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It's not easy for a 16-year-old to tell his parents he's gay. Not when his well-meaning father just doesn't get it.
In the premiere of "The Real O'Neals," Kenny (Noah Galvin) tells his father he doesn't want to have sex with a girl. "Vaginas scare me," he says.
"That feeling never goes away," replies Pat (Jay R. Ferguson).
The last person Kenny wants to tell is his mother, Eileen (Martha Plimpton).
"Have you ever met my mom? She put a statue of the Virgin Mary over the toilet so we'd put the seat down," Kenny says.
Eileen wants the world to see hers as the perfect Irish-Catholic family. That's why she's chairing the church fundraiser.
"It combined two of the things she loved the most — serving the church, and having everyone watch her do it," Kenny says.
At the event, Kenny comes out; his older brother Jimmy (Matt Shively) reveals an eating disorder; and 14-year-old Shannon (Bebe Wood) admits she's a thief. Pat and Eileen come clean about their failing marriage.
The O'Neals are a perfect family; "The Real O'Neals" are a "typical, all-American, Catholic, divorcing, disgraced, law-breaking, gay family," as Kenny puts it.
The sitcom, which debuts Wednesday (7:30 and 8:30 p.m., ABC/Ch. 4) before moving to Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. on March 8, is bright, engaging and very funny.
It features fantasy elements that take us inside Kenny's mind. Like when he envisions chats with Jesus Christ (in a very non-objectionable way) or Jimmy Kimmel.
Executive producers David Windsor and Casey Johnson used the life of gay activist Dan Savage (also an executive producer) as a "launching point," but then "just sort of started exploiting our own family miseries," Johnson said.
"O'Neals" is far from miserable. Kenny is struggling with his sexuality, but is mostly just an awkward teen. And it's not all about him, it's about the whole dyfunctional-but-loving family.
They're all sympathetic, including Eileen. Dimwitted Jimmy is particularly lovable, standing up for his brother and softening his mother's harsh rhetoric.
"If everything she said was true, I would be SO blind by now," Jimmy says.
Eileen loves her Kenny, but she's not going join PFLAG soon. "I cannot accept that a smart kid who's got everything going for him is going to choose to live a life that's not normal," she says.
"So you don't care if I'm happy, as long as I'm normal?" Kenny asks.
"Yes! Why can't you just spend the rest of your life with a trampy girl I can't stand?" Eileen says.
She is strong in her faith and she's funny. "You're grounded until you believe in God," she tells Shannon.
"What you really see in the series is maybe not acceptance, but empathy," said director/executive producer Todd Holland "There's great empathy in this family for one another and all of their various dysfunctions. And that's what's really special about it."
That and the fact that it's genuinely funny.
Scott D. Pierce covers television for The Salt Lake Tribune . Email him at spierce@sltrib.com; follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce.