ABC’s The Real O’Neals is one of my favorite shows on television right now. So when I found out that I would be sitting down with some of the cast as well as the executive producers while in LA for the #ABCTVEvent & #CaptainAmericaEvent, I was thrilled! This show is great because it mixes comedy with serious topics. The O’Neals are a Catholic family where the parents are getting divorced, one son is gay, one son is anorexic, and the daughter is a bit of a thief. They have their issues but they stick together and stand up for each other often.

There is such chemistry between the actors so I was not surprised one bit when each of them confirmed that they hit it off immediately. Matt Shively (Jimmy) let us know that they hang out off set all of the time. They go out for drinks after long days of shooting (when you would think they would be sick of seeing each other all day), they sing karaoke together, and they even get together to live tweet, periscope, and Facebook live during episodes! In fact, they have a group text message going so they can keep in touch at all times.

When asked what kind of fun they have on set – we were told that a certain someone (Jay R. Ferguson who plays Pat) strives to make the others break character. Whether it is from making faces when they are trying to do a scene together, or just sneaking up behind them and yelling right in their ear. Jay also does this thing with his fingers where he makes it sound like a bee is in someone’s ear. Noah Galvin (Kenny) says this happens a lot when someone is looking at their phone in between takes. Jay says he prefers to do it when they are on location and there really could be a bee.

I was interested to discover the background of the show, so when it was time to chat with the executive producers, I was excited to hear what they had to say. Casey Johnson & David Windsor have been writing partners for 16 or 17 years and when The Real O’Neals got picked up, they added Stacy Traub as a third show runner. This is the first show that Casey & David have gotten on air – so they are really excited about it. When asked if they bring their own experiences to the show, the answer is yes. Stacy is divorced and David was raised by two gay dads, and his parents were also divorced. He is Catholic as well and told us that they have “five or six gay writers with several Catholic writers. So [they] try to bring everyone’s experiences that they don’t mind exploiting for television into the show.”

Casey added “It was really important to us, none of us are gay and we’re telling the story, a coming-of-age story about a gay teenager. So we wanted to bring a lot of gay writers onto the show. Our in-house director Todd Hollan is gay. He brought a lot of his own personal experience to the show. We just wanted it to feel very, very authentic and real.” Well, I think they are doing a great job. If you watch The Real O’Neals, then you know they do tackle some serious issues here and there. When asked about David said “it’s a constant fine line that we’re walking. We deal with a lot of really heavy issues. At the same time we’re making a comedy and we have these amazing comic actors. The goal is to laugh, but we’re not afraid of getting into some of that stuff.” The writers want to be sure they are not being offensive while being funny. I have watched all of the episodes of the show (plus two that haven’t even aired yet) and I think it is hilarious – but not offensive. I am not gay but I do have a couple of gay cousins – one of which is a huge fan of the show himself.

With the Pope being more lenient about divorce, but not as much with gay marriage, Casey told us they just might address this if The Real O’Neals gets picked up for a season 2. Eileen could start to feel better and appreciate what the Pope is doing, while Kenny would still feel unappreciated. “That’s what is exciting about this show, that we can tell stories about what’s really going on in the conversations people are having in their houses.”

One of my favorite “fun facts” that I learned from the cast was that Matt blames himself for Jimmy’s slicked back hair. He claims that he was going through a “quarter life crisis” and thought it looked good. Once he realized that it did not, he tried to get them to change it. He made some good points like his gay brother would definitely give him a makeover, but the writers like Jimmy’s hair the way it is. Matt says that is fine though because in real life he “looks like a human being and not a turtle.”

Hair was a hot topic in the interviews because everyone’s hair looked fabulous! We joked about having a contest to see whose was the best. Noah pointed out that Jay has a “system” which we went on to discover is “low maintenance” and basically just a headband. “When you see Jay and he’s not filming, he usually has a headband on.” Noah explained. Jay admitted he had it on right before they got out of the car to come to the interviews, and Noah chimed in that the thought he was going to walk in with the headband. I started laughing as Noah added “I thought it was his fancy headband.” and Jay quickly added “It is. I only have two right now. One to wear to swear in when I work out and one to wear when I’m clean. So it was the clean one.”

