What Makes A Sitcom A Hitcom: Inside NBC’s ‘Extended Family’

When Extended Family officially premiered on NBC in early January, it debuted with 10 million viewers. Boasting a cast led by Jon Cryer, Donald Faison, and Abigail Spencer, it confirmed that the network had a hit on its hands.

As the final two episodes of the sitcom's first season ready for air, creator and showrunner Mike O'Malley, an acclaimed writer, producer, and actor, has remained philosophical about audience retention.

"The best way to find out about a new show is to come on after something that people are already watching so that you're held hostage to be aware of it," he joked. "The challenge of everything in our business is how can you maintain those things? How would you? How do you talk about everything? There are people all around our business, actors, and writers that we love, people that we want to work with, directors, and they're working on stuff, but no one has any idea it's being done."

"There's the business part of that, which is how do you market and promote it and how do you get people to watch stuff? That's a different side of the business. I have to be focused on where the story goes, getting it done on time, and with the amount of money that they've given me to make the thing. I focus on the things I can control because there are things that I can't."

However, O'Malley is a professional with decades of experience, so he knows all too well that even if you create great TV, that's still no kind of guarantee of anything.

"I have worked 90 hours a week, created episodes of television that I think are as exquisite, wonderful, and as bespoke and as good as anything that has ever been on television. I'm going to say that. There's a show I did called Heels, which I was the showrunner on for the last two years, and it was on Starz, but it has now been vaporized from the platform," he lamented. "Hopefully, it will be resurrected. I put everything that I had into it, and I think it's amazing. I do think it's going to be seen again in the future, but I have no control over whether it's on the platform or not, whether it has a future or not, and that's a hard lesson to learn. Extended Family comes on after a big football game, and people watch it. Some are like, 'Oh, well, it's on, so I'll check it out,' but whether they come back or not has to do with whether or not they like sitcoms and some people hate them. Some people who love multi-cam sitcoms, and they're so happy that they're back."

"To your question, yes, there is stress involved. You don't just want to hear that 10 million people are watching Extended Family; you want to hear that they're stopping whatever they're doing, talking about it, and tweeting about it, but you have no control over that at all. I have friends and people who will be at my funeral, and I don't even know what they're working on right now. There are people who will be carrying me out in the pine box, who will not have seen one episode of Heels or Survivor's Remorse. Those are two shows that mean everything to me. Those people will be sad when I die, but they won't have watched one episode of the show."

Extended Family, created and executive produced by O'Malley, is the story of Jim, played by Cryer, and Julia, played by Spencer, who get divorced amicably and opt to raise their children in a home and alternate who takes care of them. Faison plays Trey, Julia's fiancé, who owns Jim's favorite sports team. Extended Family is loosely based on the real lives of co-executive producers George Geyer, Emilia Fazzalari and Boston Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck.

O'Malley, who wrote several Extended Family episodes, including the premiere and season one finale, has an eye for talent but takes little credit for the talent that he nurtures. Among them is Cord Jefferson, the writer-director of the multi-award-winning and double Oscar-nominated American Fiction, who recently acknowledged the showrunner on social media for giving him a significant writing break.

"Cord Jefferson is an extremely hilarious and very gracious person, but every single thing that has come his way is because he is a great writer, a great guy, and now a great director. It reveals a lot about his character that he's acknowledging people who have given him jobs, but that's really what it was," O'Malley explained. "I had read Cord when he was a journalist. I had seen him do an interview on MSNBC with Chris Hayes, which was hilarious, and if you have not seen it, you should watch it. I was watching this interview from 12 years ago, and I just thought, 'This guy is a witty, insightful person.' That is something that has come across in American Fiction, which is an amazing movie. I was selfish. I was looking for great writers who could help me write Survivor's Remorse, which was another show that I did for Starz. Cord's a really good guy to give me credit, but all I said was, 'Hey, man, you're talented. Would you like to come work on the show?'"

