I FEEL BAD: PILOT {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The first in this comedy series, based on the book by Orli Auslander, about a working mom's attempts to keep up with life's many demands, both societal and self-inflicted.
In this episode, married mom of two and video-game artist Emet has a scandalous extramarital affair – in her dreams – and awakens to learn that her daughter Lily has abandoned her academic club in order to join the dance team. When her father Aneel accidentally mistakes his daughter for his wife Maya, Emet vows that she will not "turn into" her mother and consults her younger male co-workers about whether she is still "doable." Emet confides in her best friend Simone and, knowing that Maya would have aggressively dissuaded her from following her dreams, commits to supporting Lily no matter what. When Lily and her friends demonstrate their "very advanced" dance routine for the family, however, a panicked Emet decides to "Inception" her daughter by tricking her into leaving the team, seemingly by her own choice.
Emet, Simone and Maya's attempts to embarrass Lily into quitting soon backfire, so one of Emet's co-workers, nerdy Griff, agrees to phone the school and pose as an outraged parent. This too fails to work when the school simply balances things out by adding boys to the dance squad; when Emet finally vents her feelings about the overly sexualized choreography, she realizes with horror that she has become her mother after all. Later, however, she decides that she is at least trying to be a "better version" of Maya, and she is pleased to see that her colleagues have learned from her experience and have created a strong and admirable female protagonist character for their latest video game. Emet is further cheered to learn that her father has cataracts, meaning that she does not entirely resemble her mother just yet – though her husband David then makes an awkward gaffe of his own. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: November 30, 1999 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:21:33
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 134196
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; Families; Working mothers
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 2018-2019
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Josh Maurer … Executive Producer
- Dave Becky … Executive Producer
- Amy Poehler … Executive Producer
- Julie Anne Robinson … Executive Producer, Director
- Aseem Batra … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Scott Printz … Producer
- Kelly Pancho … Producer
- Kim Lessing … Producer
- Julia Rask … Co-Producer
- Orli Auslander … Consulting Producer, Based on the book by
- Mateo Massina … Music by
- Sarayu Blue … Cast, Emet
- Paul Adelstein … Cast, David
- Madhur Jaffrey … Cast, Maya
- Brian George … Cast, Aneel
- James Buckley … Cast, Chewy
- Zach Cherry … Cast, Norman
- Johnny Pemberton … Cast, Griff
- Aisling Bea … Cast, Simone
- Lily Rose Silver … Cast, Lily
- Callan Farris … Cast, Louie
- Christopher Avila … Cast, Hux
- Easton Magliarditi … Cast, Tucker
- Whitney Ortega … Cast, Hot Girl
- Joy Jacobson … Cast, Dance Instructor