Bordertown (2016 TV series)

Bordertown
Original prototype of the Gonzalezes (left) and the Buckwalds, the show's main cast[1]
Genre	Animated sitcom
Created by	Mark Hentemann
Voices of	Hank Azaria Nicholas Gonzalez Alex Borstein Judah Friedlander Missi Pyle Jacqueline Piñol Efren Ramirez Carlos Alazraqui
Composer(s)	Mark Mothersbaugh
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mark Hentemann Seth MacFarlane Co-executive producers: Alex Carter Dan Vebber
Producer(s)	Supervising producers: Valentina L. Garza B.J. Porter
Editor(s)	Donnell Ebarrete
Camera setup	Animated rendition of single-camera
Running time	20–22 minutes
Production company(s)	Hentemann Films Fuzzy Door Productions Bento Box Entertainment 20th Century Fox Television
Release
Original network	Fox
Picture format	720p (16:9 HDTV)
Audio format	Dolby Digital 5.1
First shown in	January 3, 2016 – present
External links
Website

Bordertown is an American adult animated sitcom created by Family Guy writer Mark Hentemann and executive-produced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane that follows two families living in a Southwest desert town on the United States–Mexico border. It premiered January 3, 2016 on Fox.

Plot

Bordertown takes place in the fictitious town of Mexifornia (which is on the border of California and Mexico).^[2] Mexifornia is said to be based on the town of Calexico, California, also a Portmanteau, as well as sharing a similar location and dynamic as Mexifornia. The two main characters are Bud Buckwald and Ernesto Gonzalez. Bud is a border agent living with his wife, Janice Buckwald, and their three children, Sanford, Becky and Gert. Living next door to him is Ernesto Gonzalez, an ambitious immigrant and family man, who has been in the country less than 10 years and is happy to be with his family in the United States of America.^[3]

Voice cast

• Hank Azaria as Bud Buckwald, a Border Patrol agent.^[4]
• Nicholas Gonzalez as
  • Ernesto Gonzalez, Bud's Mexican neighbor who's been living in Mexifornia for 20 years.
  • J.C. Gonzalez (Juan Carlos), Ernesto's 21-year-old nephew and Becky's fiancée.
  • Pablo Barracuda, the biggest drug lord in Mexifornia.^[5][6]
• Alex Borstein as
  • Janice Buckwald, Bud's wife and Becky, Sanford and Gert's mother.
  • Becky Buckwald, Bud's 18-year-old daughter and J.C's fiancee.^[5]
• Judah Friedlander as Sanford Buckwald, Janice and Bud's 24-year-old rebellious son.^[5]
• Missi Pyle as Gert Buckwald, Bud and Janice's 5-year-old daughter who is a beauty pageant contestant.^[5]
• Jacqueline Piñol as Pepito Gonzalez, Ernesto and Maria's youngest son who pranks Bud regularly.^[7]
• Efren Ramirez as Ruiz Gonzalez, Maria and Ernesto's eldest son.^[5]
• Carlos Alazraqui as
  • Placido Gonzalez, Ernesto's undocumented father who is cranky.
  • El Coyote, a Mexican trickster who always tries to cross the border and regularly taunts Bud in the cold openings.

