While several of her former Big Bang Theory co-stars have already appeared in noteworthy follow-up projects, Mayim Bialik is now finally set for her first big TV role post-Amy Farrah Fowler. Fans can catch her heading up Fox's upcoming sitcom Call Me Kat, which she is executive producing alongside former on-screen hubby Jim Parsons. And not only is Bialik excited about the new project, but she's actually calling it the greatest job she's ever had in her life. I think that's a pretty good sign of approval, don't you?
In the new show, Mayim Bialik – who reprised Amy just recently for Young Sheldon's Season 4 premiere – plays the titular Kat, a socially anxious woman in her late 30s who opens a quaint café for cats using money that was she was supposed to use on a big wedding. Speaking of, her romantic life is nowhere near as active as her mother (Swoosie Kurtz) thinks it should be, but Kat has some inspiration on that front after reconnecting with her old friend Max (Cheyenne Jackson). Call Me Kat, as developed by The Big C's Darlene Hunt, also features stars such as American Horror Story vet Leslie Jordan, The Proud Family's Kyla Pratt and Good Girls' Julian Gant.
That stocked-up cast is certainly part of why Mayim Bialik is so very pumped about being a big part of Call Me Kat. During the show's panel for Fox's TCA winter press event, I asked the actress to compare joining The Big Bang Theory in the midst of its run to being part of the Call Me Kat development process from its early days, and here's how she first responded:
Well, joining The Big Bang Theory in the season finale of Season 3 was like coming into the last semester of the last year of high school at a new school where you knew no one and there wasn't even a locker left, and so you had to share with someone else. I mean, Big Bang Theory was a finely oiled machine when I got there, which was really fantastic, because there was very little pressure. They already knew exactly what they were doing. There were all these beautiful rhythms and, you know, I essentially imitated Jim Parsons for the first couple years, and that seemed to work. And what we have here, we get to build from the ground up. Darlene has created like the best playground ever for us. Besides the fact that we also are just so excited to be working and not in our houses anymore, we have material and we have characters that we all love to play with.
It sounds like Mayim Bialik has been absolutely overjoyed with bringing Call Me Kat to life at Fox, as opposed to signing on to another TV show that already boasted an established cast and sense of humor. That situation obviously worked for her on The Big Bang Theory, since she spent another eight seasons portraying Amy and building up the character's relationship with Sheldon. That said, after spending so long on that particular series, it was presumably a lung-full of fresh air to start working on a project without any built-in expectations. (Well, beyond the fact that it hits some of the same beats as Miranda, the UK comedy Kat is based on.)
In fact, Mayim Bialik is very much enjoying the process of getting more comfortable with Call Me Kat's creative process and working with her talented co-stars. Here's what else she had to say:
It's definitely a learning curve for us. We're learning each other, we're learning the system that works best for all of us. But it is a lot more pressure on me personally, I'll say that. [Laughs.] But also, it's been just such a joy. I mean, I've never had a job like this, I can absolutely say that. My time on Big Bang Theory was fantastic and life-changing, and my time on Blossom was fantastic and life-changing, but the way that we get to work, and these actors that you see, and our writers, and just this whole team has made this for me, personally, the greatest job I've ever had. And even that includes being a mother because like that's really rough most days. [Laughs.]
Ha! Not only does Mayim Bialik think that working on Call Me Kat is a greater job than her arguably iconic spot within The Big Bang Theory, but she also finds it more pleasing than being a mother. Anyone who has raised their own children for any amount of time would probably agree that starring in a TV show would be less stressful, regardless of the show. So it's probably a good thing that her character Kat only deals with four-legged felines instead of two-legged monster-babies.
While Mayim Bialik will be heading into pretty comfortable multi-camera waters with Call Me Kat, the same can't be said for her former Big Bang cohorts. Over on HBO Max, Kaley Cuoco is dealing with a murder mystery for The Flight Attendant and supervillain shenanigans for Harley Quinn, while the sometimes-blonde-now Jim Parsons made himself at home on Netflix with Ryan Murphy's TV drama Hollywood and the feature adaptation of his stage play The Boys In the Band. Kunal Nayyar can also be found on Netflix, playing a killer in the second season of Criminal: UK.
But while her former co-stars all went darker, Mayim Bialik is keeping things light and airy for Call Me Kat, which will make its debut on Fox on Sunday, January 3, at 8:00 p.m. ET, before flipping to its normal time slot on Thursday nights at the same time. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more coverage, and head to our Winter and Spring 2021 TV premiere schedule to see what other new and returning shows will hit the small screen in the new year.
