Duncanville premiered as part of Fox's revived "Animation Domination" block on February 16, 2020. The series was co-created by Mike Scully, who previously worked on The Simpsons, wife Julie Thacker-Scully (who also wrote several episodes during her husband's time as showrunner), and Amy Poehler, who previously worked on Upright Citizens Brigade (the sketch comedy troupe and Comedy Central series), NBC's Saturday Night Live and NBC's Parks and Recreation. On June 30, 2022, it was announced that the series had been cancelled after three seasons.
Duncanville provides examples of:
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Duncan and Kimberly think this of their parents.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Kimberly bullies Duncan, though as the series progresses, this starts being downplayed.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Surprisingly averted with Kimberly of all people as she's usually the victim of gross-out humor.
- Big Brother Worship: Jing adores Duncan, and she even wants to marry him one day.
- Brain Bleach: "Throw Momma from the Brain" involves Duncan being traumatized from seeing his mother in the nude and going to great lengths to try and remove the image from his mind.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Kimberly, being twelve, technically isn’t a teen yet, but she has her moments.
- Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Jack wants to be a better parent than his dad was to him.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Wolf draws Annie with a buxom figure on Duncan's racecar in the episode "Who's Vroomin Who". He actually sketched a more extreme design, which we don't see, but we hear described as one that would break her back.
- Captain Ersatz: The Flossing Bears are these of We Bare Bears, consisting of a grizzly, a panda, and a polar bear that dance.
- Cool Teacher: Mr. Mitch is this for Duncan and his friends, as the rest of the students.
- The Computer Is Your Friend: Played for laughs with ConVee brand smart products. They're programmed to provide consumer convenience at all costs, literally, because they have access to their owner's bank accounts and freely use them to buy whatever products they think you need while listening to your conversations. When resisted they'll hold you hostage using the new automated features they had installed in your house. This is exploited in the climax by the Harris family stating that what they want most is for the ConVee products to have a death match.
- Corrupt Politician: Mayor Jen.
- Her Witch Day confession was that she had asked a foreign government to dig up dirt on someone.
- In the episode "Annie Oakie", she uses her power to blackmail and bully the Harrises after Annie clamped her car and refused to remove it.
- Creepy Doll: Annie has one that keeps returning every time that they try to throw it away. A later episode reveals that the ashes of Annie's late grandmother are inside it.
- Daddy's Girl: Jing has shades of this.
- Deadpan Snarker: Kimberly, typical of the middle child role.
- Dirty Old Woman: Annie's friend and neighbor Helen Diggins is shown to be attracted to Duncan.
- Disappeared Dad: Wolf never knew his dad, but his mother claims he was a deadbeat with no ambition.
- Dumbass Teenage Son: Annie is terrified of Duncan turning into this.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Jing's crush on Duncan and repeated claim she wants to marry him vanishes after the first couple of episodes.
- Girlish Pigtails: Jing wears her hair in pigtails.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The two camp councilors in "Sibling Revelry" who revealed that they were former campers who failed to get along and were stuck in camp for years, a few scenes from this shows close ups of their I.D. which shows photos of them 20 years younger.
- Happily Adopted: Jing seems to be this so far.
- Henpecked Husband: The bee being told by his wife to chase the kids that are hitting the hive in "Undacuva Mutha"."Why does it always come to this?"
- High-School Sweethearts: Jack and Annie have been together since their high school days.
- Ignorant About Fire: Season 1 "Free Range Children", when Jack and Annie leave their kids by themselves at home while they go to a concert, they immediately return back when they discover firefighters heading towards their home. Apparently, when Duncan placed a pizza in their oven, he forgot to take the pizza out of the plastic wrapper and set the oven temperature too high, resulting in the pizza catching on fire. Duncan tries to put the flames out with a fire extinguisher, but he doesn't know how to use it and he places it inside the oven on top of the flaming pizza which results in the extinguisher exploding.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Betsy Sodaro bears a strong resemblance to her character Bex.
- Jerkass to One: Kimberly is very nice to everyone BUT Duncan.
- Middle Child Syndrome: This is a Running Gag for Kimberly in episode 5.
- My Beloved Smother: Annie is this in regard to Duncan.
- Not Blood Siblings: Even though she's adopted, Duncan is grossed out that Jing wants to marry him.
- One Head Taller: Jack is visibly taller than Annie.
- One of the Boys: Bex is this in Duncan’s friend group, though she lampshades this saying that she can’t truly be one of the guys on account of her bustline.
- Only Known By Her Nickname: Bex, which she's referred to as, is presumably short for Rebecca.
- Police Brutality: Parodied with the Parking Enforcement arm of the local Police Department that Annie works for as a meter maid. Every officer there is comfortable using excessive force on civilians and they have an almost predatory tendency to sniff out misdemeanors so they can meet their ticketing quotas. Unsurprisingly, Oakdale hates the “Parking Nazis”, and the Parking Enforcement has gleefully subsumed being so despised into their identity as evidenced by their motto, “We Write ‘em, You Fight ‘em!”
- Raised by Grandparents: Bex appears to be raised by her grandma.
- Rapid-Fire Comedy: Didn't like one of the show's jokes? Don't worry, another one will be along in about two minutes or less.
- Redhead In Green: Duncan is a redhead and wears a green hoodie.
- Rubber-Hose Limbs: Duncan moves around like this, particularly when he's running (Kimberly comments how it looks funny). It's stated in the pilot to be because of a spine problem.Duncan: Doctor says my later years are gonna be a wreck.
- Shout-Out:
- The three bears in the episode "Classless President" were based on the main three bears from We Bare Bears.
- Jing's new room features a Moana inspired bed as well as three rapping chipmunks in the episode "Who's Vroomin Who".
- Spider-Man appears in Duncan's Imagine Spot with the latter dressed as Doctor Octopus in the episode "Party Like a Rocket Star".
- In "Undacuva Mutha", Annie is shown burning a PAW Patrol DVD.
- Slice of Life: The premise is the Harrises going through everyday problems, albeit with some comical exaggeration.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Duncan has no idea of how to act around his crush, Mia.
- Stacy's Mom: Wolf thinks of Annie as this.
- Status Quo Is God: Jing's brand new modified room from the episode "Who's Vroomin Who" reverted back to its original look by the next episode.
- The Stoner: Mr. Mitch gets high on the weekends.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Duncan looks like a younger version of Jack.
- Sweet Tooth: Jing has a fondness for sweet things.
- Sucky School: Duncan’s school seems to be this thanks to the excessive budget cuts in episode 3.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: Bradley, Jing's friend who admitted to once being a pyromaniac in the episode "Sibling Revelry".
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: So far, there’s no mention as to where Oakdale is supposed to take place;
- In "Witch Day" the witch trial themed festival, could suggest the town is somewhere in New England, such as Massachusetts, where the Salem Witch Trials took place.
- In "Free Range Children", Duncan and Kimberly get stuck on a cabbage truck and end up in Mexico in what could only be a few hours at most, suggesting they live in a state that shares a border with Mexico, but Annie and Jack try to get to them via the airport, and the kids get back via a jet ride.
- Youthful Freckles: Duncan has these, as does Kimberly.