Episodes

Season 1 (2016)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	"The Engagement"	Jacob Hair	Mark Hentemann & Lalo Alcaraz	January 3, 2016	1AXH01	2.34[8]
Border patrol officer Bud Buckwald is furious when he learns that his daughter Becky is engaged to Ernesto Gonzalez's college-educated activist nephew J.C., whom she has been dating for four years. He is soon delighted when an anti-immigration law is passed that leads to J.C.'s deportation. Realizing that he wants Becky to be happy, Bud enlists Ernesto's help to bring J.C. home.
2	"Borderwall"	Albert Calleros	Mark Hentemann & Lalo Alcaraz	January 10, 2016	1AXH06	3.58[9]
Bud uses confiscated drug money to build a border wall. But when it destroys the economy and costs him his job, he starts smuggling immigrants under the wall.
3	"MegaChurch"	Gavin Dell	Valentina L. Garza	January 17, 2016	1AXH08	2.57[10]
Reverend Fantastic, the preacher of Bud's megachurch, wants Bud to recruit Ernesto in hopes of collecting more money from the growing Mexican population. While Ernesto is initially enchanted by the megachurch's beauty, Maria finds it very annoying. Meanwhile, Becky tries to find out why J.C. doesn't like church, and is convinced that J.C. was molested when Maria tells Becky that J.C. went on a religious camping trip, and came back the next day declaring that there is no God.
4	"High School Football"	Jack Perkins	Dan Vebber	February 14, 2016	1AXH03	1.70[11]
When Bud is hired as the new high school football coach, he's so desperate to win that he doesn't realize that the illegal immigrant he recruits is Pablo Barracuda's #1 drug mule.
5	"Groundhog Day"	Oreste Canestrelli	Kenny Byerly	February 21, 2016	1AXH05	1.72[12]
The Mexifornia population tips from white majority to Latino majority when Maria's sister has a baby, so Bud tries to get romantic so he can have sex with Janice. However, when Janice reveals that a trampoline accident has made her infertile and J.C. suffers from racial guilt over being a majority (and, in his eyes, an oppressor), the Buckwalds move to a whites-only reservation.
6	"J.C. Strikes"	Gavin Dell	Michael Kennedy & Nathaniel Stein	March 13, 2016	1AXH11	2.16[13]
Frustrated that J.C. still hasn't gotten a job, Ernesto hires him as part of his landscaping crew. When the job turns out too difficult, J.C. unionizes Ernesto's workers and begins a strike. Meanwhile, an ostrich stalks Bud and becomes his spirit animal, which Gert doesn't like.
7	"Drug Lord"	Albert Calleros	Mark Hentemann	April 3, 2016	1AXH02	1.00[14]
Bud competes to be more successful than Ernesto, and ends up as the inside man for drug kingpin Pablo Barracuda at the Border Station.
8	"Santa Ana Winds"	Jacob Hair	Jason Reich	April 10, 2016	1AXH13	1.19[15]
The Santa Ana winds lead to a series of strange events in Mexifornia, such as Sanford and Ernesto's son Ruiz travelling to Mexico to find a new explosive energy drink that Sanford becomes a scriptwriter extraordinaire from, Ernesto battling a satanic leaf refusing to leave the ground, and Bud meeting a Mexican version of him who steals his life, all of which J.C. is determined to find the meaning for.
9	"Heart Attack"	Oreste Canestrelli	Alex Carter	April 17, 2016	1AXH12	1.19[16]
Gert has a heart attack during a pageant when Bud makes her binge on junk food. Unable to get help for her in Mexifornia, he only has one resort left: Mexico.
10	"Wildfire"	Jacob Hair	BJ Porter	April 24, 2016	1AXH07	1.16[17]
Bud refuses to evacuate when a wildfire threatens Mexifornia, so Ernesto comes to the rescue once the Buckwald house starts to burn. Meanwhile, J.C. and Becky see what it's like to date other people before committing to one another.
11	"La Fiesta Noche Show"[18]	Ray Claffey	Vanessa Ramos	May 8, 2016	1AXH10	TBD
Bud becomes a celebrity in the Mexican community, thanks to his anger at a taping for La Fiesta Noche.
12	"American Doll"[19]	Jack Perkins	Susan Hurwitz Arneson	May 15, 2016	1AXH09	TBD
Janice is forced to get a job as Ernesto's housekeeper when she secretly spends $285 on an American Gal doll for Gert and maxes out the credit card on accessories, so Gert plots revenge against the American Gal company while Bud plans to get Janice fired.
13	"Viva Coyote"[20]	Ray Claffey	Gustavo Arellano	May 22, 2016	1AXH04	TBD
Bud and Pablo Barracuda each try to catch El Coyote for different reasons.

Production

Producers

Seth MacFarlane and Mark Hentemann were announced as executive producers. Shortly afterwards, Alex Carter and Dan Vebber were announced as co-executive producers.^[21] Lalo Alcaraz and Gustavo Arellano are consulting producers, and Valentina L. Garza is a supervising producer.

Writing

There are a "dozen writers or so" for the first season of Bordertown.^[22] On November 13, 2013, Lalo Alcaraz was announced as one of the writers.^[22]

Broadcast

In the United States, the series premiered midseason on January 3, 2016, on Fox.^[23] The series was picked up by ITV2 in the United Kingdom on March 23, 2015, to premiere on February 29, 2016 - immediately after the new season of Family Guy on the same channel^[24] - but was dropped after five episodes.

