daytona.
Many of the actors playing Courteney’s cheerleaders are relative newcomers with some serious acting chops. Arianna Davis is a dancer who was on Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, and Jared Austin Brown was previously seen in The Get Down and Gazer. Like his character, Steven, Ryan Pinkston is the veteran, having gotten his start on episodes of Punk’d in 2003 before going on to co-star in FOX’s Quintuplets in 2004. Since then, he’s had roles on shows like How I Met Your Mother, Will & Grace (the reboot), and Grey’s Anatomy, and spent 17 episodes as “Downtown Bruno” in Young Rock. Pinkston is perfect as the bereft Steven, who can’t seem to connect with his teammates, many of whom are 20 years younger than him, and seems to keep messing up when Courteney needs him most. On a show that could be way too much about physical comedy, Pinkston expertly holds his physical comedy for just the right moments.
Also on the team is Peaches (Taylor Dunbar), who Courteney catches breaking into her vehicle at a convenience store. When Peaches flips and jumps her way out of the car, Courteney encourages her to cheer for the team—or else Courteney will send the videotape to the police. Dunbar, a recent Juilliard graduate, is a flawless cast member and a great reminder that coming from a place considered as serious as Juilliard doesn’t mean you can’t be a comedy darling. Peaches is a great contrast to Krystal (Anissa Borrego, previously seen in A.P. Bio, This Is Us, and Station 19), the star flyer and cheer-lebrity from SDSJC whom Courteney convinces to transfer to Heådltston, even though it’s her “third and final senior year at a two-year college.” Krystal is an influencer in every sense of the word and her parents, whom she calls “Mom-ager and Dad-ager,” have made certain that she is always thinking about her brand. Though she initially seems to be the quintessential airhead, the more the audience gets to know Krystal, the more they find under her sparkly cheer uniform. Borrego shines when she’s on screen, especially in Season 1, Episode 10, “Finals Week.”
One of my favorite characters, and seemingly a fan favorite, is Sally, the last cheerleader to audition to be one of the 10 original members of the Candy Buttons. Played by Georgie Murphy, who has previously been seen in shows like Safehaven, Small Achievable Goals, and 56 Days (another show we will definitely be talking about), Sally isn’t just a cheerleader for Courteney and Boon. When Courteney discovers that Sally has been living out of her vehicle since her foster parents kicked her out when she turned 18, she brings Sally home to Wichita Flats with her and lets her move into Boon’s office. While Boon struggles to even talk to Sally at first, it is their relationship that has become one of the show’s most heartwarming thus far.
Stumble’s Recurring and Guest Stars Only Further Elevate the Show
While much of the cast is made up of Courteney’s cheerleading team, the other characters that Courteney interacts with each bring their own sparkle to the screen. First, there’s Tammy Istiny, Courteney’s assistant coach at SDSJC, who takes over the cheerleading team after Courteney is fired, and is played brilliantly by Kristin Chenoweth. Audiences meet Tammy when she’s crying and wailing about Courteney having been fired from her coaching job. As someone who lived in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia, I have met many Southern women just like Tammy in many ways. Chenoweth herself is from Oklahoma, and she really nails the “bless your heart” attitude that is so prevalent south of the Mason-Dixon.
There’s also Augustus ẞlimpfh, played by the incomparable Jeff Hiller, who the audience doesn’t meet until Season 1, Episode 4, “Button Day.” Augustus is the owner of the Candy Button Factory, and his family has some shady history (you’ll see what I mean, but I bet you can guess based on the German nature of his last name). At Heådltston State Junior College, the only person “helping” Courteney with the cheerleading team is Miss Dot (Ashlie Atkinson), and y’all, I put those quotation marks around “helping” for a reason. It’s clear from the beginning just how little Miss Dot likes Courteney, but Season 1, Episode 7, “Lorraine,” really shines a light on what Dot thinks of the cheerleaders and their coach.
