Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
After Thursday’s mega-announcement that decided the fate of a large handful of on-the-bubble shows, one that was happily left standing was ABC’s The Real O’Neals. A delightful and different family comedy about an Irish-Catholic Chicago clan whose middle child, Kenny, comes out of the closet in the series premiere. Kenny is played by New York City theater actor Noah Galvin, who spoke to Decider on Friday about how he got the news that the show would be back for a second season.
The first thing Galvin did was reply to the ongoing group text he has with the actors who play his TV family: Martha Plimpton and Jay R. Ferguson as his parents, Matthew Shively and Bebe Wood as his siblings.
He also spoke about how the executive shake-up at ABC affected the show’s prospects, bearing the brunt of Nashville fans, and finding a spot among the O’Neals for Connie Britton.
Decider: How did you find out yesterday?
Noah Galvin: I found out when Todd Holland, our in-house director and executive producer, called me. We have a family group text that was going on all day. We were all sending each other videos of how miserable we were not knowing. And then finally I got the call from Todd, and I texted everyone in our family group chat, like, “We got picked up! Season 2 here we go!” and nobody believed me. They were all convinced I was lying. I was like, “Why would I do that? I’m not that fucked up!”
It would be a terrible joke.
So cruel!
Did you know that yesterday was going to be the day?
No. We thought we were going to find out by 6:00 PM [Friday]. And of course that was after a process of like, “Oh, you’ll find out tomorrow. You’ll find out in two weeks. You’ll find out in a month.” So I’ve been truly waiting for that call for the last four months. I had hoped that it would come in the last two weeks. The last two weeks have been a horribly arduous time.
Sounds like it would be stressful.
Just a bit! Just a bit.
It sort of was a tough day for ABC shows. I know that Nashville and Agent Carter and Castle — I saw one article today that said “Cancellations We’re Most Sad About” and four of the top six were ABC shows. Do you feel a little bit like you survived a bloodbath there?
We survived the gauntlet, yeah, absolutely. I know a lot of people were really upset about Nashville, and people are upset at us. Not that we rival Nashville whatsoever, but you know, we’re an easy target because we’re new kids. They’re like “It’s your fault! Your fault!”
Just bring Connie Britton onto your show, and you’ll solve all the problems.
Honestly? Wouldn’t be mad at it.
There could be a spot for her, right?
There’s always a spot for Connie Britton on our show.
After the regime change at ABC [where Entertainment President Paul Lee was ousted and Channing Dungey brought in as his replacement], did that add a layer of uncertainty to The Real O’Neals?
A little bit, yeah. I know that Channing came from drama, and Samie [Falvey] who is head of comedy at ABC, has always been a huge advocate of ours. And Paul Lee has been a huge fan of ours from the beginning; he was a huge champion of ours and very sweet to me throughout the whole process. We wouldn’t be on the air if it wasn’t for him, so we owe him a lot. So that regime change was a little nerve-wracking; like you said, another level of uncertainty added onto the pile of already preexisting [uncertainty]. [But] Channing has also talked about our show pretty lovingly.
I thought it was interesting that two shows that Paul Lee sort of famously championed — and two shows that were important to gay audiences — The Real O’Neals and American Crime, both got picked up. Which is great news for a lot of people.
It’s a cool thing. Our show is doing something new. I’m glad we’ll be able to explore more.
Will you be back in the fall?
We don’t know yet. I believe we’re picked up for 13 episodes; that’s all we know so far.
Decider’s complete interview with Noah Galvin will be published next week.
