That's Life is an
American dramedy series created by
Diane Ruggiero, that was broadcast on
CBS from October 1, 2000 to January 26, 2002.
Synopsis
The hour-long series followed the life of a young
Italian-American woman, loosely based on Ms. Ruggiero's life, (Lydia DeLucca, played by
Heather Paige Kent) and her family in a suburban
New Jersey. The show was set in fictional Bellefield, ostensibly a play on the combination of
Belleville and
Bloomfield, two adjacent older
working class suburbs on the north side of
Newark, New Jersey. The show premièred a year after
The Sopranos, also about an Italian-American family set in the New Jersey suburbs. Whereas
The Sopranos depicted an
organized crime family, however,
That's Life was a light-hearted depiction of a law-abiding family (headed by veteran motion picture actors
Ellen Burstyn and
Paul Sorvino).