Jamie Lee Curtis is finally starring in the sitcom she wanted to make after deciding to create the opportunity herself.
“I couldn’t get a job on a sitcom, and now I can because I created one,” she quipped while talking to People about her new NBC comedy, Newlyweds.
Jamie Lee Curtis turned a long-held idea into Newlyweds
Jamie has said she wanted to return to sitcoms after starring in the early-’90s series Anything But Love.
“All I’ve ever said to my agents is, I want to do a sitcom, and they’ve not provided me one. So I had to provide one for myself,” she previously told TV Insider.
When another sitcom opportunity didn’t come along, she helped develop her own: Newlyweds, which she co-created with Gail Lerner, executive produces, and appears in as a recurring guest star.
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The idea came to the Oscar winner in 2019 after a conversation with a New York driver who mentioned that he had divorced and later remarried.
“An older man was the driver and said that he was divorced, but then he mentioned his new wife. When he said, ‘My new wife,’ literally … in that moment, I knew [there] was a sitcom about people in their 60s and 70s who hooked up and got married on a whim,” she shared with People.
Jamie said the story was “very similar” to her own story with her husband, Christopher Guest. They’ve been married for more than 40 years.
“I saw his picture in a magazine, said I was going to marry him and married him four months later after never being alone together for more than 72 hours,” Jamie said.
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What is Newlyweds about?
The sitcom stars real-life married couple Téa Leoni and Tim Daly as Jeanie, a free-spirited woman, and James, a more buttoned-up professor. After a whirlwind courtship, the pair marry and begin adjusting to each other’s families and friends. Jamie plays Claudia, James’ ex-wife, who remains part of his life.
Newlyweds premiered Friday, Oct. 23, at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC. New episodes air Friday nights, and episodes stream on Peacock the following day.