Soap operas are no strangers to spoofs and spin-offs, but the latest is of grande importancia to the genre. After all, it stars former The Young and the Restless beauty Eva Longoria (ex-Isabella Braña).
The actress makes her debut tonight as aging soap star Ana Sofia in NBC's new series Telenovela, a half-hour single camera comedy also executive produced by the actress. Set behind the scenes of a fictional Spanish-language telenovela, the series centers on Longoria's Sofia, who -- get this -- doesn't even speak Spanish!
"That's from Eva's life. She isn't a native Spanish speaker," shares show runner Jessica Goldstein. "Now she [speaks it], but she had plenty of moments where she was struggling to speak Spanish and people assumed she could speak it and it was uncomfortable and funny. There are so many people like her, we thought it was a fun situational story."
But there's more taken from Longoria's life: Y&R fans may get a kick out of the fact that many of the scenes featured on Telenovela were inspired by her time in Genoa City from 2001-2003.
"She's great with stories from her own life," Goldstein reveals. "She remembers all these funny things and it was a lot of taking from that."
Watch for the special two-episode sneak preview of Telenovela tonight, Monday, December 7, at 10PM ET on NBC. And stay tuned for its official debut on Monday, January 4.
What are your first impressions of Telenovela? Are you happy to see Longoria back on television? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
