Bucatinsky, Roos and Kudrow bringing celebrity genealogy show to NBC

Here's a new reality show to get excited about: NBC has tentatively ordered a show that will take the celebrity biography to a new realm ... by exploring their family trees. Who Do You Think You Are? is based on a BBC series where unknown details of their family histories are revealed to celebrities, often prompting dramatic moments of self-discovery. The UK version has run for four seasons and has included Stephen Fry, David Tennant, Graham Norton and Julia Sawalha among their subjects.

As interesting as that mix of celebrity and history sounds, it's the behind-the-scenes talent that upgrades me from "Hmmm" to eager anticipation. The American edition will be produced by Lisa Kudrow along with gay filmmakers Dan Bucatinsky (who wrote and co-starred in All Over the Guy and co-produced The Comeback with Kudrow) and Don Roos (the writer and director of The Opposite of Sex and Happy Endings). With a team like that, you know this isn't going to be one of those lowest-common-denominator shows that doesn't aim to do more than shock and titillate.

NBC is waiting to see which celebrities might be interested in appearing on the show and might have interesting family histories. (I imagine that must be pretty nerve wracking; I mean, if you are accepted, what kind of things might they have discovered that make you interesting enough? I'd drive myself crazy waiting to find out.) That gives us the opportunity to think about who would be fun to see on a show like this ... who do you think would make a good candidate to have their family history explored?

After seeing her visit Ireland in the last season of My Life on the D-List, I wonder how much Kathy Griffin knows about her family history. Kathy would totally know how to make the journey through her family tree a compelling and funny one, too. But who else would make an exciting Who Do You Think You Are? subject?