A significant part of Extended Family's winning formula is the cast, which is a mix of familiar faces with a proven track record in pulling audiences, in some cases multi-generational, and new, younger talent that challenges some of the conventions of sitcoms.

"The network really wanted to get Jon Cryer on their air," O'Malley said. "Susan Rovner, who had been at Warner Bros. when Jon was doing Two and a Half Men, rightfully so thinks he is a massive TV star, and he has proven that, having won multiple Emmys. He has an unbelievable reputation and incredible skills and is a great guy, so that is well-earned. Once we had Jon, then obviously Donald, who had been on NBC for many years, and people know him from Scrubs, has a very winning personality. We needed somebody in the middle of these two. Who was somebody that, if Donald's character were in love with her, would be willing to put up with Jon's character as something that comes with her? Abigail Spencer was perfect."

Despite there being almost two years between the pilot being filmed and the show premiering, the showrunner used that time to hone Extended Family and tailor it to the cast even more.

"One of the things that we realized as we've been going through the seven episodes that we did after the strike last year was that we had time to think and reflect on what was working and what wasn't working," he reflected. "Often, when you're writing a TV show, you want there to be dramatic principles or some stake. In sitcoms, since it's not happening to you, you're laughing because it's happening to them. We found that having these characters trying to face and solve situations together is a great place to put these particular actors because their joy, how they approach folly, and how they need help from one another in overcoming obstacles is better than being antagonistic towards one another. A little goes a long way in a family in a sitcom."

"We've finished shooting. We wrapped a few weeks ago, and we're in post-production right now. You're in post while you're shooting, and you're shooting while you're writing, so it is a relentless threshing machine that is exhausting. You can see why it's so difficult to have a successful one of these things. You have to be relentless and summon the energy to do these things. You have an incredible amount of support, it's a fun job, and any day above ground is a good day, as my father says. Still, in terms of the different things that I've worked on, whether it's plays, musicals, single-cam comedies, or dramatic shows, this is a thing that you have to get ready and put in front of a live audience every Friday."

O'Malley continued, "Sometimes the challenge is, 'Have you had enough time to prepare before you're putting it on its feet.?' In a brand new show, everyone's trying to figure out their characters, and the writers are trying to figure out how to write for the actors in the best way. We have older actors, younger actors, people who are well versed in sitcoms, people who are learning how to do sitcoms, so all of that is it takes a minute to cohere."

Out of the young cast members, Sofia Capanna especially stands out. She plays Grace, the daughter of the titular Extended Family but doesn't conform to the sitcom standard for a teenage girl. There is an informed edge to her.

"Sofia is fantastic," O'Malley said. "It started in the pilot, and we knew it was going to be interesting. All the parents in the show think this everything is hunky dory, and she's just got to come in like, 'No, you say family is the most important thing but you blew the thing up. You didn't ask my opinion and now you want it to all be great.' This is a classic thing that happens with teenagers where suddenly they're like, 'Hold on, I didn't ask to be here. You guys decided to have a child. I'm here, but guess what, I have an opinion now, too.' All parents are dealing with the thing where that kid used to do everything that they want and now they want to have a say."

"Think about when you went off to school in fifth or sixth grade. You walk out the door at 7.30 in the morning and come back at four. Your parents aren't there, they don't know what you're saying, they don't know who your friends are, they know some of your friends, but they don't know what you're talking about. When I think about how much went on, and I'm not even talking about untoward, crazy stuff, just life when you're a kid, and you're with your friends, your parents are not sitting there listening to everything you say you do. That is a wake-up for parents. A lot of the time, your kids are off living their own lives and you're just there to make sure that you catch them when they fall in and to help them through."

The showrunner concluded, "I appreciate you pointing that out about Sofia because she's got an amazing episode where she is put into a situation that not until you're in a situation with a friend does character reveal itself. She is remarkable in how she handles that."