DHX Television’s Family Channel will premiere the live-action family comedy series Raising Expectations, starring Jason Priestley and Molly Ringwald, on May 8 at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT.  

The series (26 x 30 mins), which was originally titled The Wonderful Wayneys, was produced by Aircraft Pictures in association with Miami-based Dolphin Entertainment. 

Raising Expectations follows Wayne (Priestley) and Paige (Ringwald), two perfect parents with five children – four of whom also strive for perfection. Their youngest son Emmett (Simon Cadel), however, is happy to remain mediocre.

For DHX, the comedy fits into its overall strategy of broadening Family’s programming to appeal to wider audiences, while still maintaining its core demographic of eight- to 14-year-old kids, says Michael Goldsmith, VP original production at DHX Television. He gives the January 2015 launch of F2N, a tween-focused programming block, as another example of DHX putting this strategy into action.

“We wanted to, within the regular Family Channel block, also think about [reaching] more people who frankly may not turn on Family Channel, who may not know about the channel or watch the channel. So we were thinking about single-camera comedy [that is] age-appropriate for the core audience,” he said. “There’s nothing in this show that we think will turn kids off or is inappropriate, but there’s a lot there in the writing and the casting for parents, and even also for adults who may not have kids, who like Molly and Jason and want to see a comedy.”

He adds that it was important for DHX to include programming that could appeal to “tweens, teens and their parents” because the company has learned through research and anecdotes that parents do want to watch television with their kids – they just have a hard time finding shows that appeal to everyone in the family.

Changing the show’s name was another way to help it attract older audiences.

“There was a real feeling as we developed [the show] and through production that it had an appeal that was broader than a typical kids comedy,” he says.  “Wonderful Wayneys, as much as we loved the title, it felt a bit derivative of other kid comedies and frankly a little bit younger.”

Raising Expecations was filmed in Mississauga, Ont. from July to November of 2015. It was created by Tom Saunders (Arrested Development, The Larry Saunders Show), who also serves as executive producer. Anthony Leo and Andrew Rosen are producing, with Bill O’Dowd executive producing. Steve Skrovan and Garry Campbell are co-executive producers. Writers on the first season of Raising Expectations are Tia Ayers, Barbara Haynes, Skander Halim, Max Reid, Josh Gal and Emer Connon.