I watch shows of all kinds, but I have a soft spot for comedies. I really just love to laugh and a show that can make me laugh out loud while I’m watching it is a keeper. The latest show to make me do that has been The Real O’Neals on ABC! They cover some pretty dramatic stuff {like coming out, getting divorced, eating disorders and more everyday issues as well} but they always make it funny. It’s exaggerated of course, because it’s a comedy show after all, but I feel like the show does a great job of talking about issues without exploiting them for laughs. {That said, I do laugh. A lot.}
While I was in LA last week, we had the chance to preview tonight’s episode, “The Real Book Club”! Here’s what to expect tonight:
Eileen faces her book club for the first time after her family’s “outing,” but things take a surprising turn when instead of shunning her the ladies begin opening up – way too much – about their own problems. Kenny’s first trip to the “gayborhood” coffee shop is everything he’d hoped for, until Pat tags along with him to a gay dodge ball match.
Catch “The Real Book Club” airing tonight, Tuesday April 19th at 8:30/7:30c on ABC!
The episode made me laugh as usual and I was so happy to see Aunt Jodi in it so much! I love her character and for awhile there we weren’t seeing enough of her, so I’m happy to have her back. I also loved seeing how Eileen interacted with her friends- it was so much more realistic {although of course, exaggerated} than a lot of friendships I see on TV- finding and having friends as an adult can be downright hard.
Another part of this episode that really hit home was Pat trying to bond with Kenny after learning that Kenny doesn’t actually like anything he has been pretending to like for years. When I learned I was going to have a boy, I thought we’d never have anything to bond over- but like Pat, I listened to my son and took up an interest in the things he cares about. Seeing it on TV {in a much more funny, dodgeball-filled way} was heartwarming for sure.
After we screened the episode, we had a chance to talk to some of the cast as well as the Executive Producers from the show! By the end of the interviews, my jaw hurt from laughing so much. You could tell from not only what they said but the way that they looked at each other that they really are like a family- even off camera. Here’s what they said to say about the show, their roles, their real life friendships and the inspiration behind some of the storylines!
On what they do in their downtime:
Matt: We finished [filming] in November. We’ve been on a hurry up and wait basis right now.
Matt: I put color in my hair, and she put color in hers.
Mary: Well, we got together for one day- Noah, Matt and I were fortunate enough to have our hair people come over to Matt’s house and just spend the day with us and do our hair. It was really fun because during this downtime, it’s important to stay busy. We’re trying to keep ourselves from growing bored. I mean, we’re…
Matt: Trying.
Mary: It’s killing Matt.
Matt: We both went and got dogs, we were so bored. We bought a dog on the same day without knowing. I sent her a text and a picture, and I was like, ‘I got a dog’, and she’s like, ‘So did I.’
On the character that didn’t make the show:
Mary: In the beginning, my character was a woman named Maureen who lived next door. I was not a family member. When I auditioned for this, I was not a family member. I was a next-door neighbor with a fifteen year old son who’d gotten a girl pregnant. That was the original role. And then I came in, and I guess I just knocked it right out of the park.
So they said let’s change this up and let’s make her part of the family. My mom always said that in times of tragedy, you might not know what to say but just being there is important. I feel like the O’Neals are going through a traumatic event, and the family’s kind of imploding a little bit. Aunt Jodi is the one who’s there, but actually can’t keep her mouth shut. She’s constantly trying to help, and I just think that that’s so much fun.
On not being able to get through a scene with Jay R. Ferguson without laughing:
Matt: It’s just his face. He doesn’t even say anything, and he gets offended every time I say it. He’s, like, ‘Why are you breaking character?’ and I’m like, ‘Your face is funny.’ He does this confused look- I don’t what it is, but every time- I can’t look at him. The majority of the time- anytime we have a family sitting at the dinner table thing, they usually can’t put the camera on me because I’m laughing. Anything he says, I start cracking up. I just have to look down at the plate.
