“Almost Family,” described by executive producer Annie Weisman as “an unconventional family drama with a lot of comedy and humor that’s tapping into the zeitgeist and exploring issues of identity,” premieres at 9:01 p.m. Wednesday evening on Fox.
Based on the Australian series “Sisters” which also streamed on Netflix, “Almost Family” stars Brittany Snow as only child Julia Bechley whose life is turned upside down when her pioneering fertility doctor father (Timothy Hutton) reveals that he used his own genetic material to conceive upwards of dozens of children.
Bechley discovers two new sisters, her former best friend Edie Palmer (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and retired Olympic athlete Roxy Doyle (Emily Osment), who begin to embrace their new reality.
Other new siblings will be introduced in future episodes, “including some controversial ones who will be both eager to be close to the sisters and not eager,” an orthodox Jewish sibling ”who has a different definition of family and identity,” and a gay sibling who will “help tell the story of” Palmer’s “complex sexual identity,” Weisman told City News Service.
Other elements of “Almost Family” are the exploration of the “fall from grace” of Hutton’s character and “what it means to be someone who used to behave with a lot of power and impunity but … can’t do that anymore because he’s under a lot of scrutiny,” and “what it means to be the daughter of someone like that, who had such admiration for someone and now is seeing them fall from that pedestal,” Weisman said.
Weisman said “Almost Family” is the result of the desires of her and fellow executive producer Jason Katims (“Friday Night Lights,” “Parenthood”) to produce a series about “advances in genetic testing” which bring “about so many new and unconventional family stories.”
“I also have been obsessed with telling sister stories for a long time and sister relationships ever since I fell in love with `Little Women’ when I was a kid and `Downton Abbey,”’ said Weisman, who had been a producer during a portion of the run of the 2004-12 ABC mystery comedy-drama, “Desperate Housewives” and the 2011-14 ABC comedy “Suburgatory.”
“The opportunity to tell one that happens in midlife was really interesting to me. Sisters are the girls in your life that you didn’t pick but you are stuck with and the opportunity to tell that kind of family story where you have everything in common and nothing in common really interested me.”
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