American Auto, a TV sitcom that airs on NBC, was renewed for a second season some time ago. With the second season currently airing, lead actress Ana Gasteyer appeared eager about the idea of General Motors CEO Mary Barra making a guest appearance.
“I keep pitching that we find a story line to actually have her on the show,” Gasteyer said to Detroit Free Press. “The reason being that my character is truly an outsider to the automotive business. She doesn’t know a thing about cars. She comes from pharma. She’s definitely of the management style that is not about the product but about the marketing.”
Essentially, Barra would serve as a foil to a character like Gasteyer’s.
As a reminder, American Auto follows the story of the fictional Payne Motors, a struggling Detroit-based car company loosely inspired by GM, and its CEO Katherine Hastings. Justin Spitzer, the writer and executive producer of the hugely popular NBC comedy Superstore, serves as the lead writer for American Auto, while Aaron Kaplan, known for his hit American Housewife series on ABC, is the executive producer. The second season of the show began airing just a few days ago.
The first season of American Auto was a hit among critics, and garnered 24 million people across all streaming platforms. The highest-rated episode in the ten-episode first season, titled ‘Commercial’, received a score of 8 stars out of ten. The synopsis for this episode says it follows Katherine and the team as they “re-shoot a commercial to make it more inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community.” The Pilot was the lowest-rated episode in season one at 6.4 stars out of ten.
American Auto is produced by Universal Television in association with Justin Spitzer’s Spitzer Holding Company and Kapital Entertainment. The second season of the show will include a 13-episode run, making it longer than the 10-episode opening season.
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Comments
Having real auto executives as guest stars is a great idea. Elon Musk can be next. And someone from Ford, too.
Fun show. I’d like to see Mary Barra on it. No interest in seeing Elon.
Mary is a great actor.
Someone should do a similar show about all the bullsheet that goes on in Hollywood. Kids molested, women exploited, pandering to minorities by homophobic racist Neanderthals, people’s careers destroyed not because of talent but because they don’t conform. It makes the American auto industry seem more like Girl Scouts.
But as long as they’re pointing fingers elsewhere and giving people who hate American business’ justification for doing so, people lap it up like arsenic-laced FlavorAid.
How about Korean Auto, showing the CEOs masking defective engines, dodging recalls, bribing officials, using child labor.
But that’s not as hip as making fun of Americans.
Mary Barra and many others appearing in “American Auto” or other shows in a Cameo or periodic regular acting stint would be enjoyable for the audiences and maybe the country. We need some fun here and there with some very important people so maybe some of the bad attitudes can melo. Life is short and for some very, very short so a smile or laugh about nothing might help and at the least make life more palatable.