On Jimmy’s trademark hairstyle:
Matt: That was my mistake. That was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. That is how I was doing my hair for awhile. I was shorter on the sides but all my friends were doing it. You know when you look in the mirror and it looks good then, and when you look back at in a picture, you’re like, ‘I shouldn’t have dressed like that’? I thought it was cool to do that, and I did that, and then I realized that it was not cool. And they refused to change it.
I’m like, give me a makeover episode where Kenny gives him a makeover. If and when we come back for a second season, if they don’t change it, I’m gonna buzz my head. I’m dead serious. That thing is a helmet. If you were to try and go against the grain, you’ll cut your hand, I swear.
On the audition process:
Noah: I went on tape in New York with a casting assistant, I sent the tape to L.A.; once the casting directors approved it, they send it to the producers; the producers liked it, and they flew me out here [to L.A.] and they tested it in this building, on camera with Todd Holland and a couple of the other producers. Then they took it to a studio- the studio approved it, and they took it to the network, and the network approved it. And then I got it. It was a two month long grueling, arduous process.
On finding out the good news:
Noah: I was eating Chinese food in New York City on my aunt’s bed with my cousin. I forget what we were watching- some bad movie. There was definitely Chinese food involved.
On what the cast has in common:
Noah: Something I think Martha and Jay figured out, not deep into the process, is that we all are or were child actors. All of us from a very young age have been acting in this world. We all sort come to work with a certain level of professionalism or lack thereof. We all really know how to do the work and leave the work at work, and be able to have relationships with each other that don’t bleed into the relationships on the show.
Jay: If anything, they enrich the relationships on the show, because of how tight we all are, and the bonds that we formed very early on. We stay with each other in between takes. We don’t go back to our rooms, really. We kinda have a common area where we like to hang out and play games and talk. We actually enjoy each other’s company.
On where the idea for the show came from:
David: Well, Casey and I were first approached last year from the network and studio who had tried to develop an idea with Dan Savage. It’s sort of very loosely based on his life. We liked the idea of a family show for ABC that has all these really good family shows.
Casey: Stacy has four kids; I have two kids; David has two kids. David and I have been writing have been writing together for about fifteen years, and then we wrote the pilot for this, and when we went into production on the pilot, we brought Stacy Traub on board to help us. Once it got to series, the three of us run it together which is great.
On what their kids think of the show:
Casey: It’s been fun to show the show to our kids, actually. There’s the one episode where the two boys have the fantasy dance sequence together to “I Can’t Feel My Face” and it was really neat to show that to my daughter because she watched the other boy on a Disney Channel movie and I think had a crush on him, and then she watched the two boys dancing together. It was really interesting. She was kinda like, ‘Let me see that again’, and then she watched it again, and she loved it. It’s neat as a parent to be able to make that kind of programming for our kids.
On whether they include things that happen in their lives in the scripts:
Stacy: My daughter’s eleven, but she might as well be twenty. She’s very much like Shannon, very smart, and that episode “The Real Man” where she’s sneaking off to go work at Wetzel’s Pretzels, that last scene with the two of them- it just really makes me feel like conversations I’ve had with my daughter where she’s maybe a little bit too smart for her age, and maybe too smart for me.
David: In the episode where they went camping- the beginning of that- it’s just a silly thing, but Jay {“Pat”} and Matt {“Jimmy”} do a boy battle. That’s something my son and I do. I’m just in the room, like, ‘Oh, and we do this silly thing. He’s only seven. We wrestle and we have this, like, elaborate introduction’ and Jay was like, ‘Let’s put it in.’ There’s always stuff from our lives that we like putting in- it just feels more authentic, you know? The stuff feels more real.
If you aren’t watching The Real O’Neals, you’re really missing out! I look forward to Tuesdays now, which is something I never thought I’d say. You can catch The Real O’Neals Tuesdays at 8:30/7:30c on ABC! {If you have your DVR set, be sure to watch it within 3 days so that your viewing will count in the ratings and ABC will be more likely to renew it! Seriously, please do this, I need more of this show in my life.}