It's My Big Fat Greek Sitcom!
Looks like the next Peloponesian War is to be waged on American TV! The tube version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding — which has grossed over $228 million domestically — debuts Feb. 24 on CBS. Star Nia Vardalos has tweaked the title to My Big Fat Greek Life, and that's not the only change she and executive producer Rita Wilson are making. Still, the indie movie's feisty family feuding remains the same. "I really do have 27 first cousins and a loud, always-eating Greek family that loved me to the point of suffocation," Vardalos joked to reporters at the Television Critics Press Tour in Hollywood. "On a scale of one to 10, let's say I just kind of turn it up to 11." Here's the rest of the scoop on these souvlaki servers ...
First off, Nia Vardalos is playing Nia Portokalos. Why doesn't she keep the character name of Toula, like in the film? Well, since the whole Greek story was rooted in a one-woman show about her life, Vardalos prefers the TV character to bear her first name. (Hey, it's worked for Lucy, Mary and Reba all these years.)
As previously reported, John Corbett (Northern Exposure, Sex and the City) is unavailable to reprise his role as the non-Greek husband, Ian Miller. He's busy headlining his own new TV series, Lucky. Enter Steven Eckholdt (It's Like, You Know) as the slightly different Thomas Miller. When Greek Life's action starts, Vardalos says, "they're in that period between the wedding and the end of the film, when they had children."
Other than that, Lainie Kazan, Andrea Martin and the rest of the loveable original cast are on board. Vardalos does say the film characters' frumpy, "old world" wardrobes will get a hipper, more TV-ready update. "But," she promises, "we won't be dressing Lainie in a belly shirt or anything!"
