When asked to define yourself, how do you answer? Lisa Kudrow could list achievements in her roles as an actress or her behind the scenes work as a producer, but she is also a person with a deeply-rooted European family history. Most often, when asked to answer who we are, we look to our past.
“Family history defines you and that history lesson is riveting,” Kudrow said in an interview with The Eagle. Alongside Dan Bucatinsky, Kudrow took the role of executive producer for the newest documentary-style reality show for NBC, “Who Do You Think You Are?”
Premiering March 6, the episodes follow a cast of seven celebrities as they explore their families’ ancestries and discover something about themselves. The series includes Sarah Jessica Parker, Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon and Matthew Broderick, to name a few.
“When people watch the show, it becomes so much more than watching your favorite celebrity’s personal history,” Kudrow said. “You inadvertently get sucked into the story about something so much bigger than you or anyone could imagine.”
Bucatinsky agreed. “[Kudrow] approached the idea with an enormous amount of energy; feeling like you discovered something so special, it was an experience that happened to her that she was sharing and it is hard to find something that infectious.”
In a very atypical history lesson, viewers will witness stories of survival. Kudrow and Bucatinsky credit this as their standout factor compared to other reality shows.
“The stories are so inspirational — how people move through atrocities and come out the other end,” Kudrow said.
With an overwhelming passion, both executive producers expressed America’s need for high-quality television that is entertaining as well as enriching.
“This does both,” Kudrow said. “Because it is not dry history that happened to strangers, it makes you want to study it, learn from it. [“Who Do You Think You Are”] hopefully makes it all worth knowing.”
Kudrow was the first to shoot her installment and describes the show as exploring intimate details with a very personalized aspect to what we’ve all read about in textbooks — proving history can have the impact it is supposed to. She believes our pasts should be intriguing and inviting. “Who Do You Think You Are?” will hopefully illustrate that to viewers and fill them with the enthusiasm that inspired the show.
Kudrow originally saw the show while in Ireland and “wanted to know why the United States was missing out.” She is no novice to past exploration and the chilling excitement involved, describing her father’s love for it as well.
“He did a huge 46-page family tree, so that part I’ve always known, but believe me, the show definitely investigates beyond that,” she said.
Inspired by the BBC version, Bucatinsky said the selection process for the show narrowed roughly 75 people to the chosen seven.
“We drew big names from the sports, entertainment and music industries — high-caliber people with many fans in a lot of different areas,” Bucatinsky said. “Yet this only scratches the surface of the person you believe you know. The more we go back in time into something we are all a part of, the more we tap into different disciplines.”
NBC is partnered with ancestry.com, an online resource for genealogy, which has documented over 4 billion family records for the past 12 years, crediting themselves as housing over 1.25 billion profiles specific to nine countries.
Kudrow and Bucatinsky hope to have a range of celebrities on their show. They have considered including those less famous and using everyday Americans on their show.
“It was definitely something [we] have talked about,” Kudrow said. “Over time I’d love to dip into the public. The backgrounds are so married.”
Kudrow agreed with cast mate Spike Lee about the central theme of the show. “It is not that I know myself better after the journey; now I simply know more.”
“Who Do You Think You Are?” premieres March 6 at 8 p.m. on NBC.
You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
