Selfie is an American television sitcom starring Karen Gillan and John Cho. Created and executive produced by Emily Kapnek for Warner Bros. Television, the series debuted on ABC during the 2014–15 television season. The series premiered on September 30, 2014. The pilot was made available early through video on demand and online streaming media on Twitter on August 20, 2014.
The show was canceled mid-season by ABC on November 7, 2014. On November 13, after broadcasting the seventh episode, ABC announced that they would pull the remaining episodes of Selfie and replace them with encore episodes of Shark Tank and Thanksgiving/Christmas specials.
On November 25, 2014, the first of the remaining six episodes was released online on Hulu and WatchABC.com. The rest followed on a weekly basis, with the last episode airing on December 30, 2014.
Despite being a short-lived series, critics later showed interest in Selfie as more episodes were released. There were also many supporters for the fan campaign to bring back the show. TV Guide called Selfie the "Best Turnaround" series of the decade. The series gained popularity in China on social media in the early 2020s. Selfie was considered for a movie revival, but the project did not move forward after Warner Bros. declined to sell the film rights.
Premise The series follows the life of Eliza Dooley, a sales representative at KinderKare Pharmaceuticals. She is obsessed with the idea of achieving fame through the use of social media platforms, including Instagram and Twitter, where she regularly posts selfies. She begins to worry that "friending" people online is not a substitute for real friendship, and she seeks help from co-worker Henry Higgs, a marketing image guru.
The character names are a reference to Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins, the main characters of the 1912 George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion, further popularized by the 1956 musical My Fair Lady. In the play and musical, Henry is tasked with improving Eliza's social status, and ends up falling in love with his own creation. The Shaw play is in turn inspired by a story from Greek mythology, that of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had created. The series featured modern social problems and music.
Cast and characters
Main Karen Gillan as Eliza Dooley John Cho as Henry Higgs Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Charmonique Whitaker Allyn Rachel as Bryn, Eliza's nerdy neighbor David Harewood as Sam Saperstein, chairman of KinderKare Pharmaceuticals
Recurring Giacomo Gianniotti as Freddy (based on Freddy Eynsford-Hill), Eliza's boyfriend and a lawyer at KinderKare Pharmaceuticals Allison Miller as Julia Howser, a pediatric urologist that Henry dated Samm Levine as Terrence, a KinderKare office floater (later promoted to customer service) who marries Sam's daughter Maureen in the pilot episode, becoming the son-in-law of Sam and Yazmin Saperstein Brian Huskey as Larry, a lab technician at KinderKare Pharmaceuticals Matty Cardarople as Charlie, Henry's assistant Jennifer Hasty as Joan, fellow KinderKare Pharmaceuticals employee and Saperstein's secretary Patti Troisi as Linda, another KinderKare employee Nikhil Pai as Raj, KinderKare's new Human Resources employee Hayley Marie Norman as Maureen Saperstein, married to Terrence, daughter of Sam and Yazmin Saperstein Natasha Henstridge as Yazmin Saperstein, the wife of Sam Saperstein, mother of Maureen and mother-in-law of Terrence Kelsey Ford as Prue, Bryn's friend and member of the book club Colleen Smith as Wren, Bryn's friend and member of the book club Amanda Jane Cooper as Eyelet, Bryn's friend and member of the book club Sapir Azulay as Thistle, Bryn's friend and member of the book club Keith L. Williams as Kevin, Charmonique's son Tim Peper as Ethan, Henry's friend at KinderKare. Ethan appeared in the pilot episode, and was in promotional images with the main cast, but left the show after that
Episodes
Ratings
Release
Broadcast Selfie released the pilot episode early on Twitter on August 20, 2014. The show officially premiered on September 30, 2014, Tuesday, at 8:00PM PST on the ABC Network. It was up against competition in the same time slot with NCIS (season 12) on CBS, The Voice (season 7) on NBC, and The Flash on The CW, and Utopia on FOX, which later changed programming to MasterChef Junior (season 2). The first 7 episodes aired on ABC and after its cancellation, the remaining 6 episodes aired on Hulu.
Four episodes were aired out of order by the ABC network. The second and third episodes, "Un-Tag My Heart" and "A Little Yelp From My Friends," were switched along with the fifth and sixth episodes, "Even Hell Has Two Bars" and "Never Block Cookies." The original order is shown in the production codes and on the writers' whiteboard.
International broadcast Warner Channel in Latin America aired Selfie on October 4, 2014. Warner TV Asia in some Southeast Asian countries aired the show on December 3, 2014. The series was also shown in South Africa on Vuzu Amp on January 15, 2015 and later on Vuzu on April 29, 2015. Kanal 5 premiered the series in Sweden on May 22, 2015. It was introduced on RTÉ2, television channel in Ireland on June 15, 2015. On July 6, 2015, the show aired on the ETC channel in the Philippines. In South Asia, Selfie was broadcast in India on November 8, 2015 on Zee Café, a premium channel. The series premiered in Australia on streaming platform Stan in 2015. The series began on TV2 in New Zealand on August 30, 2015. In Poland, the show appeared on Comedy Central Family Poland on August 25, 2016.
