Chris Keyser is not much of a cook, nor were his parents. But his family still regularly clicked on the TV when he was a kid to watch Julia Child work her magic in the studio kitchen.
“We watched The French Chef together every week,” explained the veteran television writer and producer, best known for his work on Party of Five. “There was no filter. She was unambiguously herself. Even with all her unlikely characteristics — how she looked, how she sounded — none of those things are made for TV. Yet there she was, making connections through the camera right into your home. You felt very close to her and understood who she was. It was impossible not to be entranced as you watched.”
So when Keyser was approached by his colleague Daniel Goldfarb about working on a television series about Child’s life, he signed on instantly. After years of writing, producing the pilot — which was interrupted for six months by COVID — and shopping the idea around, Keyser and Goldfarb released their show Julia on MAX in March 2022.