Like Fresh Off The Boat last spring, new ABC family comedy series The Real O’Neals showed promise in its midseason launch with good reviews and steady ratings. And just like Fresh Off The Boat, it is being picked up for a second season. This marks the second comedy series renewal for ABC Studios, along with Black-ish, as ABC’s sister studio is looking to grow its comedy business.
This also makes for six renewed comedy series at ABC — more than any other network. All are single-camera family comedies, including the Wednesday lineup of The Middle, The Goldbergs, Modern Family, Black-ish, as well as Fresh Off the Boat. (ABC is yet to make a call on its Friday multi-cam comedies Dr. Ken and Last Man Standing). Since the network will also have to pick up new comedies, it may have to expand its hourlong Tuesday comedy block to two hours to accommodate all the shows.
Here are details about The Real O’Neals:
Based in Chicago, the O’Neals appear to be a seemingly picture perfect family, but their lives soon take an unexpected turn when surprising truths are revealed. Eileen is a mom who usually has a fine grasp on all matters under her roof, and her soon-to-be-ex-husband Pat is a good-natured father and emotional center of the family. Their normal routine at home suddenly gets turned upside down when Eileen and Pat announce their divorce, and their sixteen-year-old son Kenny reveals to his family that he is gay. Kenny never would have imagined his admission would also result in outing his entire family’s secrets, including revelations from his older brother, Jimmy, and little sister, Shannon. What seems like a sudden upheaval that could mark the end of the O’Neals idyllic lives turns out to be the beginning of a bright new chapter when everyone stops pretending to be perfect and actually starts being real.
The Real O’Neals stars Martha Plimpton as Eileen, Jay R. Ferguson as Pat, Noah Galvin as Kenny, Matt Shively as Jimmy, Bebe Wood as Shannon and Mary Hollis Inboden as Jodi.
The Real O’Neals teleplay was written by Casey Johnson & David Windsor and Josh Sternin & Jennifer Ventimilia, based on a story by Sternin and Ventimilia. Executive producers are Casey Johnson, David Windsor, Stacy Traub, Dan Savage, Brian Pines, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Dan McDermott and Todd Holland. The Real O’Neals is from ABC Studios.
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