Observers

Observers is an Martonian television sitcom by Dominic MacGregor which aired on NBN from September 20, 2002 to May 18, 2012. The series depicts the everyday lives of Stuart Eastman (Simon Pearson) and Spencer Stanton (Dorian Emerson), two dissimilar best friends who share an apartment in Southboro, Bancroft. It consists almost entirely of, and the main characters' thoughts provide insight for episodes.

MacGregor pitched the show in late 2000 under the I Sight. Later during the development phase, the title was changed to Eyeballing and finally Observers. He describes the show as exploring, , and by "distinctly unconventional means" that are "realistically cringe-inducing". Other recurring topics include, , and. The series was produced by MacGregor Company in association with NBN Studios.

Since its premiere, Observers has widely been regarded as one of the greatest television shows of the 21st century and one of the best Martonian shows of all time, though its strong language and sexual content garnered much controversy. The series' pilot episode peaked at 34.3 million viewers, making it the highest-rated series premiere in NBN's history. The show's most watched episode over all is the final episode, "Finale", which peaked at 50.8 million. The show has won ten MFTA Awards, the most wins for any single series, as well as five Scorpio Awards. In 2015, it was ranked no. 1 on Studiosity's annual list of the Top 25 Greatest Scripted Shows of All Time, and maintained that position until 2022. In 2020, it was ranked no. 3 on Newsvision's Martie TV Top 10 list.

Premise
Observers follows Stuart Eastman (Simon Pearson) and Spencer Stanton (Dorian Emerson), two extremely dissimilar best friends who share an apartment at the fictional Empire Towers complex in Southboro, Bancroft. Stuart is a law firm receptionist who is socially awkward but likeable and responsible, though he struggles with anger issues. Spencer, on the other hand, is an aspiring musician and refuses to get any other job, though he later works an overpaying bartending job at a bar and is offered a deal with an independent record label in the final season. Supporting characters include Stuart's coworker Jenna Muir (Francine Fontaine), Spencer's "second best" friend Lenny Chase (Steven Crisper), Stuart's boss George Langston (Kenneth Marsden), Jenna's best friend Marina Harrison (Louise Jackson), Spencer's childhood friend Gloria Chen (Marcie Braden), and Jenna's (ex-)boyfriend Miguel Mendoza (Luciano Fabiano).

Episodes usually focus on how different the protagonists' personalities and lifestyles are from one another's. Their dissimilar qualities and characteristics are often a source of the series' comedy. One prominent and solidifying example is the characters' romantic pursuits. Stuart often focuses on trying to woo one girl at a time—first Jenna and then Maria, and he eventually enters a committed relationship with the latter. Spencer, on the other hand, has with random women he finds in places such as bars and clubs and in some cases even indulges in polygamy.

Main cast

 * Simon Pearson as Stuart Eastman
 * Dorian Emerson as Spencer Stanton

Supporting cast

 * Francine Fontaine as (seasons 1–2)
 * Steven Crisper as (seasons 1–7; guest season 8)
 * Kenneth Marsden as (seasons 2–8; recurring season 1)
 * Louise Jackson as (seasons 4–6; recurring seasons 2–3)
 * Marcie Braden as (season 7–8; recurring seasons 4–6)
 * Luciano Fabiano as (season 8; guest seasons 1–7)

Season 1
Spencer moves into Stuart's apartment after being kicked out of his parents' house. They start out with the common goal of finding a girlfriend: Stuart loves his coworker Jenna (Francine Fontaine) and wants her to ask her out on a date, while Spencer is willing to date any girl he meets. After a few awkward conversations with his coworker Jenna, Stuart finally asks her to come to dinner with him, and Jenna declines the invitation because she wants to go out with her boyfriend, Miguel (Luciano Fabiano) In the meantime, Spencer focuses on advancing his music career, selling CDs of his tunes by the staircase in their apartment building. Spencer later has a rough one-night stand with fellow would-be musician Felicia (Marissa Xavier) but remains attached after it ends and begins searching around town for her with the assistance of his best friend Lenny (Steven Crisper), who betrays him and dated Felicia. Spencer gets revenge by disguising himself as a pizza delivery driver, "delivering a pizza" to his house, and whacking him unconscious with a softball bat.

Outside the Langston & Associates building one day, Stuart brutally assaults Miguel and threatens to kill Miguel if he ever tells anyone that Stuart was the one who attacked him, which makes Miguel contemplate dumping Jenna. After going back and forth, Miguel decides to break up with Jenna and lies that he is dumping her because he "decided to move on", though it was actually to avoid being killed by Stuart. Stuart continues to flirt with Jenna until she finally agrees to go to dinner with him. Stuart's boss, George Langston (Kenneth Marsden), threatens to fire him if he does not stop flirting with coworkers in the workplace and later tells him that relationships between coworkers never work, which scares Stuart.

