Netflix’s new half-hour comedy show assembles a pair of comedy veterans from the Emmy-winning sitcoms Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond.
The new Netflix comedy show No Good Deed has cast two iconic stars from Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond. Friends is a smash-hit sitcom about the bond between six twenty-somethings that ran between 1994 and 2004, starring Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, and Matt LeBlanc. Everybody Loves Raymond, which aired between 1995 and 2006, was a family sitcom starring Ray Romano as Long Island-based sports writer Ray Barone, with an ensemble cast that also included Patricia Heaton, Brad Garrett, Madylin Sweeten, Doris Roberts, and Peter Boyle.
Per TVLine, Everybody Loves Raymond lead Romano and Friends star Kudrow have been tapped to star in the ensemble comedy No Good Deed. The show will follow a trio of families fighting to be the ones to purchase a “1920s Spanish-style villa” in Los Feliz. Kudrow and Romano will be playing married couple Lydia and Paul Morgan, who are reluctantly putting the home on the market. Lydia, a retired concert pianist, loves the home despite its dark secrets, but Paul, a down-on-his-luck contractor, needs the money and wants to move out of Los Angeles.
Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano Provide a Good Foundation for No Good Deed
Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish riding in a golf cart in The Comeback
So far, it is unclear exactly what comic tone No Good Deed will be using. From the plot synopsis, it could easily slip into the heartwarming register of a show like Modern Family. However, it seems more likely that the intense stakes at the center of the show will lead it to be more of a dark comedy like Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet, which also included a real estate element at the center of its horror-comedy mayhem.
Santa Clarita Diet starred Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant as real estate agents Joel and Sheila Hammond, whose perfect suburban life is thrown into disarray when Sheila becomes undead and develops a craving for human flesh.
Either way the show decides to take its tone, the stars that have been cast at its center are well-suited for it. As an Everybody Loves Raymond star, Romano has experience in the family sitcom mode. However, he has shown a flair for showcasing characters’ darker or more dramatic sides in later comedy projects including The Big Sick, Get Shorty, and Men of a Certain Age.
Friends alum Kudrow will serve as an excellent complement to the Everybody Love Raymond lead in No Good Deed. Kudrow has showcased her ability to craft dynamic characters for more traditional sitcoms such as her iconic 1990s hit and its predecessor Mad About You. However, she has also shown a willingness to embrace darkness in more challenging comedies about complex characters like her HBO mockumentary The Comeback and the web series Web Therapy.