Speaking of hair, I learned that Mary Hollis Inboden (Jodi) is no longer allowed to have real scissors on set. In fact, she is a colorist and not a hairstylist because of an on set incident. She was practicing on a dummy with scissors to get in to character. Once she was on set, there was an extra with hair extensions and she tried to do a little flip of the scissors and almost cut someone – so that is when they took the scissors away from her. I also loved hearing how the character of Jodi developed – because she was actually originally a neighbor with teenage son who got his girlfriend pregnant, not a kooky Aunt. When she auditioned for the role, she figured it was a long shot – the neighbor was supposed to be 45. But she had fun with it and they loved her so much that they changed to role to fit her (and boy am I glad they did!).

Everyone we talked to told us about the impact they think this show has been having on the viewers. The Twitter support has been amazing and many young gay kids have been reaching out to Noah. He does his best to forward everyone to The Trevor Project (http://www.thetrevorproject.org/) for help if they need it. The Real O’Neals seems to be inspiring many to come out, and one young man let them know after watching an episode, he drove to his parents’ house and came out. When asked if it is easier for young ment ot come out now than it was 5 or 10 years ago, Noah answered “I’d say it gets easier and easier every day. I’m hoping that a show like this can normalize things like that. We’re telling that story through a comedic lens and it’s not a heavy drama that adds more turmoil and struggle with sexuality. It’s something you can laugh at and your parents can laugh at. It’s not about Kenny’s struggle with his sexuality – it’s about his adolescence.” Jay says “One of my big dreams for the show is to certainly win over people that may have thought that they wouldn’t like the show or respond to the show. My whole family on both sides is deep south Southern Baptist raised in church. They definitely would not have been watching if I weren’t on it. But they gave it a chance – hearts and minds have already been changed. You really can change hearts with laughter.”

Noah went on to say “I think a lot of people feared that our show was bashing or alienating or humiliating – even the Catholic church in particular. My dad’s Catholic. He goes to church literally every morning, and he loves our show. Because of the little Catholic references” like fundraising – which Jay stated is “big with [his] people too”.

Well, in my opinion, The Real O’Neals is a must watch comedy – I am eagerly awaiting a season 2. The cast is hilarious and have true chemistry, as they demonstrated in our interviews. You get lucky with a cast like that so let’s not take advantage of it. There are lots more story lines for the writers to explore – give them a chance.

“The Real Book Club” Synopsis (Airing TONIGHT 4/19)
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.

I loved this episode. When we previewed it, we were all laughing and laughing. It was so fun to watch it with Matt Shively (Jimmy) in the room with us. Honestly, The Real O’Neals has quickly become my favorite comedy show on TV. They address serious issues but in a light and funny way. The writers are brilliant!

Tune in to The Real O’Neals Tuesdays at 8:30/7:30c on ABC – and remember – be sure to watch live (or on DVR within 3 days) to help boost ratings so we can be sure there is a Season 2 of The Real O’Neals!

Like THE REAL O’NEALS on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRealONeals
Follow THE REAL O’NEALS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealONeals
Follow NOAH GALVIN (Kenny) on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Noahegalvin
Follow MATT SHIVELY (Jimmy) on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattShively1
Follow JAY R. FERGUSON (Pat) on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jrfergjr
Follow MARY HOLLIS INBODEN (Jodi) on Twitter: https://twitter.com/maryhollis
Follow CASEY JOHNSON (Executive Producer) on Twitter: https://twitter.com/trocaseyjohnson
Follow DAVID WINDSOR (Executive Producer) on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwindsor789
Follow STACY TRAUB (Executive Producer) on Twitter: https://twitter.com/stoocytroob
#TheRealONeals | #ABCTVEvent

The opinions expressed here are that of Mama Smith’s only. While the products in this post were given complimentary (unless otherwise stated) for me to review, that does not alter my opinion of the product(s) mentioned. This post may contain sponsored links and affiliate links (which will be stated at the beginning of the post).

Have you been watching The Family on ABC? If you haven’t, boy are you missing out! The Family is suspenseful, action packed, thrilling, and just – well, it is amazing. It is one of my favorite shows on television right now because every time they answer a question, they throw three or four new ones at you. It is very well written and the cast is incredible. The basis? Well a family unfortunately loses their son (Adam). They suspect the pedophile neighbor had something to do with it. The neighbor is charged with the crime and confesses to murdering Adam. Then 10 years later, a boy walks in to the police station claiming to be Adam. If you have not been watching – don’t worry, those are not real spoilers, you can catch all that from the previews for the first episodes.

I was recently in LA and was lucky enough get a chance to have a family dinner with some of the cast (Zach Gilford “Danny”, Alison Pill “Willa”, & Floriana Lima “Bridey”) of The Family. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, and just hung out as we watched that night’s episode and live tweeted. After the episode was over, we got to watch the next episode (which will air tonight). I can’t even express how crazy it was to be watching this intense of a show and look next to me and see Alison Pill who plays Willa sitting there watching with me.

