Selfie Information

Selfie is an American romantic comedy series starring Karen Gillan and John Cho. The program, which was created and executive produced by Emily Kapnek for Warner Bros. Television, 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 August 20, 2014. Selfie was canceled by ABC on November 7, 2014.

On November 13, 2014 it was announced that ABC would pull the remaining episodes of Selfie and replace them with encore episodes of Shark Tank and holiday specials. On November 25, 2014 the first of the remaining episodes was released online on Hulu, with the rest to follow on a weekly basis.

Overview

The series follows the life of Eliza Dooley, a woman obsessed with the idea of achieving fame through the use of social media platforms, including Instagram where she posts selfies. She begins to worry that "friending" people online is not a substitute for real friendship, and she seeks help from 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 succeeding all too well; an eventual romantic relationship between the two is hinted at, but never shown.

Cast and characters

Regular cast

• Karen Gillan as Eliza Dooley (based on Eliza Doolittle)
• John Cho as Henry Higgs (based on Henry Higgins)
• Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Charmonique Whitaker
• Allyn Rachel as Bryn
• David Harewood as Sam Saperstein, chairman of KinderKare Pharmaceuticals

Recurring cast

• Samm Levine as Terrance, married to Maureen Saperstein and son-in-law of Sam and Yazmin Saperstein
• Brian Huskey as Larry, fellow KinderKare Pharmaceuticals employee
• Giacomo Gianniotti as Freddy (Based on Freddy Eynsford-Hill)
• Matthew Cardarople as Charlie, Henry's assistant
• Jennifer Hasty as Joan, fellow KinderKare Pharmaceuticals employee
• Hayley Marie Norman as Maureen Saperstein, married to Terrance, 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
• Allison Miller as Julia Howser, a pediatric urologist that Henry dated

