Now, ‘My Big Fat Greek’ TV show
As box-office returns continue to pour in for “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” CBS executives are updating their original plans for an underdog, midseason replacement purchased last year from a comedian who was hoping to get a movie version of the show distributed.
CBS shot the pilot of “My Big Fat Greek Family” in March -- after the film had been made but before it was released -- starring the funny woman, Nia Vardalos.
But the success of her film, released in April, has changed the fate of that “backup” sitcom.
The title has been changed to “My Big Fat Greek Life,” and every cast member from the movie, except for John Corbett, who played the WASPy boyfriend, has agreed to appear in the TV show.
Additionally, instead of centering the pilot around the wedding day, Vardalos insisted they launch the series the day after the boisterous family event.
“We’d like to see the journey between honeymoon and 6-year-old (daughter),” Vardalos said in her upbeat, husky voice at a recent Writers Guild of America seminar.
Brad Grey Television, which is producing the show for CBS and which also handles such successes as “The Sopranos,” will reshoot the pilot next month.
The decision to scrap the original pilot is a good look into how Vardalos’ leverage at the network has changed. Along with worldwide fame and a cut of the movie’s profits, Vardalos is now overseeing a newly hired team of TV writers who are creating story lines for characters based on her family. Admittedly, Vardalos said, it’s a format and a process she knows nothing about.
“We have a commitment for seven episodes and I’m off promoting the film and they’re coming up with great premises,” she said, laughing.
The film hardly needs additional promoting. Made for $5 million and featuring the virtually unknown Vardalos, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” was initially distributed to 108 theaters. To date, it has grossed $215 million and is playing on thousands of screens. It’s also getting some Oscar buzz.
But its box-office triumph may ultimately pose a problem for CBS executives, who admit they won’t be able to recapture the delight felt by moviegoers in “discovering” the low-budget family comedy.
What’s more, now that the film has benefited from slow and steady hype, CBS viewers may experience deja vu as the sitcom gets thrown into a lineup with another sitcom centered around the zany predicaments of a couple who clash with well-meaning, overbearing in-laws.
Executives dismiss any similarity between their long-running Emmy Award-winning sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “My Big Fat Greek Life.”
“It’s a family show and there’s a couple at the center, so I guess you can make the comparison, although we’re not making that comparison,” said Wendi Goldstein, senior vice president of comedy development at CBS, who also helped develop “Raymond.”