Originally published in Variety • Written by Cynthia Littleton
You can’t keep a good pair of Jewish divorcees down. “Ronna and Beverly,” a project developed as a comedy series for Showtime earlier this year by multihyphenates Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo, will get a spin on Showtime at 9:05 p.m. ET/12:05 a.m. PT (technically Tuesday on the West Coast feed) today, and again Dec. 29 at the same time on Showtime 2.
Project is based on characters that Chaffin and Denbo have honed for years onstage. Ronna, played by Chaffin, and Beverly, played by Denbo, are many-times-divorced, longtime friends who write a dating guide for Jewish singles, “You’ll Do a Little Better Next Time,” and are relentless about finding ways to promote their tome. (Think a Jewish “Ab Fab,” set in Boston.) “Weeds” maven Jenji Kohan worked with Chaffin and Denbo on the half-hour pilot produced by Lionsgate TV.
The upcoming airings are strictly an amortization move by Showtime, but Chaffin and Denbo are marshalling the power of Facebook et al. and their friends in the comedy community to spread the word about “Ronna and Beverly’s” TV bow in the hopes of generating interest at another net.
Chaffin of late has been working as a writer and thesp on CW’s “90210,” and she’s a recurring character on Showtime’s “United States of Tara.” Denbo has been cast as a regular in FX’s upcoming dramedy “Terriers.”