Married To The Kellys - Premise

Premise

Producer Tom Hertz (Spin City, Less Than Perfect) loosely based this comedy on his own true life experiences. The sitcom centers on New York loner Tom (Breckin Meyer, Clueless) who was raised as an only child. When he marries Susan (Kiele Sanchez, That Was Then), a woman raised in the Mid-West by a large family, they move to Kansas to be closer to them and he has to quickly adjust to life with a big, caring family.

When Tom married Susan he thought he was only getting a new wife. He never even considered that he would be getting a brand new family as well. Included in this new family are mother Sandy, the rule-maker of the house, and father Bill, once an only child, who could be the one person Tom can relate to the most. There's also Susan's competitive sister Mary and her husband Chris, who considers himself Bill and Sandy's favorite son-in-law and finds Tom as somewhat of a threat. And finally there's Susan's brother Lewis, a shy and awkward young man who has made a career of collecting bugs. Other family members who occasionally dropped by included Uncle Dave, the big-shot of the family, and Lisa, the youngest daughter who wants to back-pack around Europe and become an art major.

When Married to the Kellys premiered Fridays at 8:30pm/7:30 central during ABC's fall 2003 season, it aired after George Lopez, where ABC brought back its famed TGIF block along with the new Kelly Ripa comedy Hope & Faith and Life with Bonnie. Originally bought by ABC as The Untitled Tom Hertz Project the show needed a quick title in order for the series to be promoted in time for the network to unveil its new line-up. So they decided on the tentative title Back to Kansas. Although the series does take place in Kansas the title didn't quite work since the main character isn't really returning to Kansas (his wife is) and the show wasn't really about the wife's "return" to Kansas but more about the entire Kelly family and the main character's efforts in trying to fit into a new situation. The show soon acquired the more appropriate and fitting title Married to the Kellys. An interesting fact about the show is that Tom Hertz didn't just use real life situations as inspiration for this sitcom, he also used real life family members. All the characters in the series were named after Tom, his wife and his in-laws (with the exception of Lewis).

Married to the Kellys also starred Josh Braaten (That '80s Show), Nancy Lenehan (Grace Under Fire), Emily Rutherfurd (The Ellen Show, Van Wilder), Sam Anderson (Angel) and newcomer Derek Waters.