My Big Fat Greek Life

My Big Fat Greek Life
File:My Big Fat Greek Life.png
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 minutes
Production company(s)	Brad Grey Television Marsh McCall Productions Playtone Productions Sony Pictures Television
Distributor	Sony Pictures Television
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	February 24 – April 13, 2003 (2003-04-13)

My Big Fat Greek Life is a sitcom series that ran on CBS in 2003. The series is a continuation of the 2002 movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding and was produced by HBO Television and Tom Hanks's 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).

Premise

The series, which is set in Chicago, follows the main character, Nia Portokalos, a middle class Greek-American woman, as she tries to deal with both her family and her new upper middle class WASP husband, Thomas Miller, an English teacher who still does not seem to fit in with her family's Greek traditions. Despite the help and interference from her 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.

Differences with the film version

In the movie version, Vardalos' character is named Toula, but her name was changed to Nia for the series. In addition, Toula's husband's name was changed from Ian to Thomas. Also absent from the series was the travel agency where Toula had worked in the film. In the series, she still worked at her family's restaurant, as she did in the film's early scenes. Also, in the first episode, the main characters were given a house, but they had already received the house as a wedding gift, in the film. In addition, Toula and Ian's daughter, who was featured at the end of the film, was not present in the series.

Production notes

• John Corbett was the only cast member from the film who did not appear in the series due to a prior commitment on 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. Lucky was also cancelled in its first season. 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 was not until the film's success that CBS gave her the green light to bring it to TV.

Ratings

The sitcom premiered with high ratings, averaging 22.9 million viewers. Its debut was the highest-rated premiere of any network sitcom since NBC's Jesse. The following week ratings dropped 28%, averaging 16.5 million viewers, but surpassing FOX's The Simpsons which finished second place. However, the decline in ratings led to the sitcom's eventual cancellation by CBS.

Cast

• Nia Vardalos as Nia Miller
• Steven Eckholdt as Thomas Miller
• Lainie Kazan as Maria Portokalos
• Louis Mandylor as Nick Portokalos
• Michael Constantine as Gus Portokalos
• Andrea Martin as Aunt Voula
• Gia Carides as Nikki

Episodes

1. The House Gift (24 February 2003)
2. The Empire Strikes Back (2 March 2003)
3. Ariana (9 March 2003)
4. The Free Lunch (16 March 2003)
5. Big Night (30 March 2003)
6. Nick Moves Out (6 April 2003)
7. Greek Easter (13 April 2003)

External links

• My Big Fat Greek Life at IMDb
• My Big Fat Greek Life at TV.com