Season Review: Bob’s Burgers Season Nine

That’s a wrap on season nine.  Let’s get ready for the milestone season ten and a movie!

Bob’s Burgers may be one of the most underrated animated sitcoms out there today.  Not that it doesn’t have its following, or earns millions of viewers.  It is that the series from the beginning has been tied together with Fox’s other adult animated line-up.  Airing after The Simpsons has given Loren Bouchard’s show an opportunity that many other programs would die for.  But, in that same vein, Bob’s Burgers has forever been connected to the popularity of Fox’s Sunday nights.  Where The Simpsons is a mainstay and Family Guy is its off-kilter little brother, Bob’s Burgers is a different story, with different style and humour.  It would be interesting to see how successful the show would have been standing on its own on a different night or a different network.  Regardless, the outstanding series has solidified its place in animation history as it is preparing for a tenth season in the fall.

Unlike its Fox sister shows, Bob’s Burgers viewership has hardly ever reached a viewership of tens of millions.  Things were different in the nineties, and people were watching a lot more cable cartoons then.  However, the series has managed to sustain a stable following throughout its nine-year run.  In fact, the show has even seen a slight increase in viewers over the last couple of seasons, which is saying a lot considering it often goes up against juggernauts like Game of Thrones and Walking Dead.  Next year the series will once again be changing timeslots which could be a positive or negative, but the whole Sunday night line-up is being bolstered with two new animated shows.  So, next years viewer stats will be interesting, to say the least.

One of the things that has always stood out about Bob’s Burgers is the Belcher children, and how they come off as more capable and competent than their parents.  In other sitcoms, the kids are more often than not treated as side characters, where the Belcher children often steal the show.  This season was no different as the kids were off to their typical schemes and plans.  They manage to save a blob of plankton in “What About Blob?”.  In “The Gene Mile” the kids devise a plan to get ice cream instead of attending gym class.  The kids successfully defend their sledding hill from teenagers in “Better Off Sled”.  Louise even ends up being principal for the day in “The Fresh Princ-ipal”.  It seems there skills are only getting stronger as the years go on, there’s nothing the Belcher kids cannot accomplish.

Holiday episodes are also a big part of the show.  This year they managed to pull off one of the best Thanksgiving episodes you have ever seen.  “I Bob Your Pardon” features the whole family trying to save a turkey from the slaughterhouse, but with unexpected twists involving the media and politics.  We may just have to watch this episode every turkey season.  And, the shows long tradition of knocking a Halloween episode out-of-the-park continues in season nine as the kids have to find who has been stealing all of the Halloween candy in “Nightmare on Ocean Avenue”.

Of course, what would the show be without its long list of guest stars?  Bob’s Burgers is loaded with talent to begin with, and bringing in some of the best comedians to help them along makes the show even that much better.  This year we saw reprisals from what seems like everybody including Sarah Silverman, Laura Silverman, Jenny Slate, Aziz Ansari, and the legendary Tim Meadows.  Damon Wayans Jr., Nick Offerman, and Will Forte all added their talents this year as well making season nine one of the most star-studded years, we have seen yet.

Come the fall, Bob’s Burgers is reaching the milestone of its tenth season.  This might pale in comparison to The Simpsons 30+ years, but it is rare for any show to accomplish the ten-year mark.  Things may look different for the series next year with a new timeslot, Disney syndication, and new animated shows to compete with, but there is no reason why those viewership numbers should not continue to climb.  Especially if the show can find new fans should it arrive on the new streaming service Disney+ and the upcoming full-length movie expected to come out in 2020.  There is a lot to be excited about, and if the show can continue to knock out brilliant episodes like it did this year, we could be looking at another ten years of this little burger shack on Sunday nights.