Happily Divorced, a US sitcom about a woman re-entering the dating scene after she discovers that her husband is gay, starts on SABC3 on Monday 24 September at 21h30.
The sitcom is inspired by the real lives of series creators Fran Drescher and Peter Marc Jacobson, who had been high school sweethearts and then married in 1978. They divorced in 1999 and Jacobson later came out as gay to Drescher. However, they remained friends. In 2010 the pair, who had previously created Drescher’s earlier series The Nanny, began developing the series based on their life experiences. Initially Drescher planned only to write and produce Happily Divorced but eventually decided to star as well.
Set in Los Angeles, Fran’s gay ex-husband still lives with her for economic reasons, with “a very traditional family’. Everyone’s very accepting that he’s gay. They’re both dating; he’s new at it, she’s new at it.’
TV Land gave the green light to a pilot episode in November 2010. The network announced on 21 March 2011 that the series had been picked up with a 10-episode order. The show was shot in front of a live studio audience at CBS Radford in Studio City, which provides Happily Divorced the typical style of the 1990s sitcoms.
The comedy also stars John Michael Higgins as Peter Lovett, a real estate agent and Fran’s gay ex-husband; Tichina Arnold as Judi Mann, Fran’s best friend; Valente Rodriguez as Cesar, Fran’s employee from Mexico; Rita Moreno as Dori Newman, Fran’s mother; Robert Walden as Glenn Newman, Fran’s father; and D.W. Moffett as Elliott.
