Is anyone going to watch My Big Fat Greek Life

[IheartMoonlighting]

I'll give it a try.

[Janice]

I'll watch it. I loved the movie. Hopefully the TV show will be just as funny.

[~*Hannah_Lee*~]

I've never even seen the movie, but maybe the show will be cool. What network is airing it?

[Janice]

'Greek Wedding' earns a makeover as CBS sitcom

By Hal Boedeker | Sentinel Television Critic
Posted January 16, 2003

Editor's note: Sentinel television critic Hal Boedeker reports from the Television Critics Association winter tour, where networks preview their midseason offerings.

When My Big Fat Greek Wedding becomes a CBS sitcom, it will gain a new title, a new leading man and a new attitude. The show's makers say they worry about fiddling with a good thing but maintain they must.

"We can't just carbon-copy something," star Nia Vardalos says. "So we're trying to make it interesting for everybody. Otherwise, I would just do My Big Fat Greek Wedding week in and week out."

Instead, she'll do My Big Fat Greek Life week in and week out for five to seven years -- if she's lucky.

CBS President Les Moonves says he feels as if he hit the jackpot. After all, his network is showing the sitcom version of the film that has made $230 million so far, to become the most popular romantic comedy in U.S. film history. He calls the film "as good a pilot as you'll get anywhere."

"It just lent itself to ongoing stories," he says. "You can see the 20th episode of that show."

The network will launch Greek Life on Feb. 24. It will receive heavy promotion during the Grammy awards telecast the day before, and the choice slot after Everybody Loves Raymond on premiere night, a Monday. On March 2, the sitcom shifts to 8 p.m. Sundays, its regular slot, after 60 Minutes.

"This is not a throwaway," Moonves says. "We believe in it."

The network has embraced Vardalos' new approach to her beloved film script, which was based on her one-woman stage show about life with a big, boisterous Greek family. The series picks up right after Vardalos' character marries the non-Greek teacher her family initially has difficulty accepting. The sitcom will be shot in front of a studio audience.

"We're hipping up the show a little bit," Vardalos says. "In the movie we have like an Old World feel, and in the TV show, it's gonna be a little more accessible."

Executive producer Rita Wilson, the actress of Greek heritage who's married to Tom Hanks, says they're not trying to win over younger viewers. "People from all sorts of walks of life, age ranges, men, women, boys, girls -- they all liked it," she says. "We're just trying to make sure that they are going to be as happy with the series as they were with the movie."

The biggest change is the replacement of John Corbett as the husband of Vardalos' character; he is committed to the FX series Lucky. Steven Eckholdt - of Grapevine' and it's like, you know. . . fame -- takes over the role.

"We've known each other for years," Vardalos says. "We have a natural camaraderie. Steven's a fantastic actor, and also he's married to a Greek girl."

So Eckholdt isn't stepping exactly into another man's role, they've changed his character's name from Ian to Thomas. (Vardalos is married to actor Ian Gomez who played Javier on Felicity.) The heroine's name will change from Toula to Nia.

"Toula was like an extension of who I was during my kind of 'finding myself' period," Vardalos says. "I wanted to play a character closer to me."

A pilot was shot last spring with a cast different from the movie. The film's surprising success prompted the decision to bring in the film cast: Michael Constantine as the father, Lainie Kazan as the mother and Andrea Martin as the aunt. Vardalos is trying to add 'N Sync's Joey Fatone, who appeared in the movie. Eckholdt is the lone major casting change, Moonves says.

"Every nationality seems to relate to the parents," Kazan says.

"When the movie first came out, people were saying, 'Well, it appeals to Jewish people and Italians," Constantine adds. "The next thing you know, it was appealing to everyone, including WASPs."

Constantine, an Emmy winner for Room 222, had no special desire to return to series television. "I care a lot about doing this particular series because the experience we had when we made it [the film] was so incredible," he says.

In the film, his character, Gus, promotes the remarkable effects of Windex, but Vardalos doesn't know if that will be part of the series. "Fat," however, will remain part of the title, despite a rumor otherwise.

"CBS did not have trouble with the word fat at all," Vardalos says. "I like the word fat for exactly that reason. You take the power away from the word when you say it. And I always have said, 'Look at my big fat Greek hair.' I've always said that expression, and it's just funny to me now that it's the name of the TV show too."

Vardalos is overseeing the writing staff of eight. Only three of the seven scripts for this season are completed; filming starts at month's end.

"Oh, we're in trouble," Vardalos says. "It's like getting caught without your homework done."

A huge challenge is taking care of her co-stars by providing worthwhile stories.

"It's a burden, believe me," Vardalos says. "I wake up and go, 'What am I gonna do with Lainie?' "

[Central Perk]

The show sounds like it could be good, I'll be sure to tune in.

[Sitcomwriter]

I plan to watch but I hope that the accents,Fatone and Windex star in tact.