Following the release of Friday Night Lights, Katims approached Ron Howard and Brian Grazer with the idea of creating an updated, modern adaptation of the 1989 film and bringing it to television.
Julia is married to Joel and has a daughter, Sydney, and a son, Victor, whom they adopted after finding themselves unable to conceive a second child.
Nearly two decades later, Jason Katims, the showrunner of Friday Night Lights, met with Howard and Brian Grazer to ask them to readapt the film on television, which they accepted though they were reluctant at first.
[7] By the end of the month, Peter Krause, Maura Tierney, Dax Shepard, Mae Whitman, Sarah Ramos and Craig T. Nelson were all attached to the drama.
[11] Diane Farr was originally chosen as Kristina Braverman, but she quickly left the series due to scheduling conflicts with Californication and was replaced by Potter.
[19] The role was specifically created for him after he expressed his love for the show and met with Katims on the set of Friday Night Lights.
[20] Production for the first season began in 2009 with Katims as executive producer, serving as showrunner and head writer; he also directed a few episodes later in the series.
[23] In the aftermath of Maura Tierney's departure, the premiere date that was originally set for September 23, 2009,[13] was moved to March 1, 2010, at 9:00 p.m., but it was again delayed to the following day at 10:00 p.m. in the aftermath of The Jay Leno Show cancellation and 2010 Tonight Show conflict, requiring the return of scripted programming to the later time slot.
[24] The series premiere was dedicated to the memory of Nora O'Brien, a vice president at NBC, who died on the set of Parenthood on April 29, 2009, after collapsing from an aneurysm.
However, due to an overhaul of NBC's Law & Order: Los Angeles putting the show on an indefinite hiatus, the network announced on January 18, 2011, that Parenthood would remain in the Tuesday 10/9c time slot.
[30] The rights have since moved to UP (which also carries Gilmore Girls repeats), uniting both of Lauren Graham's main series on the same network for cable syndication.
[38] Alan Sepinwall, writing for The Star-Ledger in Newark, wrote that "Like the movie that inspired it, Parenthood isn't an instant classic, but it's smart and warm and knowing, and it casts its net so wide that at least part of it should connect with you.
"[39] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Parenthood isn't better than Modern Family, but it's different—it's its own creation, thanks to the deft touch and careful characterizations developed by executive producer Jason Katims and his writers.
"[40] Following the second season's premiere, Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "As the series has proceeded, what initially looked like a bunch of talented but disparate actors has cohered into a believable clan.
She deemed Parenthood one of only two great dramas on network television next to The Good Wife and cited its ability to be warm and sentimental without being dumb as one of its strengths.
[44] Sheri Levine of The Vancouver Sun wrote, "The cast moves effortlessly from providing serious, thoughtful answers to cracking jokes and allowing the funny moments to shine through.
"[45] TIME magazine columnist James Poniewozik wrote that the show's "third and fourth seasons have elevated it to one of TV's best because of how it has hit a memorable theme from FNL: the idea of how community can be, inseparably, both a burden and indispensable support.
[49] Writing for The Daily Beast, Jace Lacob highlighted Monica Potter's "breathtaking" performance, whose cancer storyline was "poignant" and "gripping".
Principal actors include Giorgio Colangeli as father/grandfather Ettore Ferraro, Licia Maglietta as mother/grandmother Emma and Maya Sansa as daughter/mother Sara.