"Great News is sort of based on my relationship with my mother," says Tracey Wigfield

Meet the Real-Life Mother and Daughter Who Inspired Tina Fey's New NBC Sitcom Great News

When Tracey Wigfield was working as a writer’s room assistant on Tina Fey‘s 30 Rock, her mother got the chance to be an extra on one of the episodes.

“Every time the camera would pan past her, [she’d stare right into it,]” Tracey says in a video clip exclusive to PEOPLE.

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Her mom, Kathy, has a perfectly good explanation for the faux pas: “Well, I wanted to make sure they saw me!”

Image zoom Kathy and Tracey Wigfield Evans Vestal Ward/NBCUniversal

Now that bring-your-mother-to-work dynamic is playing out on-camera on Tracey’s Great News, which is executive-produced by Fey and Robert Carlock.

“Great News is sort of based on my relationship with my mother,” Tracey says of the sitcom, which is about a news producer (Briga Heelan) whose mom (Andrea Martin) goes back to college and gets an internship at her daughter’s station. “A lot of the show is the annoyance of ‘Oh God. My mother’s in my workplace.’ But all of that annoyance needs to be offset by a real love.”

Image zoom Briga Heelan and Andrea Martin on Great News. Eric Liebowitz/NBC

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This is Tracey’s first TV show, but Kathy, for one, always knew her daughter was destined for greatness.

“When [she was] a little girl, her and her sister wrote little shows and I used to say, ‘You’re gonna be on Saturday Night Live one day,’ ” says Kathy.

“Well, I wasn’t,” replies Tracey.

“No,” admits her mother. “Well, close. You work with Tina.”