Imaginary Mary is an American live-action/animated fantasysitcom television series created by Adam F. Goldberg, David Guarascio and Patrick Osborne that aired on ABC from March 29 to May 30, 2017.[1] The series is executive produced by the creators and was greenlighted to series order on May 12, 2016.[2] A first-look-trailer was released on the same day.[3] ABC reduced the number of episodes from thirteen to nine on September 28, 2016.[4]
On May 11, 2017, the series was cancelled after one season.[5]
Plot
The series follows Alice when an imaginary friend being from her childhood, named Mary, reappears when she is now a single public relations executive falling in love with a single father of three children. Mary hopes to guide (or misguide) her.
The series was first announced in 2015 as Imaginary Friend which was then changed to Imaginary Gary. In the original pilot, the main characters were both men and the love interest was a single mom.[6] When the series went into development, the genders of the characters were flipped. Elfman filmed her scenes first with a puppet in order for the animators to have a reference point, and then in a later take without anything to show what she was talking to. Dratch did her voice work separately in New York with the scenes already filmed. She said at the TCA press tour, "I have the freedom to go crazy."[7]
In September 2016, it was reported that the show's crew would make changes with the animation for the character, Mary, after it received a poor reception from ABC.[8] ABC then reduced the original thirteen-episode order for the first season to nine episodes in order to allow the show's crew to make changes with the animation.[8]
Alice falls in love with a divorced dad but she then learns that he has 3 kids. Alice becomes consumed by her fears and contemplates giving up until her old childhood imaginary friend, Mary, comes back.
Alice learns the emotional highs and lows of being a parent when Andy considers auditioning for the school musical; Dora creates her own feminist musical.
Andy has a hard time finding a prom date while Dora keeps turning away a guy who persistently asks her, but Alice tries to convince her to go. Meanwhile, Ben struggles to deal with kids growing up and tries to scare away Dora's date.
After a hesitant Alice meets Ben's friends, Alice wants to meet Ben's friends, but Ben is hesitant. Later: he makes a startling admission after devising a plan to impress her.
Alice faces the dilemma of whether she should play the role of parent or friend as she tries to connect with Dora; Ben wants Alice to be his personal mole; Bunny infiltrates the one place Andy feels cool.
When Ben's ex-wife says she doesn't believe Alice is a good influence on the kids, Alice goes out of her way to prove her wrong; Andy and Dora fake being sick at school.
When Ben and Alice get engaged, Mary disappears, as Alice apparently no longer needs her. However, when Ben begins discussing the realities of marriage, such as living together and possibly having more children, Mary reappears to help Alice cope.
Alice is ready to sleep over at Ben's when his kids are in the house, but Ben worries the nightly rituals will put her off; when Alice gets rattled, she gets Mary's help in an attempt to fix the situation.
Reception
Critical response
The series received a generally negative response from critics. On review aggregator site Metacritic, Imaginary Mary has a score of 39 out of 100 based on 13 critics indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[18] On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has a 27% approval rating, based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The site's critical consensus: "Imaginary Mary's appealing cast is canceled out by uninspired material and a ridiculous premise whose deficiencies are compounded by an unfunny, ill-advised CGI creature."[19]
Ratings
Viewership and ratings per episode of Imaginary Mary
