My Big Fat Greek Life

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.

I just watched the first episode of this show and it would seem that this family is cooking up something other than lamb for a change...try turkey! What worked wonderfully on the silver screen is very uncomfortable and amateurish in the context of a half hour sit-com. Emeril was probably better than this. The studio audience must not understand english because if they did they wouldn't be laughing. This TV show is to My Big Fat Greek Wedding fans what Jar Jar Binks is to fans of the original Star Wars.

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.

I just finished watching the first episode, and... well I wish i could go back a half an hour and find something better to watch. The movie was funny and a good

time to watch. But this is just trying to ride of the success of the movie. If this show makes it and ends up lasting a long time, it means that the whole world is gone to hell. If you didn't get to catch this show, than don't bother, if you liked the movie your more than likely be dissapointed by the show. So instead pop in the movie and watch it instead.

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!!