Erin Foster impressed her mother-in-law by featuring her in Nobody Wants This. During an episode of The LadyGang podcast on Oct. 8, the 42-year-old show creator shared that she allowed her husband Simon Tikhman’s mother to make a brief appearance early in the series.
Although Tikhman’s parents have not yet watched the popular Netflix rom-com, Foster mentioned that she included “a little Easter egg” for them. “She’s in the opening temple scene sitting next to the woman that’s playing her.
She was really excited. I mean, listen, the truth is there,” Foster explained. She noted that while the series is based on her own love story with Tikhman, she needed to introduce “built-in conflict” into the storyline.
Foster reveals on The LadyGang podcast that her husband Simon Tikhman’s mother appears in the opening temple scene of the show
In the series, Joanne (played by Kristen Bell) is disliked by Noah’s (Adam Brody) parents, but Tikhman’s actual relatives “love” Foster. “I’m lovable. I converted to Judaism,” the Favorite Daughter designer joked, adding, “It’s like the ultimate way to get your in-laws to love you. And so they’re excited, and they’re having, like, a viewing party with all their friends, which is really cute.”
Streaming since Sept. 26, the 10-episode series depicts a blossoming romance between newly single rabbi Noah and sex podcaster Joanne, along with a host of skeptics who doubt the viability of their relationship.
The inspiration for the show emerged in 2019 when Foster, the daughter of Grammy-winning producer David Foster, was converting to Judaism after meeting Tikhman. The couple originally crossed paths at a Los Angeles gym in 2018 and became engaged the following year.
While crossing the conversion process, Foster’s producing partner and manager encouraged her to write a show about her journey titled Shiksha (a term typically used by Jewish people to refer to a gentile woman), and the idea “clicked,” as she explained in an episode of her and sister Sara Foster’s podcast, The World’s First Podcast.
Foster and Tikhman tied the knot during a New Year’s Eve celebration in 2019 and welcomed their first child, a daughter, in May. While Tikhman is not a rabbi and the conflicts faced by the main characters Noah and Joanne do not reflect Foster’s real-life marriage, she has described the series as a “love letter” to her relationship with her husband.