Season 2
Lenny invites Stuart and Spencer to a house party thrown by his uncle's best friend, Tony Griffin (Bradford MacLennan). At the party, Spencer gets high on and has sex on the living room floor with Kira (Yuki Matsuda), a young Japanese woman, forcing Tony to shut the party down and kick them out. Later that week, Langston & Associates hires a new, Kendra Kane (Adebisi Lauren), who instantly finds Stuart attractive and tries to entice him, but Stuart refuses her and chooses Jenna instead which drives Kendra crazy. During lunch, Kendra starts screaming at Jenna and attempts to kill her, but George subdues and fires her. Stuart forges a friendship with Marina Harrison (Louise Jackson), his new coworker. Jenna mistakes him for loving her and decides to stop seeing him, which causes Stuart to begin spiraling and vandalizing Jenna's belongings at work, after which he seeks mental help. Spencer finds a new girlfriend, Claire (Christine Lawrence), but finds out she is just using him for sex, dumps her, and instead dates her twin sister, Caroline (also Christine Lawrence). After a few weeks, Caroline threatens to breakup with Spencer if he does not get a job, which causes him to begin searching. She dumps him after he fails to find one, and Spencer enacts revenge by spray painting a on her apartment door. Spencer finds out Jenna never dumped Miguel and started cheating on Stuart with him. Spencer tells Stuart, and Stuart ends their relationship. An angry Jenna dumps Miguel, goes on a drinking binge, shows up to work drunk, and quits.

Season 3
Spencer gets a job at Tavern Trevor, a bar in Westboro which he frequents, and finds out the owner, Julian Trevor (David Carl Brown), is actually an alcoholic, and tries to convince him to quit. However, it fails, and Julian only becomes more addicted. Stuart is convinced he is after he meets Julian's attractive son Liam (Michael Jensen) and begins feeling a "hormone rush", and explores his sexuality by  to gay pornography. Much later, Spencer and Kira reunite on a train back to Scotsboro, and argue with each other nefore speedy resolving their problems having casual public sex on the floor. Stuart admits to Liam that he "may or may not" love him; Liam simply says "OK" and gives him a. In that moment, Stuart realizes he forgot George's birthday and gives him a present at work the day after, which leaves him displeased. Spencer considers starting a serious relationship with Kira.

Season 4
Spencer shows up at Kira's apartment door one morning, and two neighbors say she moved away. He has an abrupt but brief psychotic episode before deciding to "move on". He then goes to a house party and has sex with Gloria Chen (Marcie Braden), Stuart's young coworker. Gloria begins talking about it at work the next day, which surprises and confuses Stuart. Later, Marina (Louise Jackson), another one of Stuart's coworkers, takes him to dinner at an upscale Japanese restaurant and spots Yuki at a nearby table. He later informs Spencer, who spirals once again.

A new neighbor named Kristen (Angela Floyd Parker)—who works at Langston & Associates competitor Bennett, Grayson & Thompson (BG&T)—moves into the apartment above Stuart and Spencer. She then begins teasing and enticing Stuart at times she finds opportune. Marina, who already knows she works at BG&T, finds out about this and breaks up with him. Over the course of several episodes, Stuart attempts to convince her that he did not cheat on her, and she is only convinced when Spencer backs Stuart's statement. Then, Lenny mistakenly invites Spencer to a party, and upon discovering what kind of party he is attending, he angrily storms out and tells Lenny, "We're not friends anymore."

Season 5
Lenny falls down a staircase at Empire Towers. He and Spencer reconcile while Lenny is hospitalized with a broken arm. Stuart becomes friends with a fellow receptionist, Arthur (Robert Lindberg), and Spencer is jealous. But later, after talking to Arthur for the first time, Spencer finds out he is a and attempts to warn Stuart, but Stuart refuses to believe. Stuart later asks Arthur if this is true, and he responds with a long monologue describing his racist beliefs in detail. After work that day, Stuart drives to Westboro, breaks into Arthur's house, savagely beats Arthur with a, returns to Langston & Associates, breaks into Arthur's office, and urinates all over Arthur's desk and inside its drawers. He then attempts to clean up the mess, but it does not work out well, and he finds himself seeking help once again.

Julian introduces Spencer to his wife, Melissa (Janice Aubrey), and the two find themselves having an affair. Julian catches wind of it, attacks Spencer, and fires him. Spencer then applied for a job at Casa Crane, the competitor across the street run by Julian's cousin, Barry Crane (Andrew Morrison), and then begins a secret relationship with Barry's girlfriend Patricia (Marjorie Espinoza), but it remains a secret. Spencer remembers when Julian beat up and fired him and breaks up with her to avoid further violence.

Controversy
Because of the show's first-person point of view style, many episodes of Observers included more uncensored nudity and strong language than many other prime time shows on Martonian television. Creator Dominic MacGregor stated that obscuring such content would "interfere with the story and creative process and ultimately ruin the POV filming style".

The original May 16, 2006 broadcast of season four's "Stuart and Marina", which aired May 16, 2006, was pre-empted by NBN's concerns over a scene in which Lenny takes Spencer to a party, and several men and women's bare buttocks are shown being spanked for roughly one and a half seconds. The episode was broadcast completely uncut anyway, and the network received a $550,000 indecency fine fron the Federal Broadcast and Communication Authority (FBCA). In 2009, the FBCA attempted to fine the network $450,000 for a scene in season eight's "An Observers Christmas" featuring an uncensored scene where a drunken Stuart at the Christmas party, claiming it was inappropriate for a show rated PG13; the fine was ultimately rejected by the Metro Bancroft Court of Appeals, as the court saw "a single finger" as a bad reason for fining NBN.