| United States of Tara | |
|---|---|
United States of Tara promotional poster |
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| Genre | Serial drama[1] Comedy-drama |
| Created by | Diablo Cody |
| Starring | Toni Collette Rosemarie DeWitt John Corbett Brie Larson Keir Gilchrist |
| Theme music composer | Tim DeLaughter |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 36 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Steven Spielberg Diablo Cody Alexa Junge (season 1) Jill Soloway (season 2-3) Darryl Frank Justin Falvey Eduardo Peixoto Craig Zisk (season 2-3) |
| Producer(s) | Dan Kaplow |
| Location(s) | Overland Park, Kansas (setting) Los Angeles, California (actual filming location) |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | approx. 30 min. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Showtime |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Audio format | Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound |
| Original run | January 18, 2009 – June 20, 2011 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
United States of Tara is an American television comedy-drama created by Diablo Cody, which began airing on Showtime in 2009. The series follows the life of Tara (Toni Collette), a suburban housewife and mother coping with dissociative identity disorder.
The series was based on an idea by Steven Spielberg who is the executive producer, under his DreamWorks Television label. Other executive producers include writers Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, Eduardo Peixoto, director Craig Zisk, and showrunners Cody and Jill Soloway. Former executive producer Alexa Junge quit as showrunner after the first season.
Principal photography takes place in Los Angeles, California, while the show's setting is located in Overland Park, Kansas. Collette won the 2009 Primetime Emmy Award and 2010 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her role; the opening title sequence also won an Emmy. The show's third season premiered on March 28, 2011.[2]
On May 23, 2011, Showtime announced that the series would not be renewed for a fourth season[3], and the series finale aired on June 20, 2011.[4]
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Tara Gregson is a wife and mother of two children in the suburbs of Kansas City who has been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder (DID). Whenever she is stressed, she transitions into one of her alternate personalities: wild and flirty teenager T; 1950s housewife Alice; and male, loud, beer-drinking Vietnam vet Buck. A fourth personality, Gimme, is introduced later in the first season. During the second season of the series, two further personalities were introduced. The former, called Shoshana, is Tara's "therapist" of sorts, while the sixth personality's name is Chicken, an infantile representation of Tara when she was 5 years old. Another personality emerges in Season 3; that of Tara's previously unknown half-brother Bryce. Tara is supported by her husband Max, daughter Kate, and son Marshall. Her sister, Charmaine, is somewhat promiscuous and not very supportive of Tara, as she often expresses doubts about the validity of her sister's disorder. The show is set in Overland Park, Kansas.
The series premiered on the US network Showtime at 10 p.m. on January 18, 2009, premiering before the second season of ITV's Secret Diary of a Call Girl. The season aired 12 episodes.
In late December 2008, Showtime offered free viewing on its website for the pilot of United States of Tara.
Customers of cable and satellite services that offer On Demand who subscribe to Showtime got the episode one week early via On Demand during Season 1. This was not the case for Season 2.
On May 23, 2011 Showtime cancelled United States Of Tara.
Initial critical response to the show was positive, with many reviewers praising Collette's acting. According to Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the show's first season holds a score of 67 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews", based on 24 reviews.[5] Variety magazine was the first to review it and gave it a very positive review.
| DVD Name | Release Date | Ep # | Additional Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| The First Season | 12 |
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| The Second Season |
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12 |
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| The Third Season |
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12 |
Episodes 1 and 2 were also available as bonus features on DVD disc 4 (of 4) of Dexter, Season 3; and on disc 4 (of 4) of The Tudors, Season 3.
On February 10, 2009, after only four episodes had aired, Showtime Networks president of entertainment Robert Greenblatt announced that United States of Tara would be renewed for a second season, to consist of twelve episodes and air in early 2010. He said the early renewal decision came after the show averaged 2.67 million viewers per week, giving the network its highest ratings since 2004, when Nielsen Media Research began counting original shows on premium channels in its primetime ratings.[9] Season two premiered on March 22, 2010.[10]
On March 25, three days after the season 2 premiere, it was announced that it would be picked up for a third season which aired in spring 2011.[11] Season 3 officially premiered on March 28, 2011.[2]
On May 23, 2011, it was announced that the series would not be renewed for a fourth season.[3]
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