One of Season 1’s stellar guest stars is Busy Phillips as Vicky, the older sister of Peaches. Vicky and Peaches are supposed to be just two years apart, and the fact that she visibly looks more than two years older than Peaches really throws Courteney for a loop in Season 1, Episode 4, “Button Day.” What I love most about the scenes between Courteney, Peaches, and Vicky is that Taylor Dunbar holds her own with two comedy powerhouses, and the scene feels so smooth and authentic. The show’s other major guest star is Katey Sagal, who arrived in Season 1, Episode 13, “Daytona,” as Marg Hargberg, Courteney’s former cheerleading coach. Sagal and Jenn Lyon are matched extremely well and, based on the finale, there will be plenty of opportunities to see Marg Hargberg again in Season 2.
Jenn Lyon and Taran Killam are a Remarkable Duo
No matter what kind of television show you’re watching, one of the easiest ways to fall in (or out) of love with the show is through one of the main couples. On Stumble, Courteney and Boon Potter are truly “couple goals,” as Sally refers to them, and constantly reflect what it looks like for two people to love and support each other no matter what. Courteney nursed Boon back to health after a serious head injury stole his dreams of playing college ball at Texas Tech, and Boon is always in Courteney’s corner, even when she’s using their nest egg to hire a choreographer or selling her championship trophies to raise money for the Candy Buttons.
One of the things Stumble is particularly great at is its handling of Boon’s Traumatic Brain Injury. TBIs are all too common for football players, and Stumble manages to incorporate Boon’s life-changing accident with both grace and a level of comedy one might not immediately consider when talking about something so serious. It’s a testament to how skilled the creators and writers of the show are, not to mention how talented Taran Killam is, that the comedic moments related to Boon’s TBI don’t feel forced or offensive. Whether he’s trying to say “catastrophic,” suddenly playing the piano like a prodigy, or showing the camera the video of his “experimental surgery” to fix the “accidental vasectomy” he received when a dog bit him in the testicles while he was lying prone on the football field, the character of Boon highlights how devastating a TBI can be while also finding a way to bring light and laughter to the topic.
All that said, it is Courteney Potter who truly stole my heart. In particular, it is the moment in Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot,” when Courteney, hidden behind a door and believing herself to be off camera, launches into a series of pretty heinous curse words that really gets me. It’s funny as a full moment, but it is the deep growl with which Courteney says “rat [insert curse word]” right after telling herself “you’re okay,” that made her immediately endearing to me. Courtney loves her team and her husband deeply, and while she obviously takes cheerleading very seriously, she has moments every episode that are both casually and deliberately funny.
I recognized Jenn Lyon from English Teacher, Sirens, and Happy Face, but she is probably best known on television for Claws, has a stacked resume of theatre work both on and off-Broadway, and appears to be a comedy virtuoso. I find her magical as Courteney Potter. It’s a combination of things, really. It’s the numerous words and phrases she uses that I picked up while I lived in North Carolina (things like “Jesus be a [insert noun]” and “look at God”), and the way she uniquely pronounces some things (like “Dracula” as “Dracala” or “draw” as “drawl”). It’s her mannerisms, some of which she picked up from the show’s executive producer, Monica Aldama (yes, that Monica Aldama), who also guest stars as the assistant to Chenoweth’s Coach Istiny. It’s also the charming way the writers have written her. She feels real and engaging in a way that I haven’t really felt in a comedy since the arrival of Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) on Parks & Recreation.
While it might seem like I’ve told you everything there is to know about Stumble, I have barely scratched the surface. The layers of this show are beautifully written, and it has enormous potential. As of March 13, Stumble has aired all 13 episodes of its first season, and there has yet to be an announcement about Season 2. It would be a mistake for NBC to do anything but renew the show. It will fit well in their upcoming pilot season, which already has dramas with Emily Deschanel, David Boreanaz, and Peter Krause slated to premiere and needs some of that classic NBC comedy. If you haven’t watched Stumble yet, there’s plenty of time to catch up. And let’s face it, the more people stream the show, the more likely the Candy Buttons are to see a second season.
Stumble is available to stream on NBC’s Peacock.