Israeli-made television show, Mom and Dadz, has been bought by British and French production companies and is set for remakes in English and French. The comic drama features a gay couple raising a child with a single woman and the complex dynamics of the characters that goes with this mission.
Although the show may at first sound like the now defunct NBC show, The New Normal, Mom and Dadz stays away from the one-liners that accompanied the American series and instead “focuses on the complex dynamics of the parental triangle, layering their insecurities and complicated emotions with wry humor,” according to the New York Times.
HOT cable channel and ADD, Israel’s largest content agency, say they’ve signed deals with Double V – France’s leading independent TV distribution company – and Company Pictures – one the UK’s largest independent film and television drama production companies – for remakes of the blue-and-white show.
Series creator Avner Bernheimer, who also wrote 2002′s immensely popular film Yossi & Jagger, loosely based the plot on his own family’s life. He pitched the show when he and his partner were in the process of having a son with a single woman.
Gay characters have graced Israeli TV screens for years but Mom and Dadz brought the first gay family to the screen when it aired in 2011. It was so well liked by critics and viewers alike that the show is currently taping a second season, set to air in Israel in 2014.
“The Israeli version of Mom and Dadz is original and creditable and we are excited to work together with HOT, ADD and Avner Bernheimer with the purpose of taking this wonderful show to the British audience. We hope that this will be the beginning of a long and fruitful working relationship,” says producer Mark Pybus of Company Pictures.
Mom and Dadz is the latest Israeli-made television show to go abroad.
American CW network’s Joey Dakota is a remake of Israel’s Danny Hollywood. Showtime’s Homeland, HBO’s In Treatment and the Fox comedy, Traffic Light, are also remakes of original Israeli shows.
“Mom and Dadz can sweep up an international audience in the same way the show swept ratings in Israel,” says HOT’s deputy director for regulation, Yoram Mokedi.