‘Nobody Wants This’: The true love story that inspired the Netflix series

Netflix’s new romantic sitcom, “Nobody Wants This,” feels too good to be true — but it’s not. The series is based on creator Erin Foster’s real experiences.
Foster’s “Nobody Wants This” is loosely based on her own love story. Like the series’ leading lady, Joanna (Kristen Bell), Foster fell in love with a charming Jewish man.
After becoming educated on Judaism, Foster converted and married her now-husband Simon Tikhman in 2019, per Vulture.
“A big part of what drew me to Simon was that he was someone who was funny and cool and modern, but he had a bit of an old-fashioned feel about him,” Foster told The Los Angeles Times. “He’ll be like, ‘Hey, we should go check in on that person, or ‘We need to go see your grandma.’ I didn’t grow up with etiquette around those things.”
“Nobody Want This” is not a perfectly faithful retelling of Foster’s early relationship with Tikhman — some plot points were added for entertainment value. But the “emotional journey” is accurate, Foster says.
“It’s not always like tangible things I can point to,” Foster told Today. “The emotional journey, I would say, is very accurate to my experience of meeting my husband.”
Foster also highlights her outside perspective on Judaism in the series without “making any political statements,” she told Netflix Tudum.
“I didn’t grow up Jewish, I converted as an adult. I wanted to tell a Jewish story, but from an outsider’s perspective for someone who chose Judaism.”
Erin Foster is a writer, producer and actress. She is the daughter of music producer and 16-time Grammy award winner David Foster and his former wife, Rebecca Dyer.
She has worked in TV for several years, with minor acting roles in “Gilmore Girls,” “House,” “Castle” and “The O.C.,” per IMDB.
Foster and her husband, Simon Tikhman, were raised in very different households.
Foster said she grew up with a “complicated family structure,” per The Los Angeles Times. She grew up in a nonreligious, untraditional home. Her father, David Foster, has been married five times and has six children.
Like Adam Brody’s character, Tikhman is the son of Russian Jewish immigrants. Unlike Brody’s character, Tikhman has never been a rabbi but his upbringing made him feel obligated to pass down his Jewish lineage.
“We didn’t come from similar backgrounds,” Foster said on her and her sister’s podcast, “The World’s First Podcast.” “He came from a much more traditional place. I came from a more unconventional place. When we got together we were like, ‘How’s this gonna work?’”
Foster had previously attended a handful of classes on Judaism with a friend and was attracted to the structure and tradition that comes with religion, per The LA Times. She was open to the idea of converting.
When Foster started dating Tikhman, her experiences with him turned her beliefs “upside down,” she told Today.
He was the sort of person “who makes you want to be a better version of yourself, and who makes you question all the things that you thought were true,” she added.
Ahead of their 2019 wedding, Foster embarked on her conversion journey. She took 10 weeks of classes at American Jewish University, per The LA Times.
Then, Foster made the decision to convert to Judaism.
On New Year’s Eve in 2019, Foster and Tikhman got married, per Vulture. They now have a daughter, Noa, who was born in May.
Foster’s relationship with Tikhman loosely inspired the plot for “Nobody Wants This.”
“This show is based on the only good decision I ever made: falling for a nice Jewish boy,” Foster told Netflix Tudum. “But I realized that being happy is way harder than being miserable — there’s nothing to complain about. So, I created this show based on all the ways that finding the right person can be so hard.”
Noah, played by Adam Brody, is based on Foster’s own husband.
“I’m obsessed with Simon; he’s my muse. And this show is like a love letter to him,” Foster told The LA Times.
With Tikhman as the inspiration, Foster wanted to write a character who was, “emotionally available, chivalrous, old-fashioned … but also really funny and confident,” she said in a episode of The World’s First Podcast.
One difference Foster noted between her husband and Noah are their families. In Foster’s experience, Tikhman’s family was supportive of their relationship. She created the naysayers to add entertainment value to the series.
“You have to have conflict for a TV show so you have to create people pushing back against the relationship,” Foster says in the podcast.
If Netflix gives the green light, Foster wants to do a second season of “Nobody Wants This.”
“We’re getting a really positive response,” Foster told IndieWire prior to the show’s Netflix premiere. “And so I think the conversations have definitely started to happen about a potential Season 2.”
“The story in Season 1 unfolds really slowly. And so I think if there is a Season 2 I would want to just kind of pick up where we leave off and continue to take it slow, because I don’t want us to get too far ahead of ourselves. I mean, I want my show to be on the air as long as possible!”
Brody and Bell are both interested in filming a sophomore season to “Nobody Wants This.”
“I would love to do a Season 2; Kristen and Adam would love to do a Season 2,” Foster told The Wrap. “There’s so much more story to tell so if people like the show, then I would be really excited to keep telling it.”