LOS ANGELES — Mark Feuerstein didn’t realize it at the time but while he was working on the cable series “Royal Pains,” the groundwork was being established for a future television project.
Feuerstein’s new CBS comedy, “9JKL,” which he created with his wife, Dana Klein, was spawned by his living arrangements while he was filming the cable series. While shooting “Royal Pains,” Feuerstein moved into a New York apartment next door to where his parents were living. His brother, sister-in-law and their baby were living in the apartment on the other side.
“Every morning, I would wake up to my father coming in his tighty-whities, going, ‘Mark, what would you like for breakfast? Would you like eggs, French toast? What can I get?’ And every night, after a 15-hour day of shooting, my mother would be waiting by her door like a gunslinger in a nightgown, and the second my hand would touch the doorknob, she’d whip it open and go, ‘Hi, Mark. Would you like to come in for a salad?’ Which, of course, I would do and sit with her from 11 till midnight talking about the day’s events,” Feuerstein says.
The result is a comedy, launching Oct. 2 on CBS, which looks at newly divorced Josh Roberts (Feuerstein) who is an actor between projects. He moves home to New York to regroup, living in an apartment sandwiched between his parents (Elliott Gould, Linda Lavin) on one side and his brother (David Walton), sister-in-law (Liza Lapira) and their new baby on the other. They all become so involved in Josh’s life that he makes an attempt to set some ground rules.