The McCarthy’s and Gay Fall TV, and the need for gay human characters
What a year! Particularly this FALL on TV
When I saw this posting at
The Back Lot, written by Jim Halterman I was reminded of something I have been wishing for all my life and that is gay everyday characters on TV. When I was younger I saw characters on TV like Psycho or worse. Gays were bad or in certain occasions looking like girls and funny. Always with a sarcastic I’ll scratch your eyes out with my nails punch lines.
I hated it but those characters attracted me so much. I didn’t care how bad they were at least they were there because were I came from I could not see any. The first time I saw openly gay guys and girls that I was told were guys was when our pastor as I just arrived to NYC around 12, took me and everyone that could fit in his wagonette ( I think that’s what they called those cars that fit around 9-10 people). I had been disappointed that my building in Brooklyn only had 5 floors since I was expecting New York City to be filled with sky scrappers everywhere. Now traveling along 42nd Street by Times Square I saw the tall buildings. Traveling around 15 MPH because of the traffic on a saturday night I was able to see the people walking the sidewalk. “See that one, that’s a guy” a voice from inside the car shouted. “Look at that one walking with more curves that I would ever have” said one of the girls.
I was so thrilled and at the same time confused. I didn’t know what to think of it but at that age I was glad I was watching and somehow being part of it. I was also glad we were safely inside the car. We never stop anywhere, it was a riding tour so I could finally see New York and I was glad. I could not see my self walking in that sidewalk along with those people. It took about 6 more years when I had my drivers license and car that I made the same trip at the same hour by myself but this time I stopped.
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| Marry Me |
We seem to be entering a new era in which advertisers see the value of those that have come out. They and a gay but homophobic industry it’s beginning to loose the fear of those that yell with made up surveys and bible passages like if the bible was written to deny anyone their civil or human rights. The film and TV industries are beginning to put credible characters out as gay. Even if the actors are straight as long as they don’t fake the kissing or the deep petting who cares.
{Jim Halterman: } -*-
The New gay characters like Connor Walsh (How To Get Away With Murder) and returning ones like Will Lexington (Nashville) are all over our televisions and thankfully there are plenty more on the horizon, including Ronny McCarthy, who we’ll meet tonight.
The new CBS sitcom The McCarthys comes from out creator and executive producer Brian Gallivan and the show’s lead character Ronny is based in part on him. Actor Tyler Ritter plays Ronny, a high school guidance counselor who, like many of us, loves his family but also could use a little distance from them. In tonight’s premiere, a job offer in another city has him needing to make a big decision. And, yes, Ronny is gay and out to his family, who are so supportive of him finding love they sneak along on dates to see if Ronny is making a love connection. Ritter’s TV parents are played by Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne) and Jack McGee (Rescue Me).
And, yes, Tyler is from that Ritter family where his father, John, found stardom pretending to be gay in order to be able to live with two women in Three’s Company. And Tyler’s older brother, Jason, is known for roles in Parenthood and playing gay in the film Happy Endings. None of that is lost on Tyler who, during a recent chat with TheBacklot, talked about taking on a gay role as well as what he learned from watching both his father and brother over the years.
TheBacklot: I’m always interested, especially when it’s a straight actor playing a gay role, what were some of those conversations like about how you should play Ronny?
Tyler Ritter: I know that Brian [Gallivan] did not want this character to fall into any sort of stereotype and he wanted it to be a real character because he’s the eyes to the family. The audience is going to kind of be experiencing the comedy of this show through Ronnie’s eyes, so he’s really got to be the relatable character of the show. He’s got to be somebody who everybody knows and maybe there’s a character like Phillip, who isn’t as common to certain households.
So, I got the script, I had my scenes, I had a day with them and I just kind of came in with my choices. I feel like I understood the tone of the show and I got this character. I feel like I have a lot in common with him. My family is much less crazy, much more openly loving than the McCarthys, but I came in, Brian was there on my first audition, and I’d actually seen him perform so I knew who he was and I knew kind of how he carried himself and that this character was based off of him.
So you knew that you were basically playing him in a lot of ways?
TR: I’m essentially playing him, yeah. I think the one question I had was ‘should I put on a Boston accent?’ He said, ‘no, no, no. Do I have a Boston accent?’ I said, ‘Nope, got it.’ So I went in with the choices I made, which seemed to be in line with who Ronny was and I understood the family that surrounded him.
