# The Real O'Neals (2016)

> A devout Catholic family's carefully maintained image cracks open after secrets surface, and the honest, messier life that follows becomes the show's comic heart.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/55847

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 29
- Episode runtime: 23 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: comedy
- Created by: Joshua Sternin, Jennifer Ventimilia
- Network: ABC
- Cast: Martha Plimpton, Jay R. Ferguson, Noah Galvin, Matt Shively, Bebe Wood, Mary Hollis Inboden, Jane Lynch, RuPaul
- TMDB rating: 7.3/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4422756/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: warm, sincere, breezy, hopeful, comedic

## What critics say

Viewers rated the sitcom positively, praising its humor and its focus on a gay teen character within a religious family, while noting it was cut short.

## Synopsis

The Real O'Neals (2016-2017) is an American single-camera family sitcom created by Joshua Sternin and Jennifer Ventimilia for ABC. Martha Plimpton plays Eileen O'Neal, the matriarch of a seemingly perfect Catholic household, and Jay R. Ferguson plays her husband Pat, whose carefully maintained image begins to crack once long-kept secrets surface. The show's emotional engine is Kenny, the eldest son, played by Noah Galvin, who comes out to his ultra-religious family in the first episode and pushes the household toward a messier, more honest way of living. Jimmy and Shannon, played by Matt Shively and Bebe Wood, and Aunt Jodi, played by Mary Hollis Inboden, supply the everyday friction of a crowded home where everyone is learning to stop pretending. Episodes are self-contained domestic comedies built from kitchen-table confrontations, parish gossip and sibling squabbles, and the show runs across two seasons and twenty-nine episodes before its cancellation. Its tone is warm, sincere and breezy, with humor that leans on affection rather than cruelty, and its themes of faith, family loyalty and the relief of honesty give it a gentle, hopeful register. Fans of Modern Family, Schitt's Creek and Everybody Loves Raymond will find a similar mix of domestic chaos and heart.

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- [Home Economics (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/95341)
- [Special (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/74057)
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- [Everything's Gonna Be Okay (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/77902)
- [The Middle (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/1338)
- [Atypical (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/62496)

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