In NBC’s new comedy “Extended Family” is not your ordinary multi-camera comedy. It’s on the road to winning rookie of the Year with the heavy hitters they’ve recruited on the team. Emmy-winner Jon Cryer of “Two and a Half Men” fame stars alongside “Scrubs” alum Donald Fasion and Abigail Spencer to bring the show to life. Cryer also executive produces. Sofia Capanna, Finn Sweeney and Lenny Clarke also star.
Mike O’Malley, whose credits include “Heels,” and “Survivor’s Remorse,” serves as showrunner and executive producer. Tom Werner, Jon Cryer, Wyc Grousbeck, Emilia Fazzalari, George Geyer, Victor Levin, Victoria Morrow, and James Widdoes also executive produce.
If the basketball analogies are annoying, there’s a good reason for them in this story. “Extended Family” is based on the real life of the owner of The Boston Celtics.
“[Boston Celtics owner Wyc] Grousbeck married into a family that’s very much like this show,” Faison said during the show’s NBC Winter TCA Panel. “The two people, Emilia and George, they divorced, and their two kids live in a house, an apartment in New York City — that they call the Nest, and they come in — weekly. And so the Boston Celtics aspect of it is because he actually is a part of an extended family like you see on television.”
The idea was pitched to O’Malley who jumped at the chance to develop it. “They had this idea,” O’Malley said. “They just like this is a — our life is a sitcom, and they came to Tom Werner, and Tom Werner said — who I had worked with on “Survivor’s Remorse,” and he said, “Hey, what do you think of this? These guys think that their lives is the premise for a television show.” And what happened was Abigail’s character starts dating the owner of the Celtics, and this guy, George Gere, is the biggest Celtics can you’ve ever met. I mean he …had a piece of the parquet floor from the old Garden in his house. And, so, it was like couldn’t you be dating anyone other than the owner of the Boston Celtics? Nope.”
Cryer’s comedic chops are fresh as ever and his chemistry with Faison is a treat to watch. Faison is hoping for a Season 2 so that his pal and “Scrubs” alum Zach Braff can guest-star.
If “Night Court,” last year’s rookie hit is any indication, a sophomore season for the show could be in the cards.
