New CBS Show: Accidentally on Purpose
Jenna Elfman Plays Billie, a TV Critic Who Gets Knocked Up
Aug 8, 2009
Jenna Elfman returns to sitcoms in Accidentally on Purpose, playing Billie, a San Francisco film critic who has a fling with a younger man and winds up pregnant. Accidentally is based on the book by Mary F. Pols, who is now a movie critic for TIME (and has a son). The series is executive produced by Knots Landing alum, Claudia Lonow and also stars Grant Snow, an original cast member of Melrose Place. Lonow and Elfman (who became a first-time mom a couple of years back), were at the bi-annual Television Critics Association (TCA) tour and spoke to critics, including Suite101.com writers, in Pasadena recently.
Baby Daddy
Suite101: If you go on to a second, third season, it will be Jenna's character raising a kid with the baby daddy. How will you keep this from becoming just another family sitcom or single-mom sitcom and keep the ideas of the original memoir in place?
Claudia Lonow: Well, I'm brilliant. We are on a network that is very, very good at having untraditional family sitcoms. You've got Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother. They are a little untraditional family, Big Bang Theory. We are going to be keeping in line with all of those things. The show is really about two worlds coming together, the sort of party girl, sophisticated world that Billie lives in and the young slacker guys who are sort of invading her space, and that's what the show will continue to be about.
Jenna's Journey
Suite101: Jenna, can you take us through the journey of the last few years. After Dharma & Greg wrapped, you tried a couple other sitcom pilots that didn't take off. How tough is it to get a successful sitcom on the air and why do you just keep going at it?
Jenna Elfman: Because I love comedy so much. It's been quite a challenging last four or five years of my life. I have been doing nothing but trying to find another show to do on television that makes me happy that inspires me, that I feel like I'm in a comedy sandbox doing what I love to do. Boy, it was a real test of my endurance, mentally, you know, because it was very challenging. Many times I would go in my backyard, and I would call my agent and go, "I think I'm just going to move to Montana and quit. I swear. I can't take it." I got really frustrated.
A World of Comedy
Suite101: Part of the problem is there's fewer slots, too, for comedy in the last few years. Why do you think that is, and do you feel like there might be a resurgence around the corner?
Jenna Elfman: I think this world needs comedy. This character was so refreshing. I loved her wit, which really comes from Claudia. And Mary Pols, who wrote the book, is very witty as well. Claudia and her wit are different, but they are harmonious. And the subject matter I thought was timely, and it was actually funny. And that really seems to be a challenging thing to find, to have good storytelling that's actually funny with interesting characters and then to have the casting all happen the way it does. Oh, my God, it's great.
