THE PARENT TRAP
NBC’S new sitcom “Great
News” is something of a family affair.
The Tina Fey-produced workplace comedy centers on Katie Wendelson (Briga Heelan), a 30-year-old producer at New Jersey-based cable news show “The Breakdown,” whose overly-involved mother Carol (Andrea Martin) decides to take an internship at her daughter’s office.
Its central mother-daughter story is based on creator Tracey Wigfield’s close relationship with her own mother, Kathy, who lives in Wayne, NJ, and whom she calls every day. While Kathy never went so far as to intern at one of her daughter’s previous gigs as a writer on “30 Rock” and “The Mindy
Project,” Wigfield, 33, says, “Her personality is very much Carol on the show. She’s outspoken and very much up in my business all the time and checking my thyroid and putting her hand down my shirt.”
That specific boundary-crossing act appears in the two-episode premiere (Tuesday at 9 p.m. on NBC), as do other real-life examples — helped by the fact that Wigfield’s younger sister, Ashley, is also a writer on the show. Heelan (“Ground Floor”) plays a slightly younger version Mother-daughter duo played for laughs on ‘Great News’ of Wigfield, who’s torn between still needing her mother and not wanting to need her — a role that felt especially relevant to the actress, who is a new mom to a weeks-old daughter with husband Rene Gube.
“[That] was kind of amazing, knowing that I was having a girl when we were filming a motherdaughter show,” Heelan, 30, says. “Before this child popped out of me, [I thought] yes, I would never be overbearing like that and I’m not gonna scare her with horrible dramatic things that could happen to her and constantly be hovering or trying to control who she dates. But then when I look at her face now, I’m like, ‘Girl, I can’t promise you I’m not gonna do any of that crazy stuff.’
“I have a lot more compassion for mothers everywhere.”
In “Great News,” the confidence-challenged Katie soon warms up to the idea of her cheer-leader-in-chief mother being around the office, not least because of Carol’s unfiltered way of talking to her superiors. Though Heelan first met her TV mom Martin at their first rehearsal, she also immediately wanted to be around the Broadway legend all the time.
“As the daughter, if your mom’s in the room, you feel grounded, you feel comforted by that person and we instantly had that,” she says. “Even in social situations, when we weren’t working, if she’s there, I want to be next to her. I had so much to learn from her, too. As an actor, it was like Christmas.”
The ensemble cast is rounded out by “Saturday Night Live” alum Horatio Sanz as the staff video editor, Adam Campbell as the executive producer, Wigfield as the channel’s nerdy meteorologist, John Michael Higgins as “The Breakdown”s blowhard co-anchor and Nicole Richie (yes, of “The
Simple Life” fame) as the hip co-host he’s perpetually butting heads with.
“[Nicole] came in and auditioned ... and she nailed it,” Wigfield says. “I always thought she was really funny on ‘The Simple Life’ but she obviously hasn’t done a ton of scripted acting. I was so pleasantly surprised that she was really good and very precise and had great timing. I’m excited for people to see her.”