While in LA a few weeks ago, we screened The Real O’Neals “The Real Retreat” episode that will be airing on ABC tonight and it is hilarious. We got to watch it with Matt Shively who plays Jimmy in the show. We interviewed Jay Ferguson (“Pat”), Noah Galvin (“Kenny”), Mary Hollis Inboden (“Jody”), Matt Shively (“Jimmy”), plus producers David Windsor, Casey Johnson, and Stacy Traub!
“When Jimmy is unexpectedly named Faith Leader for the weekend at the Catholic Youth Retreat, a jealous Kenny decides to take on his older brother’s role as ring leader of the bad kids. Home alone without the kids, Pat invites a new lady friend over, and Eileen can’t help but enlist Jodi to spy on them, with surprising results.”
So like I mentioned earlier, this episode was super hilarious. I wont give away spoilers but you do get to see someone taped to a pole at one point. Jimmy and Kenny switch roles when Jimmy is chosen to be faith leader at their Catholic retreat. Kenny had been waiting for his moment forever and was utterly disappointed. So Kenny decides to be an even bigger troublemaker than Jimmy usually is which leads to all kinds of laughs. At home, Pat makes a new friend which makes Eileen jealous. She didnt expect him to go back to normalcy so quickly and make a friend that wasn’t a co-friend/married friend. So she gets the super hilarious Jodi to spy on them. The whole episode is beyond funny. And it includes karaoke which I loved.
I also had some more interview questions that I didn’t include in my first post about The Real O’Neals. We took turns interviewing everyone so each table had different questions. Make sure you are following the #TheRealOneals hashtag to see more interviews today. And watch out for it tonight because the cast always live tweets during the episode and some of us bloggers will be joining them!
Mary Hollis Inboden is just as funny in person as her character. She started off telling us about how Matt Shively dressed up for the occasion and not making fun of him but making light of the fact that he obviously put some thought into his outfit and hair.
Mary Hollis Inboden – Nice to meet all you ladies. We’re so glad to be here. I commented on how handsome Matt looks today and he was like, there’s like thirty five ladies upstairs.
Matt Shively – I swear, I was watching the second episode and Edmund had left and I was like I’m the only man in this room right now! I’m really loving it, it was really cool. I had a good moment.
And like I mentioned in my first post, they get along outside of work as well. All of them hang out and text constantly.
Matt Shively – You should see our text conversations. We have a group text conversation that dates back to like when we first started and it just- it’s thousands, thousands of texts.
Mary Hollis Inboden – I think I counted on Christmas Day, when we were all spread across the world, you know, or across the country. We sent like upwards of two hundred text messages, videos, pictures back and forth on Christmas Day when we were all with our real family, we were texting within our fake family. To include everyone.
We asked them about what their favorite episode was since we had asked our other groups the same thing.
Mary Hollis Inboden – I really love the book club episode.
Matt Shively – I do too and I think that’s like her best episode too. I, I had forgotten how many amazing one liners she has in that episode, it’s so good.
Mary Hollis Inboden – Sunny who helped David Casey and Stacy write that episode, Sunny who is one of our writers in the room and he was as all of our writers came down when we were filming the episode. And because it’s a new show we’re kind of like still figuring it out. So they’d had the the draft, the shoot draft and then while we were on set you know, they’d just give us alts. And Sunny was just he had some of the funniest like, why don’t you try this, why don’t you say this, you know. And it’s so fun to like have the freedom to riff that way and the time that’s, you know, it’s allowed for that on our new show. I was telling the other table that Matt is like, you know, I come from Chicago and I like improv. And Matt is the best improviser on the show.
Matt Shively – They let me do a lot of my own things.
That is funny because Noah and Jay said that he was the one who was always sneaking in extra lines and improv. Matt said the best line I have ever had in an interview though. He said he was raised on the fact that if you dont laugh, you cry. And he said the show tackles things like that.
Matt Shively – That’s been the greatest thing, the scenes with me and Noah. The fact that way that we get along together in the show is- doesn’t happen. I mean we’re very formulaic, you know, as far as Goldberg’s and they all have the same thing. But a lot of the times those kids it’s the dynamic that they don’t get along. We’re both weird and we both like are very supportive of each other, which I don’t think you see like it’s there’s a little bit of a twist on the formula that’s already been kind of put into it, so it’s been it’s- it’s an interesting thing. I’m excited to see what happens if we get a Season Two.
Mary Hollis Inboden -To watch this family in turmoil and this kind of fall from grace that they’re going through and still be pretty positive- And then there’s a very like there’s a lot of like sarcasm and sardonicism on TV right now. And I think this family is like, you know, I mean Martha’s character, I think she’s a fantastic character because she’ll just say exactly what she’s thinking, you know, but she’s not like certain, she’s not mincing words. And I think that that’s something, I mean one of the reasons why I love Aunt Jodi so much is she’s just so positive, you cannot knock her down, she’s just real positive, you know.
Matt Shively – I was raised on the fact that if you don’t laugh, you cry. And I think that we deal with a lot of things that are cry worthy and we figure out a way to make you laugh, in order to kind of bring light to the situation that is not usually light worthy
That is why I love this show so much. It casts a lighthearted sheen on really important issues but shows that with your family behind you that you can get through it. I really hope you have given this show a chance and if you havent you can see some episodes on ABC.com and find out more about the cast and upcoming episodes. Remember to watch tonight at 7:30 pm CST and check out The Real O’Neals Twitter!
