General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Harper House

The Harper House is an American adult animated sitcom created by Brad Neely for Paramount+, following Debbie Harper, an overconfident mother who moves her family from the rich side to the poor side of a small Arkansas town after losing her job, settling into their inherited Victorian fixer-upper, the historic Harper House.¹ The ten-episode series premiered on September 16, 2021 and was canceled about two months later, after its season finale aired on November 4, 2021.²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Creator	Brad Neely, executive producing with Katie Krentz⁴
Order and premiere	Ordered by CBS All Access on January 12, 2020; premiered on Paramount+ on September 16, 2021⁴^•²
Run	10 episodes of about 24 minutes, September 16 to November 4, 2021; canceled after one season³^•⁵
Harper family voices	Rhea Seehorn (Debbie), Jason Lee (Freddie), Tatiana Maslany (Ollie), Ryan Flynn (Todd)⁶
Production	CBS Eye Animation Productions in association with 219 Productions; animation by Titmouse¹
Reception	Season 1 Tomatometer 40% from 4 reviews; IMDb user rating 5.5⁷^•⁸

Spoilers

Premise and characters

After Debbie Harper is let go from her high-paying job, she, her husband Freddie, and their eleven-year-old twins Todd and Ollie move into a Victorian fixer-upper on the poorer side of their Arkansas town and try to regain their former status.¹^•⁹ The character descriptions released by CBS All Access set up the household's dynamics: Debbie is the breadwinner who takes pride in being the queen of her home; Freddie is a fretful, stay-at-home helicopter dad and neurotic control freak who runs the home while his wife makes the money; Ollie is an extroverted, free-spirited and gullible daughter; and Todd is a smart-ass, intellectual son with a mean potty mouth who excels at school.⁶

The supporting cast centers on the Bradleys, the family across the street: Gabourey Sidibe voices Shauna Bradley, a cunning and resourceful classmate of the twins whose confidence can intimidate even adults; Nyima Funk voices her mother Katrina, co-owner of Bradleys' Bookshop; and Gary Anthony Williams voices her father Gbenge, the family patriarch whom Freddie tries desperately to befriend.⁶ Other recurring voices include VyVy Nguyen as Gwen Dang, Lance Krall as JimJoe Dang, Roberta Colindrez as Tonya Acosta, Tessa Skara as Brenna, John "Spud" McConnell as Daddie Dan, Chris Diamantopoulos as Dr. Morocco, and Joanna Hausmann as Ms. Gonzalez.⁵

Production

CBS All Access ordered the series on January 12, 2020, announced by Julie McNamara, the service's Executive Vice President of Original Content, at its Television Critics Association presentation, with production by CBS Television Studios in association with 219 Productions.⁴ The voice cast was announced on October 15, 2020.⁶ By the time of the premiere, the series was produced by CBS Eye Animation Productions, CBS Studios' new animation arm, and Titmouse, the Emmy Award-winning studio behind Big Mouth, served as the animation studio.¹ Episode directors included Scott Bern, Chuck Sheetz, Liza Singer, and Sarah Seember Huisken, with Brian Sheesley as supervising director.⁹^•²

Personal origins. Neely, previously the creator of Adult Swim's China, IL and a producer on South Park, said he had wanted for over a decade to make his own version of a "female Homer," a counterpart to the head of The Simpsons family, and that the series draws on his own upbringing in Arkansas.¹⁰ In an interview with the review site Bubbleblabber, he said the premise had been in development for five years and that he made the ten episodes as a set, with the first half settling the viewer in and the back half getting "a little crazier."¹¹ The series was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Neely working from a home office in his laundry room.¹⁰

Release and cancellation

Paramount+ released teaser art and a trailer on June 15, 2021, and the official trailer and key art with the September 16 premiere date during a Comic-Con@Home panel on July 23, 2021.¹^•² The first three episodes aired on September 16, 2021, with subsequent episodes weekly through the finale, "Bad Help," on November 4, 2021.⁵ On November 11, 2021, a week after the finale, Neely announced the cancellation on social media, writing, "The Harper House is canceled. I'll always appreciate the show's resilient crew and cast that came together during an unprecedented breakdown of normal life to make this family with me."³ The series was later removed from Paramount+ as part of a broader purge of content announced in early 2023, and as of recent listings it is available only for digital purchase, for example on the Apple TV Store and Fandango At Home.¹²^•⁸

Reception

Professional reviews were limited and mixed. Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 40% Tomatometer for season 1 from four reviews, with an audience average of 40% from fewer than 50 ratings.⁷ Metacritic listed two critic reviews: Decider's John Serba scored it 70, writing that the show "has plenty of curb appeal" and was "funny enough to warrant taking in a few more episodes," while Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter scored it 60, noting episodes that waffle between random humor, feel-good earnestness, and light satire before settling into a quirky-sweet groove in the vein of Schitt's Creek or Bob's Burgers.¹³ On IMDb, the series holds a user rating of 5.5.⁸

Content ratings differ across databases: Rotten Tomatoes and Apple TV list the series as TV-MA, while JustWatch and Metacritic list it as TV-14.⁷^•¹⁴^•⁸

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Animated television series (individual series) › Adult animated comedy series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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