My Big Fat Greek Life

A classic blunder, executives see how wildly successful the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was, and they immediately work up plans for a TV series, hoping to capitalize on the film's success. But what happens instead is taking something that turned out great, and mercilessly beating it to death, trying to squeeze every last penny out of it.

The movie was great, but the sit-com sucks. The movie was full of funny characters, and the humor was very spontaneous. The characters didn't have to try to be funny, because they were just funny anyway. They seemed very genuine in the film, but in the pilot episode of the series, everything seemed so forced. The jokes and one-liners were poorly written and poorly delivered.

Furthermore, the chemistry between Ian and Toula in the film was very convincing; Ian was very charming and Toula was very loving. I thought that both Nia Vardalos and John Corbett did a great job. In the show, however, the replacement Ian (called "Thomas" in the show) was a total putz, I didn't like him at all, and he had almost no chemistry with Toula (or "Nia", rather). In the film, Ian was very accepting and even enthusiastic to espouse the Portokalos family traditions. But in the show, he bitches to Nia about "boundaries" and bickers with Gus about who built Stonehenge.

The only character that was almost tolerable on the show was Gus, the dad. They overdid his dialogue a bit, but he's still funny to watch.

"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was a great movie, it was relatively inexpensive to produce and made lots of money, and people loved it. And I'm sure many DVDs and VHS tapes will be sold. I already have the DVD. "My Big Fat Greek Life", on the other hand, is just a bad idea; the movie was a great movie and let's just leave it at that, don't corrupt its legacy with a cornball sit-com.

OK, so it's not supposed to be a sequel to the Movie. Moreover, it's a spin-off with a slightly different plot, some names changed and a different male lead.

The movie should have been left as it was, it just does not translate well to the small screen. The jokes, which in the movie where fresh and hilarious are all too predictable in the TV show. The acting seems flatter, the writing just doesn't have the same punch. Why? Because we've seen it all before! Unless the writers can think up some new material I don't think this show will be around much longer.

Pet hate: when, oh when, will US TV makers understand that canned laughter is annoying and unnecessary? DON'T DO IT!!

What was the first thing I noticed wrong about the sitcom version of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"...besides the obvious absence of John Corbett? The stupid laugh track. I cringed when I heard that damn repetitious laughing at every stupid joke. As many of you, I greatly enjoyed the movie..and I was in the process of watching it on DVD when I realized that the TV show was about to come on. So, I put the movie on pause.

It was only when I got to the part where the family said to 'Thomas'..."You look different!" (a painfully obvious joke about the different actor, a lackluster Steven Eckhardt who played 'Mark' on "Friends").

'Cousin Nikki' was noticeably rounder..probably because she was either pregnant or just had her daughter when the pilot was filmed. No matter. It wasn't TOO noticeable. Gus was too..I don't know. Whiny, I guess. Lanie Kazan was pretty much the same. As was Nick, but more nosy about his sister's life.

Now to Nia. First of all, I think it was just plain stupid to change the two main character's names. Why did they find that this was necessary? I personally liked the name Toula. It was cool. It was different. And I liked the named Ian. It wasn't cool, but he had the same name as Gandalf. Just because it was a different actor playing the part didn't mean that they had to change the character. Her acting in the sitcom was only sub-par. She seemed to be trying to hard.

Now about Eckholdt. In the movie, Ian was sweet and willing to go the distance to be accepted into Toula's (or NIA's) family. Are we to believe that Thomas said "To Hell with it!!" after they married? It's possible. Maybe he decided he couldn't put up with her family's crap. Well, it has happened before. But I just found myself disliking Thomas more and more as the minutes droned on, until I wanted Nia to serve him some poisonous souvlaki to rub him out. The character I liked was Aunt Voula. Andrea Martin is wonderful. Thank God "MBFGL" still has her.

I'm being too negative. As the show progressed, it grew on me a little until Gus pointed out that the house was across from the restaurant, not next door to him. Of course, I'm sure the show will grow..let the actors settle back into their characters, give them some material to work with that will ignite genuine laughs, not like the uncomfortable laughs derived from me during the pilot. Material that will not just give a cheap laugh. Material that would've probably been in the movie if it was a little longer.

Well, looks like Nia's Big Fat Greek Life is 'history' -- too bad.

Years ago, it was fairly common for a well received Film to move over to TV. MASH is the most notable. It was considered by many to be quite lame in its initial effort, but with time ... yes, you know the rest of THAT story.

Big Fat Greek Life could have achieved a status on par with Wedding. But it needed time to find its rhythm. And, reading between the lines of how TV operates, can imagine that Nia was handcuffed by the 'experts' in details of the show (i.e. - laugh track). She should have been left alone to develop the show in same way she was left alone to develop the Film (where's Tom Hanks when you need him ? ;-)

If some 'expert' had some patience, we may have been treated to a weekly, wonderful, eclectic view of America that is needed in our Land of McDonalds, Malls, Bimbo Blondes, and ignorant TV experts ... and TO those "experts" - what's the basic definition of Tragedy and Comedy ? (k, uncle ? ... alrighty, if YOU are a TV 'executive/expert' don't peek -- Comedy is something 'good' happening to someone who doesn't 'deserve' it ... Tragedy is something 'bad' happening to someone who doesn't 'deserve' it)

Thank You Nia ... you WILL be missed

ps - but it'll be ok in the long run ... just imagine, we'll only need to wait another 2500 years for the NEXT installment from the folks who invented Theater ... patience, patience

First of all, pertaining to the comment suggesting that all negative comments should be disregarded, I don't think the visitors to this website need to be told what they can and cannot read.

Second of all, this show reeked of cheap humor, one-liners, and funny hair styles (all of which had been done before, too many times)

Third, I don't think CBS needed another show filled with old jokes that should've been retired long ago. Still Standing fits that profile just fine.

The last thing I want to say is that this show was WORSE than Still Standing, which is pretty awful in and of itself.

My Rating: 0/10 (AWFUL)