After we watched both episodes, we spent some time chatting with the cast mentioned above as well as Jenna Bans, the creator, and Executive Producer, Laurie Zaks. I had so much fun hanging out with them – they are a really fun bunch! Something I found very interesting was how the idea for the show came to Jenna.She told us that growing up she lived across the street form a sex offender and it really freaked her out. She also knew that ABC had been looking for an impostor, mystery thriller type show and so she married the two ideas – and The Family was born!

Willa is one of my favorite characters on the show, even though most people hate her. I don’t want to give any spoilers just in case you have not seen the show yet – but they do have a reason to. Alison was asked how she gets in to character since Willa is so emotional and intense. She credits the writers stating that the scripts just make sense to her. She also claims that Willa does everything she does for one reason – her family. She wants so badly to keep her family together under the same roof and to keep them happy. She sees her character as frozen at 13 years old – when her brother disappeared. And she is struggling to grow up and to make things right. She blames herself for his disappearance since she was supposed to be watching him.

Laurie let us know that before even shooting the pilot, the writers let Alison know where they were going with Willa. They let her in on some of the twists and secrets so that she could react as Willa would react. Zach chimed in and let us know how much he loves to work with Alison. He talked about how good she is and how she might not even be on camera but she is shedding tears and being emotional just as Willa would. The general consensus about her is that she is an amazing actress. Alison did let us know that after an intense day or scene filming, she likes to go home and just unwind by watching TV. She likes to think she doesn’t take any of it home with her – that it doesn’t really bother her.

Andrew McCarthy (who plays Hank Asher – the pedophile neighbor) has also directed some of the episodes. The cast all agreed that he is incredible to work with. Alison is surprised at how can be in character and also so present as a director. His character is quite intense so it is a huge accomplishment to be able to do that. Being on a TV show means that different episodes have different directors. That is one of the hardest things about acting on television says Alison. It’s not the director’s medium – and they are only directing a little bit of the story. She likes getting notes from different directors though, in fact, it is one of the reasons she loves acting.

Another thing that everyone agreed on is that Joan Allen (who plays the mother, Joan) is amazing and sweet. She made cookies for the entire cast and crew – like 150 cookies – and brought them in before holiday break. She also set up a potato bar another time. There are a lot of intense scenes between Joan and Alison – and Alison admitted that sometimes she needs a hug from Joan after filming one. Jenna let us all know that many of the fans she talks to feel sympathy for Hank. She was pretty surprised by that, being that he is a pedophile. I must admit, sometimes I feel bad for him too. He is a victim in his own way, despite what he has done.

I do not want to give any spoilers because I want you all to go run and catch up right now before tonight’s episode if you have not been watching The Family already.This episode is a HUGE episode. You find out a lot and WOW – you are surprised by a lot. I refuse to give anything away – so just tune in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UmzR9Xyh_0

Episode 108 “Sweet Jane” Synopsis
Claire wrestles with the emotional ramifications of Willa’s scheming. Meanwhile, Nina observes that Adam disappears every night from his home and sets out to track down his mysterious destination, while Clements investigates Jane’s connection to Doug, the pock-marked man. When the Governor’s wife threatens to reveal Claire’s drinking, Willa handles the situation by exposing another Warren family secret, potentially changing the outcome of the election. Finally, Hank makes a shocking discovery that reveals his true involvement in Adam’s kidnapping.

The Family airs Sunday nights on ABC at 9pm EST.

Like THE FAMILY on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheFamilyABC/
Follow THE FAMILY on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Thefamily
Follow JENNA BANS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennabans
Follow LAURIE ZAKS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lzakshorn
Follow FLORIANA LIMA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/florianalima
‪#‎TheFamily‬ ‪| #‎ABCTVEvent‬

Remember – be sure to watch live (or on DVR within 3 days) to help boost ratings so we can be sure there is a Season 2 of The Family! I cannot wait to see what Jenna & the writers have in store for us – they are just getting started. Jenna let us know they have at least three seasons already planned out – so let’s make sure we all get to see it!

The opinions expressed here are that of Mama Smith’s only. While the products in this post were given complimentary (unless otherwise stated) for me to review, that does not alter my opinion of the product(s) mentioned. This post may contain sponsored links and affiliate links (which will be stated at the beginning of the post).