NR, 2009
WISE Score
Avg. Tomatometer
A Kelsey Grammer sitcom that lost its audience even faster than its protagonist lost his fortune.
11%
11%View →Look, Kelsey Grammer is a legend, but even legends strike out. Hank is a relic from the 2009 sitcom graveyard that barely lasted a month on air for a reason. It’s a standard riches-to-rags story that forgets to be funny or particularly insightful.
If you're looking for a family watch, this isn't it. It’s outdated, the writing is stiff, and because it was axed mid-season, you’re basically watching a bridge to nowhere. Your time is better spent on almost anything else in the Grammer catalog.
Technically safe for anyone over 10, but the subject matter—corporate downsizing and middle-aged identity crises—is a total snooze-fest for kids.
The premise centers on a workaholic dad finally spending time with his family, which is a net positive, but the execution relies on the standard 'arrogant guy humbled' tropes of 2000s network TV.
It’s a textbook multi-cam sitcom with zero interest in breaking the mold. The 'rich guy loses everything' setup was already a cliché in 2009.
Standard ABC network sitcom fare. You'll find mild suggestive humor and corporate-world snark, but nothing that would shock a middle-schooler.
While it tries to say something about family being more important than a paycheck, the show was so poorly received and short-lived that it never actually develops these themes.
In the fall of 2009, ABC thought they had a sure hit by pairing the legendary Kelsey Grammer with a premise tailored for the Great Recession. The result was Hank, a show about a high-flying CEO who gets ousted and forced to move his family back to his small hometown in Virginia. On paper, it’s a classic fish-out-of-water redemption story. In practice, it was a disaster.
The problem isn't Grammer; he does exactly what he’s paid to do, playing the pompous-but-lovable lead with his signature mid-Atlantic flair. The problem is the writing. It’s a multi-cam setup that feels like it was written in 1994, but without the wit. The jokes about 'poor people' and corporate greed land with a thud, especially considering how many real families were actually struggling when this aired.
Critics were brutal, and the audience wasn't much kinder. The show holds a dismal 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was so poorly received that ABC pulled it from the schedule after only five episodes aired, leaving the remaining produced episodes to rot in a vault. For a parent in 2026, there is zero reason to dig this up.
If you want to show your kids a story about a family rebuilding their lives after a fall from grace, watch Schitt's Creek (for older teens) or literally anything else. Hank is a fascinating study in what happens when a big star meets a bad script, but as actual entertainment, it's a hard pass.
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