Joshua Jackson, Ray Romano Reunite with Greg Berlanti for New Family Drama Pilot
Joshua Jackson has signed on to star opposite Ray Romano in How To Survive Without Me, a new drama pilot from creators Greg Berlanti and Bash Doran. The series centers on a tight-knit family forced to navigate life after the loss of its matriarch — and the unexpected ways her influence continues to shape their choices.
Premise and cast details
How To Survive Without Me follows the De Angelis family in the wake of Beverly’s passing. The siblings begin to drift as they confront complicated, evolving lives without their mother’s steadying presence. Beverly, however, leaves behind one last act that forces the family to reconnect: a final project that can only be experienced if they choose to make time for one another.
Jackson will play Cooper, a Los Angeles-based chef preparing to open a members-only dining club built around his late mother’s recipes and philosophies about food. Outwardly confident and charismatic, Cooper hides a secret that could upend his friendships and the culinary career he’s constructed in his mother’s name. Ray Romano will portray the family patriarch, a newly widowed father who must find his voice and step into a role he never expected to play.
Creative team and reunion roots
The pilot is written by Greg Berlanti and Bash Doran from a story they co-wrote with Robbie Rogers. The creative team behind the project also includes several executive producers who will shepherd the show through development and beyond. The project reunites Jackson with Berlanti more than two decades after the breakout that launched both of their careers.
The pairing represents a reunion that has followed both men through different chapters of their careers. Jackson and Berlanti have remained close, and their renewed collaboration is being positioned as an intimate, family-driven effort that aims to balance emotional depth with moments of warmth and levity. Leadership involved with the project has highlighted Jackson’s ability to bring nuance and range to the role, and praised Romano’s gift for grounding a story in both heart and humor.
What to expect
Expect a series that leans into familial realism: sibling rivalries, the awkward reshaping of parental authority, and the ways grief can either pull people apart or bind them more tightly together. The pilot’s concept — a family required to find time and effort to engage with one another to access a departed loved one’s final work — sets up a premise that can sustain serialized exploration of character and consequence.
Jackson arrives on the project following recent dramatic work and an upcoming film role. The casting of Romano suggests a tonal blend that will allow the series to mix emotional beats with moments of levity, reflecting the actors’ respective strengths. Creators have described the show as an aspirational family drama that could return season after season to deepen viewers’ connections with its central characters.
With a writing team rooted in both television craft and personal storytelling, the pilot aims to examine how families adapt to loss while honoring the rituals and recipes—literal and figurative—that keep a household connected. For Jackson and Romano, the project offers a chance to anchor a layered ensemble around the themes of legacy, reinvention and the messy work of staying present for one another.
