Disclosure – I was invited to the #ABCTVEvent. Costs and expenses for my trip were covered by Disney/ABC but all opinions expressed are my own.
One show that I have been watching the last few weeks is The Real O’Neals. When I found out that I would be meeting some of the cast of the show I knew I better be prepared and watch this show on ABC that stars a heartthrob from my teen years, Jay R Ferguson who played Ponyboy Curtis on The Outsiders in the 90’s.
About The Real O’Neals
If you haven’t seen an episode of The Real O’Neals and like shows with a little humor you may want to watch tonight’s episode on ABC! This show follows the lives of a Catholic family who’s real lives are revealed after they all reveal some big secrets to each other that gives the whole family a reality check. After watching the first episode I knew this was a show to put on my list of shows I watch.
Take a peek at the show’s trailer where you can see them share their secrets:
During my time at the ABC Studio last week I was able to watch a couple episodes including the one that airs tonight “The Real Book Club” where Eileen learns that the ladies in her book club are a little too eager to share their own problems with her. This is a funny episode you won’t want to miss!
For clips and to watch past episodes visit: https://abc.go.com/shows/the-real-oneals
Photo Credit: Coralie Seright
After we screened episodes 104 and 110 we sat down and did a series of roundtable interviews with the producers and some of the cast. My group’s first interview was with Executive Producers Casey Johnson, David Windsor and Stacy Traub which was really interesting and where I learned some interesting information about the show.
Rountable Interview With The Real O’Neals Executive Producers
Photo Credit: Coralie Seright
I always find it fascinating learning about a show I like from the people that produce it. I had to ask the producers if any of the storylines have to do with their own personal life. Here is what they had to say…
Casey Johnson: Stacy brings stories from her life about being divorced. Steven was raised by two gay dads. I’ll let you tell that story.
David Windsor: I was raised by two gay dads and my parents were also divorced. My family was Catholic and so, you know, I think between us we have, and our writing staff, we have I think like five or six gay writers with several Catholic writers. So we just try to bring everyone’s experiences that they don’t mind exploiting for television into the show and I think it’s worked out.
Casey Johnson: That was really important to us and 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 Holland 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. So we would have a lot of conversations in the writers room. Some people would disagree. We want to tell the story this way. Is this accurate or is this your experience? A lot of times we would stop the process and talk about it. We feel like it’s important to be as true to that experience as it can be.
Other Things I Learned About The Real O’Neals
- Casey said in the next season, for Eileen’s character getting a divorce, the Pope is becoming more lenient about that but not as far with gay marriage.
- Casey says that what is exciting about the show is that they can tell stories about what is really going on in the conversations that people are having in their houses.
- Stacy says that the support on Twitter has been amazing and David mentioned that they have received tweets from kids that have said, “I just watched the show and I decided to go and come out to my family.” He says that this is the greatest reward that their goal was always just to be able to have people talk about it.
Stay tuned for my upcoming Part 2 where I share details from my interviews with Jay R. Ferguson, Noah Galvin, Mary Hollis and Matt Shively!
Watch The Real O’Neals on Tuesdays at 8:30|7:30c on ABC
Leave a Reply