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	Production code	U.S. viewers (millions)
Viewers = 5.31	ShortSummary = Eliza Dooley, a narcissistic pharmaceutical sales representative who finds herself attracted to social media, experiences travel sickness while aboard a business plane after finding out that the man she slept with often was married. Also aboard the plane is Henry Higgs, a successful marketing rep, who expresses his extreme dislike for social media and those who use it constantly. After being the subject of humiliation when her sickness bags explode over her, she decides to seek help from Henry Higgs after discovering that her social media popularity does not translate into offline friendships. He begins by getting Eliza to ask people how they are, instead of just talking about how she is, and to make pleasant conversation. When Henry invites Eliza to his boss' daughter's wedding, she requests the help of her nerdy neighbour, Bryn, to find something suitable to wear. However, after the wedding, where Eliza uses her phone to play games, the two of them argue. Eliza calls Henry a anti-social, judgmental, critical workaholic, and Henry calls Eliza a lost cause. Eliza share a conversation with receptionist Charmonique about something other than herself, and Charmonique compliments her, stating that whatever she was doing with Henry was working. Afterwards, Eliza finds Henry at his house, and apologizes for her earlier remarks and actions, and the two become friends again.	LineColor = 1cffa8 }}	Viewers = 3.77	ShortSummary = Eliza explains the use of social media to Henry. After finding her flirting with Freddy, another employee, Henry forces Eliza to think about how she is perceived in the office. After observing the key points of her relationship with Freddy, she comes to realize that she is a no more than a booty call. Taking advice from one another, Eliza attempts to obtain a hobby other than casual sex, while Henry creates a Facebook account. Henry finds that social media is addicting, and Eliza needs help getting Freddy to think about her more seriously. Eliza decides to take on a club, so she decides to join in on her book club, though she is quickly found out as not having read the book. Meanwhile, after being warned not to by Eliza, Henry starts to look in on his ex-girlfriends on Facebook. He then visits one at her house to apologize for tagging himself in her photo as her baby. After deciding that having sex with Freddy would give her the strength to not have sex with Freddy again, Eliza gets hit by a car and falls down a manhole, before getting admitted to a hospital. Henry checks in on Eliza, and so does Freddy, but instead of it being a booty call, Freddy simply wants to make sure that if she needs a lift or help, he's there for her.	LineColor = 1cffa8 }}	Viewers = 3.44	ShortSummary = Henry is continuing to try and get Eliza to talk to people instead of using her phone continuously, but his project on her still isn't working. Sam Saperstein orders his employees to work on their interpersonal connectivity, initially by getting them to rate their connection on a scale up to ten with the employee sitting next to them. All goes well, up until Joan, a fellow employee who still has a grudge against her, gives Eliza a zero, though she believes that Eliza's bound to not notice since she's always staring at her phone. This is due to after finding herself extremely hungry, Eliza had eaten Joan's gazpacho. This leads Henry and Eliza to the realization that their most valuable office relationship is with each other, and Henry gives Eliza the job of befriending Joan. Eliza tries be friends with Joan by stalking her Yelp account with the help of Charmonique, and attends one of the dance classes the she attends. Eliza is eventually caught out by Joan about her Yelp-stalking, and admits that she was just trying to get to know her. Meanwhile, Larry attempts to get more close Henry after his wife leaves him, which Henry finds awkwardly frustrating, given that he's not an overly social person.	LineColor = 1cffa8 }}	Viewers = 3.82	ShortSummary = Henry challenges Eliza to help others during the weekend, so she offers to babysit Charmonique's young son, Kevin, while Charmonique is at her high school reunion, in an attempt to reconnect with Mitchell McMoney (Isaiah Mustafa), her high school sweetheart. While babysitting Kevin, Eliza tries one up Fit Brit (Amber Rose), a fellow socialite. Henry tries to come up with a way to improve a chewable vitamin that put KinderKare Pharmaceuticals on the map.	LineColor = 1cffa8 }}	Viewers = 3.67	ShortSummary = Sam Saperstein invites Eliza and Henry to spend the weekend at his Santa Barbara estate. Henry uses the opportunity to get a promotion, while Eliza tries to loosen up the other guests.	LineColor = 1cffa8 }}	Viewers = 3.23	ShortSummary = Seeing how stressed Henry is, Eliza and Charmonique try to liven up his love life. Terrance tries to seek the approval of his father-in-law Sam Saperstein.	LineColor = 1cffa8 }}	Viewers = 3.25	ShortSummary = Henry begins a courtship with Julia, a pediatric urologist, eliciting jealously from Eliza over the decreasing time they share together.	LineColor = 1cffa8 }} (Hulu)	Viewers = N/A	ShortSummary = For Henry's fortieth birthday, Eliza gets him tickets to see his favorite band, which creates friction between her and his girlfriend Julia.	LineColor = 1cffa8 }} (Hulu)	Viewers = N/A	ShortSummary = Eliza realizes that her relationship with Freddy is getting serious, which freaks her out. Meanwhile, Henry tries to convince Bryn to make Sam's favorite sandwich again. After a dinner date with Freddy's parents Eliza realizes that her relationship with Freddy isn't going to work out and ends it, then decides that Henry is her next romantic target.	LineColor = 1cffa8 }} (Hulu)	Viewers = N/A	ShortSummary =	LineColor = 1cffa8 }} (Hulu)	Viewers = N/A	ShortSummary =	LineColor = 1cffa8 }} (Hulu)	Viewers = N/A	ShortSummary =	LineColor = 1cffa8 }} (Hulu)	Viewers = N/A	ShortSummary =	LineColor = 1cffa8 }}

Ratings

No.	Title	Air date	Rating/share (18-49)	Viewers (millions)	DVR (18-49)	DVR Viewers (millions)	Total (18-49)	Total viewers (millions)
1	"Pilot"		1.6/5	5.31
2	"Un-Tag My Heart"		1.1/4	3.77
3	"A Little Yelp From My Friends"		1.0/3	3.44
4	"Nugget of Wisdom"		1.1/4	3.82
5	"Even Hell Has Two Bars"		0.9/3	3.67
6	"Never Block Cookies"		0.9/3	3.23
7	"Here's This Guy"		0.9/3	3.25

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Result
2015	People's Choice Awards	Favorite New TV Comedy

Cancellation

Despite reasonable potential for the series, Selfie had problems attracting an audience. Ratings slipped after the first episode to an undesirable 0.9, and remained stagnant through the season. As a result of this, ABC announced that Selfie would be cancelled unceremoniously on November 7, 2014. On November 19, Kapnek tweeted that all remaining episodes of the series would be released online on Hulu, Hulu Plus, and ABC.com, with official confirmation coming a few days later.