My Big Fat Greek Life
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| My Big Fat Greek Life | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Nia Vardalos |
| Starring | Nia Vardalos Steven Eckholdt Lainie Kazan Louis Mandylor Michael Constantine Andrea Martin Gia Carides |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 7 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Nia Vardalos Tom Hanks Rita Wilson |
| Running time | 30 mins. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | February 23, 2003 – April 7, 2003 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
My Big Fat Greek Life is a short-lived situation comedy series that ran on CBS in 2003. The series was based on the 2002 box-office hit movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding and was produced by HBO Television and Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions for Sony Pictures Television. In addition to being the series star, Nia Vardalos oversaw the show as one of the co-executive producers, along with Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson (who made a guest appearance in one episode as Nia's cousin). All seven episodes of this program are available on DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and air on Universal HD.
Contents |
[edit] Premise
The series, which is set in Chicago, follows the main character from the film, Nia Portokalos, as she tries to deal with both her family and her new husband, Thomas Miller, an English teacher who still doesn't seem to fit in with her family's Greek traditions. Despite the help and interference from family and her husband, Nia tries her best to stay grounded in various situations.
In addition to her husband, the family members in her "Life" include her parents Maria (her mother) and Gus (her father), who are the owners of the Greek restaurant where Nia works, her brother Nick, who is not very bright and has a little bit of a love/hate feeling for Thomas, her wise Aunt Voula and her gossipy cousin Nikki.
[edit] Comparisons to the film version
In the movie version, Vardalos's character is named Toula, but was changed to Nia for the series. In addition Toula's husband's name was changed from Ian to Thomas. They also had a daughter in the film but was never included in the series. Also absent from the series was the travel agency Toula worked in the film; in the series she still worked at her family's restaurant, like she did in the film's early scenes.
[edit] Production notes
- John Corbett was the only cast member from the film who couldn't make the transition from film to TV because of a deal he made to star in the FX series Lucky. He was scheduled to make an appearance on My Big Fat Greek Life, but it was cancelled before it could happen. Unfortunately, Corbett's Lucky was unlucky as well; FX cancelled it after 13 episodes. Had it continued, Vardalos would have made a guest appearance on that show.
- Originally, Vardalos pitched the idea of turning My Big Fat Greek Wedding into a series for TV but it was turned down. It wasn't until the film's success that CBS gave her the green light to bring it to TV.
[edit] Cast
- Nia Vardalos — Nia Miller
- Steven Eckholdt — Thomas Miller
- Lainie Kazan — Maria Portokalos
- Louis Mandylor — Nick Portokalos
- Michael Constantine — Gus Portokalos
- Andrea Martin — Aunt Voula
- Gia Carides — Nikki
