OFFICIAL FIRST VIEW IMAGES
Nick Antosca’s highly anticipated drama limited series True-Crime premieres on Peacock on Thursday, October 6 with three episodes at launch and new episodes streaming weekly
A NOTE FROM NICK ANTOSCA – SHOWRUNNER, EP AND WRITER
It is easy to judge the history of the Broberg family from the outside. Sometimes when people first hear about it, they get defensive: How could these parents have let this happen? I’m not like them.
It’s understandable. It’s a surreal story. When I first heard it, I empathized with the family’s vulnerability and felt like I understood their story from the outside. But it stayed with me, and I wanted to understand from the inside: to know what their lives felt like, to live the experience of each family member, to see how they got caught in such a strange web, and to help the audience empathize with them. too.
I hope people come away from the series with a deeper understanding of the family and say, In that time, in that place, they were just like me. They made terrible mistakes, but they loved their children. And, a master manipulator took advantage of them.
The series exists outside of typical genre categories. It’s a thriller built around obsessive relationships, a family drama and a nightmare coming-of-age story.
While working on this story and talking to others who have worked on it, one thing has become clear: it’s easier than it looks. The story of the Brobergs is an extreme point on a continuum we are on more than we realize.
The other reason I couldn’t stop thinking about this story is that the Broberg family got stronger after all. They loved and forgave. This is a story about survival and a larger story about the American psyche and the institutions of family, religion, and community. And part of what makes the story so exceptional is not how strange it is, but the fact that the Brobergs told it.
It was a difficult and complicated story to work on. In addition to the thousands of pages of trial transcripts, FBI memos, interviews, and children’s diaries we were able to use to tell the story, we were privileged to work with Jan Broberg herself. We could not and would not want to tell this story without the blessing and participation of Jan and her family.
Thank you for watching.
A NOTE FROM JAN BROBERG – PRODUCER
I’m Jan Broberg and “A Family Friend” tells the story of our family and mine. We were a polite, loving and trusting family. We weren’t stupid or careless. So how could this happen in our neighborhood where we knew everyone and everyone was a friend? The truth is that most predators are not strangers but people we know: people who can build trust, create special friendships, and psychologically tear family members apart.
As children, we talked and listened around the table every night. Mom and Dad were always there. We were so safe, so loved, so carefree. Then, in 1972, we met the nicest new family in the church, with children who matched in age. A deep friendship emerged. Over several years, our families did hundreds of activities together: church parties, family dinners, boat and snowmobile trips, sleepovers, game nights, movies, and barbecues. Then, one normal afternoon, my father kidnapped me, and from the age of 12 to 16 I was sexually assaulted and severely brainwashed by this man I trusted.
This story will make you talk, scream, cry, and make you angry. well The team of writers, actors, designers, directors and producers led by Alex Hedlund, Eliza Hittman and Nick Antosca have captured the heart of how good people and their victimized children can be manipulated. Our story can be told because many families have direct experience with this type of abuse.
I hope our story starts conversations, because secrets live in darkness and silence.
ABOUT THE SERIES
SERIES DESCRIPTION:
A FAMILY FRIEND is based on the terrifying true story of the Broberg family, whose daughter Jan was kidnapped several times over a period of years by a charismatic and obsessed family “friend”. The Brobergs, devoted to their faith, family and community, were completely unprepared for the sophisticated tactics their neighbor used to exploit their vulnerabilities, drive them apart and turn their daughter against them. This is the story of how their lives were permanently altered and how they survived.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Release date: October 6
Showrunner / Executive Producer / Writer: Nick Antosca
Executive Producer: Alex Hedlund
Executive Producer/Director (various episodes, including 101): Eliza Hittman
Producers: Jan Broberg, Mary Ann Broberg
Consulting Producer: Skye Borgman for Top Knot Films
Produced by: UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group
Format: 9 x 60 min, limited drama series True Crime
REGULAR SERIES | DESCRIPTIONS OF THE CAST AND CHARACTERS
ANNA PAQUIN (Flack, The Irishman, True Blood) will play the role of Mary Ann Broberg. Mary Ann is a mother of three daughters and her life has felt secure, happy and rewarding until recently. Realizing too late that she may have missed the warning signs, she made the terrible mistake of getting close to her charismatic neighbor Robert Berchtold and trusting him around her eldest daughter, Jan.
JAKE LACY (The White Lotus, Being the Ricardos) will play the role of Robert “B” Berchtold, a charming local businessman who happens to be a cool Mormon father and husband. An expert at manipulation, he puts everyone around him at ease as he carefully plans the kidnapping of Mary Ann’s daughter.
COLIN HANKS (The Offer, Impeachment: American Crime Story) will play the role of Bob Broberg, Mary Ann’s husband and Jan’s father, Bob is big-hearted, kind and everyone’s best friend, the very model of a suburban patriarch As his family moves closer to neighbor Robert Berchtold, Bob begins to fear something is amiss.
LIO TIPTON (The Edge of Sleep, Why Women Kill) will play the role of Gail Berchtold. Gail is the wife of Robert Berchtold and the mother of a large family. Her husband suffers from mood swings and this has led him to act erratically. Gail’s worries about her husband may keep her on edge, but she never could have anticipated what her husband would do.
MCKENNA GRACE (Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Handmaid’s Tale) will play the role of Jan Broberg in later years. Jan is the eldest daughter of Bob and Mary Ann Broberg and leads a happy, traditional life in an idyllic American town. Jan confides in family friend and neighbor Robert Berchtold, even though he has plans for her kidnapping that she doesn’t suspect.
HENDRIX YANCEY (George & Tammy, Unbelievable) will play the role of Jan Broberg in the early years. Jan is the eldest daughter of Bob and Mary Ann Broberg and leads a happy, traditional life in an idyllic American town. Jan confides in family friend and neighbor Robert Berchtold, even though he has plans for her kidnapping that she doesn’t suspect.
