Is Nia's 'Fat Greek Life' Wonderful?

By Stephen M. Silverman

Monday February 24, 2003 01:07 PM EST

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Will the marriage of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" writer-star Nia Vardalos and CBS be a match made in heaven?

Or is the honeymoon already over?

Only hours before the premiere of the show, the jury is still out. Preview tapes were not made available to TV critics, and there have been rumblings -- in some cases, started by Vardalos herself -- that the star is not all that happy with the network.

But now the debut episode has aired. Despite being very broad at times, the show was fast-paced and mostly amusing, as supporting actress Andrea Martin stole the show with her Greek-chorus comments.

The series is based on the $5 million romantic comedy -- about a Greek-American bachelorette and her overbearing family -- that went on to make $240 million at the North American box office. The film hit video shelves two weeks ago and promptly became the best-selling romantic comedy DVD of all time.

Just about the entire movie cast has made the journey to the small-screen version -- though the characters in the premiere noted that the leading man "seemed different." (He was; John Corbett's role was re-cast.)

But it was not necessarily a smooth transition from big screen to small. The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Vardalos, 40, had spent so much time publicizing her movie that not enough thought was necessarily given to the sitcom -- which ultimately led to clashes on the set and some replacements of creative personnel.

Vardalos also reportedly complained aloud during January's Television Critics Association press tour about CBS's plan, after the Monday premiere, to carry the show in the Sunday 8 p.m. timeslot following "60 Minutes." She apparently would have preferred to stay on Monday night and follow the highly rated "Everybody Loves Raymond."

"Would (the Sunday slot) have been her first choice? Probably not," Vardalos's spokeswoman Christina Papadopoulos tells the Hollywood Reporter. "But does she have any sour grapes about it? No."

Time will tell how this "Life" will fare.