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Marge Simpson, Debra from Everybody Loves Raymond, Peggy from Married…With Children – how many long-suffering sitcom wives have we watched over the years and wondered how they put up with their ridiculous husbands? Well, now we’ll finally be able to hear their thoughts and feelings, thanks to a new comedy series from Rashida Jones.
US television network AMC has announced that it is developing a new series that will take the familiar sitcom set-up of an oafish husband and nagging wife, and tell it from the woman’s perspective. The show, from executive producers Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, currently has a working title of Kevin Can Go F**k Himself.
The title is presumably a reference to short-lived CBS sitcom Kevin Can Wait, starring Kevin James; in which the wife’s character was killed off after one series, before the show’s cancellation after season two.
AMC’s description of the show says it will “explore the secret life of a woman we all grew up watching: the sitcom wife.” The description goes on to describe the dynamic of the relationship between the two main characters, and why a fresh perspective is needed for comedy sitcoms:
A beauty paired with a less attractive, dismissive, caveman-like husband who gets to be a jerk because she’s a nag and he’s ‘funny.’ Our series looks to break television convention and ask what does the world look like through her eyes? Alternating between single-camera realism and multi-camera zaniness, the formats will be constantly informing one another as we ask what happens when this supporting character is presented as a real person? And what if that person is pissed?
While Kevin Can Go F**k Himself has not been officially ordered to series, development and writing have begun in what AMC calls “writer’s rooms” – a new process where the network’s writers trial and develop new series ideas collaboratively.
While we’ll have to wait to see how the series develops, we hope we won’t have too long to wait – this sitcom sounds long-overdue.