Ronny really is kind of just like Tyler. I’ve been a teacher, so I get that he’s a high school guidance counselor. I spent a lot of time watching The X-Files with my mom, so watching The Good Wife with his mom was relatable and I think that helped me connect with Ronny.
Will we be meeting people that are in Ronny’s world outside of his family?
TR: Absolutely. I think the more characters we introduce, from any character’s lives, gives you a fuller picture of who they really are and I imagine I’ll be getting out into the dating scene. But I think one of the complexities of Ronny’s character is that it seems like, on the face of it, that he is suffocating with his family and that he really needs to get out. But underneath that he’s almost 30, he’s spent all of his life there, he clearly is comfortable with his family, he clearly loves them, so there’s a huge part of him that wants to stay. And he finds this excuse, this reason, which is a legitimate one. He gets to connect with his family through sports in order to do that. But I do think, for just character development, for people to really get who this guy is, the more characters you introduce from his world, the better the picture is, the bigger it is.
I love Jack McGhee as your father on the show. Talk about working with him as Ronny.
TR: We met on the pilot and we have a mutual family friend who came to the shooting of the pilot…Jack was the first cast member I met. We did the network test together and so he had already been cast, obviously, from two years ago and just from the get go he settled my nerves and helped get me into character. So it’s been cool.
TBL: And then Laurie Metcalf playing your Mom. That’s not too bad!
TR: I have watched most of Rosanne with my actual mom so it’s all very full circle. And she is just a gift for all of us to have and fun to work with, but also you see her focus and you see her preparation and she comes on Monday, first day of rehearsal, memorized and with action, and she’s ready to go which allows her to be in the moment and also chat off camera and so she’s really setting a good tone for the show, for all of us.
What have you learned from your brother Jason’s career or even your Dad’s that maybe has helped you in your career so far?
TR: They’ve both done a very good job of maintaining enough privacy in their lives while establishing great relationships with people in press and being honest to themselves and open, and dynamic. They always keep it fresh and I think they’re two guys who really found ways to stay in the present and to be grateful and I think gratitude is maybe the most characteristic for anyone in any job. The second you think you’re entitled to something is the second you start to take things for granted and look down on someone else, and they never did that. They both see everyone on the same level. We’re all trying to make a job and we’re trying to make people laugh and my dad set a precedent like Laurie, you have to work.
It’s not an easy job, it looks easy, but that’s only when you do the preparation. And man, Jason and my dad were both such pros and they show up to the set and I’d seen them both perform live a thousand times and they knock it out every time and they, like Laurie, it allows them to have a good time. So I got to go into work with dad, I’d got to the set of Hearts Afire, which was a sitcom he did, which was great.
Is this your first time playing a gay role?
TR: Yes.
So you might have to kiss some dudes.
TR: [laughs] Yeah, I’ll have to kiss dudes, and I will. Because I imagine this show is going to go on long enough, Ronny is going to find love someday.
And you seem very okay with all that…
TR: Yeah. I think it was a combination of the family I grew up in and I went to a very, I guess, progressive high school. I mean, it was normal to celebrate coming out day every year at Crossroads High School. There’s a mandatory connections course, it’s either called connections or mysteries at this high school, that at least once a week you have your class that you meet with and you just talk. It’s about talking about what’s going on in your life, who you have a crush on. People talk about girls or guys they liked and so I think a lot of the kind of bully culture was just taken out of the whole equation because everybody had to talk about who you were and the bully’s biggest defense is being able to guard off all of his feelings.
So it really opened up something special and I had a special class growing up there. There was never a strange feeling around someone because of their sexual orientation, it was just another characteristic and I have since grown to realize how fortunate I am in that regard, that the rest of the country isn’t quite on that level in some aspects. Some people won’t be as comfortable seeing a gay man as a lead in a show. But I think what’s great about The McCarthys is that because he’s having so much fun and he’s a spark in the family and he’s intelligent and I think people are going to relate to him and they’re going to say ‘I’m relating to this guy who is a high school guidance counselor and who’s gay.’
It’s funny that your dad hit it big playing a character that was pretending to be gay and now this potentially could put you and your career in a whole different stratosphere. Having seen the pilot, I don’t think people are going to get too worked up over this.
TR: I really don’t think they are. I think it’ll just be another specific character who people are going to relate to and only help break any sort of stereotypes or prejudice that people have. The first goal is to make people laugh and have a great show, and mean while we’ll be tapping into something.
This post except the introduction which is not sanction by The Back Lot has been inserted here as it was posted without editing.
The McCarthys premiered October 30th (9:30pm on CBS)
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