Abhiroop Das
Created by Jeff and Liz Astrof, NBC’s ‘Stumble’ journeys along with Courtney Cooper, a once-renowned cheer coach who is unceremoniously fired from the college she helped put on the cheerleading map. Refusing to end her career on a sour note, she seeks out a new job at a smaller college, with an even smaller cheerleading team, and hardly any chance at winning the National Cheerleading Championship held at Daytona Beach. However, just when she begins to lose hope, a mix of old and new allies joins her in the pursuit to create the best team ever. While this sports mockumentary sitcom begins with a ragtag cheer team comprised of confused students, over time, we watch the group transform into a found family, expressing their pent-up emotions through bursts of creativity and skill. To that end, the setting of the show, starting from the college they represent, all the way to the town they inhabit, paints a story of its own.
Headltston is a Fictional Town That Has a Fascination With Candy
Headltston is a fictional town in Oklahoma, penned by Jeff Astrof and Liz Astrof to serve as the primary setting of the story. While the running joke surrounding the town is its seemingly unpronounceable name, several other eccentricities give it shape and meaning in the larger narrative. To bring Headltston to life, the crew of ‘Stumble’ set camp in and around Atlanta. While it is possible that The Big Peach serves as a model for Headltston’s creation, the fact that the latter is an obscure location in the story makes the connection unlikely. Instead, there is a case to be made for small towns in Oklahoma with unique names serving as vague sources of inspiration, as that aligns the most with how Headltston is described. One town in particular, named Hochatown, stands out, especially given its central location in the local lumber industry. While Headltston is also a factory town, the parallels with Hochatown are still superficial at best.
One of the most unusual details about Headltston is the fact that it houses the Headltston Candy Button Factory, a seemingly iconic candy button production facility that serves as not only the epicenter of the town, but also the entire country. In real life, there are instances of towns being developed around chocolate or candy factories. Most notably, Hershey, situated in Pennsylvania, was originally founded for the workers at Milton. S. Hershey’s chocolate factory. As such, it is possible that the historic region of Hershey is a loose inspiration for Headltston, with its Candy Button Factory adding to the worldbuilding. Notably, the show mentions the existence of a Candy Button Factory Museum, which lines up with Hershey having a similar fixture, named the Hershey Story Museum, located at 63 West Chocolate Avenue in Hershey. However, given how Headltston is a candy-oriented town set in a different state, these overlaps are likely coincidental in nature.
Headltston State Jr. College is the Fictional Base of Stumble’s Cheer Team
Headltston State Jr. College is a fictional college created by writers Jeff and Liz Astrof. Introduced into the story as a small college with no apparent cheerleading culture, the institution evolves alongside the characters, gradually rising to become a prominent force in the competitive cheerleading sphere. Although the creators have not pointed to any specific real-life college as its inspiration, it is possible that Headltston State Jr. College is modeled after colleges in and around Atlanta, where much of the filming took place. To that end, institutions such as Clark Atlanta University, located at 223 James P Brawley Drive Southwest, and Point University, 507 West 10th Street in West Point, Georgia, might have served as reference points. Notably, both colleges have a thriving cheerleading culture, unlike their fictional counterpart, which is still in its early strides at the start of the narrative. As such, a direct correlation between the institutions is unlikely.
In some ways, ‘Stumble’ has a similar atmospheric and thematic palette as Netflix’s ‘Cheer,’ a documentary series that follows Monica Aldama, a renowned cheer coach who leads a team of college athletes to victory on a national level. Notably, Aldama is also an executive producer for ‘Stumble,’ making it likely that parts of the storyline are partially inspired by her experiences. To that end, Headltston State Jr. College might be the writing team’s creative rendition of Navarro College, situated at 3200 West 7th Avenue, in Corsicana, Texas. The fact that Corsicana is a small, quaint town makes the similarities with Headltston more apparent, and it is possible that the fictional college’s cheer team dramatizes an earlier version of Navarro College’s Bulldog Cheer team. However, with no official confirmation of the same, such connections are unlikely to be intentional and reiterate the setting’s constructed identity.
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