A departure for Chelsea Handler
If you feel somewhat dazed and confused while watching the new NBC sitcom Are You There, Chelsea?, it doesn't necessarily mean that, like the title character, you may have had one too many vodkas.
Even the cast and producers acknowledged that the comedy's unusual setup may take some getting used to.
"We did kind of a weird thing," executive producer Julie Larson said at the show's press session in California last week.
Viewers will see this "weird thing" for themselves when the half-hour debuts at 7:30 tonight as a companion show to Whitney. It's based on the memoirs of late-night TV talk host and comedian Chelsea Handler - specifically, her best-seller, Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea.
Yet, strangely enough, Handler, who appears in the show, doesn't play Chelsea. Laura Prepon (That '70s Show) does.
Both Handler and Prepon said they expect there will be some viewer confusion at first, but they hope NBC's promos featuring the two of them will help clear that up.
"What we want to do is just make it very clear what the show is," Handler said. "We wanted people to know that, yes, I'm part of the show, but this (pointing to Prepon) is the star of the show."
In the new series, Chelsea is in her 20s and not yet on TV. She works as a cocktail waitress in a sports bar in New Jersey, where she's surrounded by other fun-loving, wise-cracking types, including a handsome bartender named Rick (Jake McDorman) and Olivia (Ali Wong), a fellow waitress and Chelsea's best friend.
Chelsea's main occupations, however, seem to be slinging sexual banter - la CBS' 2 Broke Girls, only not quite as clever - and putting away as many drinks as possible. In fact, the show begins with Chelsea landing in jail for a DUI.
As things begin to get heated between her and an aggressive fellow inmate (Glee's Coach Beiste, Dot-Marie Jones), she prays to her god, "vodka," to get her out of this mess.
Instead, it's her "judgy, super-Christian" sister Sloane who comes to Chelsea's rescue. Sloane is played by - you guessed it - Handler, in a brunette wig and sporting a pregnant bump.
So, why didn't Handler just play herself?
"It's a dream come true to have someone else portray me because I've been living this life for a long time, and I'm over myself," Handler said.
"It's a pleasure to play my sister," she added, "because everything I've been accusing her of my whole life, I can now re-enact before her eyes."
Besides, Hander said, playing the title character would leave too little time for her many other responsibilities, including helming Chelsea Lately and "After Lately" on the E! channel, and writing best-selling nonfiction books.
"I have a job every single day, and then I have another job and then I have another job and then I have another job," she said.
As Sloane, she'll appear in seven of the 13 episodes.
"It's Laura's show really, ultimately, and the show's based on me, so I wanted her to hav! e as muc h time without me as possible," Handler joked.
Prepon said she was attracted to the Chelsea role because "she is ballsy and brash and not PC." She predicted audiences will "love that about her because I think that people relate to flawed characters."
Fans of That '70s Show can look forward to a reunion-style treat. Wilmer Valderrama, a k a "Fez," will have a guest turn soon as a romantic interest for Prepon's character.
Comments