SITCOM ARTIST: Passaris will try to export American humor. Thad Russell

call him a comedic ambassador. After 20 years in television sitcoms, Lex Passaris has left the bright lights of Los Angeles for an old ball-bearing factory in Moscow—there to help create a Russian version of The Nanny. Soon, an audience that didn’t witness Fran Drescher’s hit about coming from Queens to Manhattan will be able to watch a nanny rise from someplace like rural Taganrog to Moscow.

Passaris, ’79, has directed episodes of The Golden Girls, taught sitcom philosophy and methodology, and consulted on a Spanish-language sitcom. He recently completed his second stint in Moscow as the nanny show’s consultant, setting up shop for the Sony production and learning what impact cultural differences will have on what’s considered funny. There are similarities, like comedic rhythm. But jokes are often lost in translation and Russia’s deep theatrical tradition does not easily transfer to the throwaway acting style of American shows. “Pauses are very big (in Russia),” he says, but “sudden death in the sitcom world.”

The biggest hurdle may be viewer comprehension of the Cinderella-esque plotline. The Nanny is based on “the girl from the wrong side of the tracks clashing with high society, but winning them over in the end,” Passaris says. Socialist tradition makes the premise hard to fathom: until recently, the idea that a family could have extreme personal wealth was considered absurd—as was the notion of social climbing.

The show will be taped before a live audience, a common enough practice in the United States, but rare in Russia.