Home media For a limited time, Selfie streamed on the ABC website and Hulu. It was on Hulu from November 25, 2014 to May 2015 and returned on May 1, 2016 until April 30, 2019. No official DVD or Blu-ray was made. Currently, Warner Brothers Television has not released Selfie on any streaming platforms.
Production
Development On October 8, 2013, ABC gave a put pilot commitment to Selfie, which was described as a comedy inspired by Pygmalion and My Fair Lady. The pilot was later picked up on January 30, 2014. On May 8, 2014, it was ordered to series.
Originally, the series started as an attempt to create a romantic comedy. Emily Kapnek explained, “We kind of came into the 'Pygmalion' element from behind.” She continued, "We started off talking about relationships, shows and potentially romantic comedies, and what the modern obstacles are. The presence of the ever-present phone and laptop and tablets at dinner tables and bedrooms and every sort of occasion… We learned that there was inherently a Pygmalion aspect, and we embraced it.”
Casting It was reported on February 18, 2014 that Karen Gillan would star as Eliza Dooley. On February 24, 2014, Tim Peper and Da’Vine Joy Randolph were cast for the pilot. Allyn Rachel joined the show on February 24, 2014. David Harewood was added to the cast as Sam Saperstein on March 6, 2014. John Cho was announced as the male lead for Henry Higgs on March 13, 2014.
The producers initially intended to cast Henry Higgs as a white Englishman who was several generations older modeling after the original character. The casting process was very extensive. The creator, Emily Kapnek said, "We looked at tons of different actors, and really once we kind of opened our minds and said let’s get off of what we think Henry is supposed to be and just talk about who is, we just need a brilliant actor—and John [Cho]’s name came up." She also mentioned that the ABC network was the first to suggest color-blind casting. At the time, Keli Lee was the Executive Vice President of Talent and Casting at ABC who brought Cho to the table. Julie Anne Robinson, one of the directors and executive producers who later worked on Bridgerton, advocated casting Cho and had to persuade "top to bottom of everybody in that chain" that he was the perfect choice for the role, which took a long time to consider. Robinson fought for Cho and won, saying, "That's what I'm most proud of about that whole pilot." Asians are often under-represented on American TV and it is very rare to see Asian males as romantic leads. Cho became the first Asian American man to play a romantic lead on a U.S. romantic comedy television series.
Humphrey Ker was one of the final candidates considered for the role of Henry.
Keli Lee also found David Harewood for the character Sam Saperstein, which was originally written as a white Jewish man, but Harewood gave a brilliant and funny performance.
Filming Since Karen Gillan was filming Guardians of the Galaxy at the time, she had to shave her head for the role of Nebula and then wear a wig as Eliza on Selfie. In the pilot, she wore a generic wig for most of the first episode, then later switched to a personal wig that was made from her real hair after the character's makeunder scene and for the rest of the show. Her personal wig was made by the same costume department that worked on Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Emily Kapnek decided that Gillan, who is Scottish, should portray Eliza as an American, which Kapnek felt was appropriate for the series. She explained, "It’s a very different story when you tell the story of a Scottish girl shunned by her coworkers. It obviously takes on an entirely different meaning. It was important to the material that she be American."
In the sixth episode, "Never Block Cookies" written by Brian Rubenstein and aired before the cancellation was announced, the writer described the behind the scenes with Gillan and Cho's characters, Eliza and Henry, having an intimate moment, which lead to an almost kiss. Rubenstein said that he remembered that moment in particular: “Emily [Kapnek] came down and was sort of orchestrating how that whole thing would go. Just the chemistry between those two was really cool to watch; it felt that way on set.”
Costume design Costume designer Danielle Launzel described her work on Selfie, "We sometimes have up to 60 costume changes for all of the characters in one episode. That means there will be a lot of shopping and fittings to do over a five day period."
Launzel also collaborated with the actors in order to find the right look for their story each week to ensure that the wardrobe she choose is an extension of the show's story. Launzel commented, “By the time an actor has a fitting, I have already read the next episode and figured out how many changes their character has and what they are doing in the scenes that might affect their clothes. During the fitting the actor and I will work together to decide what they should wear for all of his or her 'story' days."
Promotion There were advertisement posters and a billboard promoting the show. The cast and crew had interviews and joined the Television Critics Association press tour. Cho and Gillan both appeared on Good Morning America, The View, and separately on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Cho also appeared on The Queen Latifah Show. A video tag was created to encourage other social media personalities to participate. The studio created character social media profiles for Eliza Dooley under the handle @The_Doolio on Twitter and Instagram to promote the show and encourage fan engagement. Additionally, the cast and crew would also live tweet when episodes air.
Post-airing After the show was canceled, a fan campaign was created and the remaining six filmed episodes of Selfie were released on the ABC website and Hulu on November 25, 2014 until May 2015. The series was originally intended to have a full first season with 26 episodes in total. One of the writers, Brian Rubenstein, mentioned to The A.V. Club in 2017, "I know we had a plan for what the next 13 [episodes] was going to be for their story, but I can’t for the life of me think of it right now!"