'Smallwood': CBS Reveals First Look at Pete Holmes Bowling Comedy

A new bowling comedy is coming to CBS. At the network's Upfront presentation on Wednesday, CBS [...]

By Brian Jones

A new bowling comedy is coming to CBS. At the network's Upfront presentation on Wednesday, CBS revealed the first look at a new series called Smallwood which stars Pete Holmes. The series is based on professional bowler Tom Smallwood's life, and Holmes stars as Tom, a Midwest husband and dad who gets laid off from a career assembly line and makes the move of following his dream and becoming a professional bowler.

"As a skilled player, Tom knows in bowling you get two chances—no matter what you do with the first ball, you get another one to make it right," CBS stated when talking about Smallwood. "The ultimate second chance. Keeping that in mind, Tom begins his new career with the loving okay from his wife, Jen (Katie Lowes), and the unfaltering support of Archie (Chi McBride), his mentor and the proud owner of Archie's Lanes: Home of the Curly Fry."

Holmes, 42, is appeared in various films and television shows including The Pete Holmes Show which aired on TBS from 2013-2014. Most recently, Holmes appeared in The Simpsons and is part of the cast of the upcoming Home Alone reboot that will stream on Disney+. Holmes was also on the show Crashing, which aired on HBO for three seasons. In an interview with CNN in 2019, Holmes talked about how he called stand-up comedians the new preachers.

"I am preaching," Holmes said. "You know, a preacher is somebody who preaches with a board of elders and like, has a text and an agenda and a religion and a group. I like saying that hopefully, I'm ministering. In the literal sense of ministry, like someone bringing soup is ministering to your body, you know. So I don't consider myself a preacher or a minister, but like, when I get on a tear and start talking about "the kingdom of heaven is here and men don't see it" – that's just preaching."

Smallwood, who is now 43 years old, made his PBA debut in 2009. In his career, Smallwood has won three PBA Tour titles, two of which are majors. According to his PBA bio, Smallwood has earned over $600,000 in his career.

"It is unbelievable the way things came together," Smallwood said in an interview with Bowl.com in 2009. "I told my wife that the day I turn 30 I am done bowling for real, done ever attempting to do tour trials. I always had a decent job and I said I am too old to do it. After 30 you're not going to start a career in bowling. We agreed. I am not really into signs or that things were meant to happen for you but it just worked out so unbelievable that the Tour Trials were going to be held in Detroit so close to where I live, along with all the World Series of Bowling events — at that time they had just announced the location of the World Series events — my wife agreed 100%, so I bowled Tour Trials and we said if that doesn't work out we will figure out what we will do." Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by ViacomCBS Streaming, a division of ViacomCBS.

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