The Summer I Turned Pretty Pretty‘s Sean Kaufman is back on our TV screens — but his character isn’t as successful at love this time around.
In Us Weekly‘s exclusive clip from the Friday, December 12, episode of NBC’s sitcom Stumble, Kaufman plays a student named Holden who tries to flirt with cheerleader Sally (Georgie Murphy).
“I think that football player over there likes you,” Sally’s teammate Madonna (Arianna Davis) says. Sally appears confused and replies, “What? No, he doesn’t.”
Holden gives Sally a paper where he wrote that he likes her, but she passes it to Madonna. He then gives her another note that clarifies he meant to give it to Sally.
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“I think this is for you,” Sally tells Madonna. “He thinks your name is Sally.”
The group is interrupted by cheer coach Courteney (Jenn Lyon), who warns her class not to “drink out of” the water fountain and asks, “Where’s all the school spirit in his place? Why is nobody wearing school colors — especially my cheerleaders?”
According to the official episode synopsis, Courteney “is trying desperately to bring spirit to Heådltston, but it’s impossible.” Her team heads to Sammy Davis Sr. Junior College for their homecoming game, which reminds Courteney “of how much spirit her old school has [before] she’s forced to cheer against Boon.”
NBC’s Stumble is a mockumentary that explores the highly competitive world of junior college cheerleading. In addition to Lyon, Murphy and Davis, the show stars Kristin Chenoweth, Taran Killam, Ryan Pinkston, Jarrett Austin Brown, Anissa Borrego and Taylor Dunbar.
The series is inspired by the Netflix hit Cheer and Navarro College coach Monica Aldama, who is an executive producer on the project. Before the November premiere, Lyon opened up about pulling inspiration from Aldama, 53, for Stumble while still making the character her own.
“Monica is on the page. The writers have created a brilliant character to play, but it definitely is inspired by Monica,” Lyon exclusively told Us. “She is tough as nails and inscrutable at points. But the way she is stern but loving, the way she’d give you the shirt off her back, the way she is driven and committed is all over the DNA of the character.”
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Lyon noted that Courtney is “different” from Aldama in many ways.
“She’s got aspects of Monica, but reading her on the page and getting to collaborate with the writers, the creators and the director, we fleshed out how we wanted Courtney to be — including her level of warmth and wackiness,” Lyon teased. “I love to trip over things on the floor. I love to run into a doorjamb. These are things that Monica doesn’t do.”
Stumble marks Kaufman’s first role since wrapping Prime Video’s hit series The Summer I Turned Pretty. Throughout the show, which aired its finale in September, Kaufman’s character Steven found love with Taylor (Rain Spencer).
Kaufman, 25, is expected to return for the upcoming The Summer I Turned Pretty feature film — but he is also excited to try something new.
“The only criteria [for each new project] is it has to be different. So I really liked stepping out of the comfort zone of a YA show and stepping into horror and this VFX world and sci-fi,” he told Us in August, referring to a role on season 5 of For All Mankind and in the supernatural horror film Other Mommy. “It was such a new challenge for me.”
Stumble airs on NBC Fridays at 8:30 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Peacock.
