YOU DOIVT HAVE TO GO THE DOWNTOWN TO GET ZIP "The best Pizza in Metro Detroit" "Tops on my:list...Their Filet Mignon" fraternal twins who can't stand each was 11. He played the young Tom other. It's just a slice-of-life look at kids Hanks character in Big, but turns to his trying to find their way. younger brother, Levi, for inspiration With a core audience aged 15-35, on how to play Duncan. the show works because it doesn't throw As for remembering what it's like any lessons in viewers' faces, says Daniel being a teenager, Moscow says, You Paige, 33, co-creator and supervising kind of dumb yourself down a little bit. producer. The show is a little cartoon- You have to forget all the lessons you ish in a way, but hopefully it is as smart learned from your first relationship or at as the audience." college. Paige created the show with his wife, In his current relationship, he blends Sue Paige, 31, also a supervising pro- his Jewish upbringing with his girl- ducer. The couple writes as a team. friend's Chinese culture. Last year the They penned a script for "ZDJ&J" in couple celebrated a "Chinese Jewish their spare time as writers on the ABC Passover" with family and friends. "My hit series "Boy Meets World." dad and I cooked all the Jewish foods Fairly new to the Hollywood scene, like latkes and matzah ball soup and my their big break came girlfriend's mother when they were made Chinese fried accepted to the Walt fish," he says. Disney Studios Moscow's mom Fellowship Program in isn't Jewish, but he 1996. The fellowship says, "I identify as introduces unknown being Jewish. Some writers to the enter- of the coolest times tainment industry were during the hol- The Paiges don't idays when my dad have a special interest would speak in teenage shows, but Hebrew The holi- always shared their days were a wonder- funny stories about ful time where the growing up, and real- whole family would ized there was a lot of Rising star Selma Blair — known get together. terrain left untouched as Selma Blair Beitner in her Moscow grew up Hillel Day School days. by other TV shows. in the Bronx in a very Jewish area and "The stuff that up until he was 13, his family lived in a happens to you in adolescence is painful commune environment with five fami- at the time, but when you grow up it's lies under one roof. funny to look back on," says Daniel "Duncan seems like a Jewish char- Paige, who grew up as a child of divorce acter and I think we will explore that," in a Jewish home in New York. He was says Executive Producer Michael Jacobs, raised Reform, had a bar mitzvah cele- 43, whom Moscow describes as "the bration and went to Hebrew school. Godfather of the show." "In the city, most of the people I Jacobs, who grew up in New grew up with were Jewish," he says. Jersey, also created and produces "Boy Does his Jewish background influ- ence the show? In so far as the flavor of Meets World," which, like "ZDJ&J," doesn't tape on Shabbat. the landscape, but it's not Jewish-cen- "We don't shoot shows on Friday tric. There is nothing that delineates nights in my production company We that any particular character is Jewish." lock the doors and we go home," says But with a last name like "Milch," Jacobs, a Conservative Jew who aspires one wonders how the Duncan character to become Orthodox. Ironically, "Boy is anything but Jewish. Well, Paige Meets World" airs on Friday nights, but admits, "Duncan made a reference to there was nothing I could do about it." being culturally Jewish when he talks When Jacobs decided not to work about dancing at the 92nd street Y." on Friday nights, nobody challenged The YMHA is the Young Hebrew him. "I was lucky" he says. "A lot of Men's Association. people think work is priority I think In fact, Duncan is loosely based on the work is greatly helped when it is Paige as a teen. "There are similar char- suited to your lifestyle and beliefs." Li acter traits like being raised by a con- trolling and independent mother and getting into trouble and being derided "Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane" airs 9 and driven by fear," he says. "But I p.m. Sundays on the WB (Channel think David [Moscow] brings a whole 20). Check your local listings. different dimension to Duncan." 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