The series was also picked up by Network Ten in Australia and started airing on February 3, 2016 on its sister channel, Eleven.^[25] In Canada, it is broadcast on City.^[26]

Reception

Bordertown received generally mixed to negative reviews. On Metacritic, the show holds a 46/100 score based on 15 reviews.^[27] On Rotten Tomatoes, the series receives a 35% rating based on 17 reviews with an average rating of 5.3/10. The critics' consensus reads: "Bordertown's controversy-rich premise is an idea disappointingly ill-served by its execution, which repeatedly mistakes crass, desperate gags for topical humor."^[28]

References

1. "Seth MacFarlane-Produced Animated Culture Clash Bordertown Debuts Stills". CINEMABLEND.
2. "Bento Box Entertainment". Bento Box Entertainment. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
3. "Fox Orders Seth MacFarlane Animated Series 'Bordertown'". Screenrant.com. Retrieved 2014-06-22.
4. "'Simpsons' Vet Hank Azaria to Voice Fox's 'Bordertown'". TheWrap. Retrieved 2014-07-20.
5. "BORDERTOWN" (PDF). Fox. 2013-11-11. Retrieved 2014-06-22.
6. "Instagram". Instagram. Retrieved 2014-07-20.
7. "Twitter / JacquiPinol: Loving this gig! #Bordertown". Twitter.com. 2014-07-02. Retrieved 2014-07-20.
8. Porter, Rick (January 6, 2016). "Sunday final ratings: ‘Undercover Boss’ adjusts up, premieres stay low". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
9. Porter, Rick (January 12, 2016). "Sunday final ratings: ‘Simpsons’ still at a season high after downward adjustment". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
10. Porter, Rick (January 20, 2016). "Sunday final ratings: ‘The Good Wife’ and 'Family Guy' adjust up". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
11. Porter, Rick (February 17, 2016). "Sunday final ratings: 'Bachelor' special and 'Cooper Barrett' adjust up". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
12. Porter, Rick (February 23, 2016). "Sunday final ratings: ‘Shark Tank’ adjusts down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved February 23, 2016.
13. Porter, Rick (March 15, 2016). "Sunday final ratings: ’60 Minutes’ adjusts up, ‘Carmichael Show’ and ‘Hollywood Game Night’ adjust down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
14. Porter, Rick (April 5, 2016). "Sunday final ratings: ACM Awards and all scripted shows hold". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
15. Porter, Rick (April 12, 2016). "Sunday final ratings: ‘Once Upon a Time,’ ‘Simpsons,’ ‘Quantico’ adjust up; ‘Carmichael’ and ‘Crowded’ adjust down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
16. Porter, Rick (April 19, 2016). "Sunday final ratings: ‘Once Upon a Time,’ ‘The Good Wife’ adjust up; ‘Little Big Shots’ and ‘Crowded’ adjust down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
17. Porter, Rick (April 26, 2016). "Sunday final ratings: ‘Once Upon a Time,’ ‘Simpsons’ and all others hold". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
18. "BORDERTOWN 05/08/16 7:00pm | FOX Broadcasting Company". Fox.com. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
19. "BORDERTOWN 05/15/16 7:00pm | FOX Broadcasting Company". Fox.com. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
20. "BORDERTOWN 05/22/16 7:00pm | FOX Broadcasting Company". Fox.com. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
21. Amidi, Amid (2013-11-11). "Fox Picks Up Seth MacFarlane-Produced Series "Bordertown"". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved 2014-06-22.
22. Cavna, Michael (2013-11-14). "‘BORDERTOWN’: Lalo Alcaraz on joining Seth MacFarlane’s new Fox immigration comedy". The Washington Post.
23. Hibberd, James (November 10, 2015). "Fox midseason schedule: Sleepy Hollow moves to Fridays". Entertainment Weekly.
24. "Bordertown; ITV2". February 18, 2016. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
25. Knox, David (19 November 2015). "Ten Upfronts 2016: Survivor, Jessica Marais, Anh Do and Nigella!". TV Tonight. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
26. "Watch Bordertown Online - See New TV Episodes Online Free | City vancouver Vancouver". Citytv.com. Retrieved 2016-02-10.
27. Bordertown at Metacritic
28. Bordertown at Rotten Tomatoes

External links

• Official website
• Bordertown at the Internet Movie Database
• Bordertown at TV.com
• No Walls Here: Lalo Alcaraz Discusses the New Fox Animated Series, Bordertown (The Huffington Post, December 29, 2015, interview by Daniel Olivas)