It's All Relative

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It's All Relative
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Anne Flett-Giordano and Chuck Ranberg
Starring	Lenny Clarke Harriet Sansom Harris John Benjamin Hickey Maggie Lawson Paige Moss Reid Scott Christopher Sieber
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	22
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	October 1, 2003 (2003-10-01) – April 6, 2004 (2004-04-06)

It's All Relative was an ABC sitcom about a man who dates the adoptive daughter of a gay couple, which forces their very different families to learn to coexist.

Overview

The show, created by Chuck Ranberg and Anne Flett-Giordano, premiered on ABC on October 1, 2003 and aired to solid ratings until it was cancelled, with two episodes unaired, on April 6, 2004. While the final two episodes produced were never aired in the US during the show's original run, they have been broadcast in the original run of the show abroad (such as in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where the channel Trouble, aimed at teenagers, showed the episodes), as well as in reruns.

Although the show had a loyal audience, ABC pulled it two episodes short of completing its first and only season under the allegation of poor ratings. (In fact, no show scheduled opposite it had ever beaten it in the ratings until the arrival of The Simple Life and American Idol, and no show which followed it on ABC matched its ratings until Lost a few months later)^{[citation needed]}

Many argued that what killed the show was its bad time slot, on Wednesday nights, but fans were rather suspicious that what actually would have caused cancellation was an alleged conservatism as well as censorship on the part of ABC and possibly some of the channel's audience. According to this theory, the presence of a gay couple, played by real-life gay actors (Christopher Sieber and John Benjamin Hickey) that had adopted and raised a child was too much of a shock and considered inappropriate for the time slot, which would be a more "familiar" one. ABC has vehemently denied that thesis,^{[citation needed]} but fans were not convinced, and were particularly irritated by the fact that the creators and writers of the show were fired from ABC following the show's cancellation.

Story

The story revolved around two rather different realities, in Boston, Massachusetts. In one corner, there was the rather stereotyped character played by Lenny Clarke, a Boston Irish bar owner close to retirement who watches with dismay as his son falls for a girl with a rather unorthodox family history: she is the adoptive, and somewhat spoiled, daughter of an upper-middle class gay couple. The situation forces the character to come to terms with his homophobia although this aspect of Clarke's character was substantially toned down, since the atmosphere of a sitcom would not be suitable to explore such a conflict appropriately (the producers did not intend to recreate another All in the Family Archie Bunker character). In addition, the audience is introduced to the also stereotypical Irish American wife (Harriet Sansom Harris), who helps in the pub but is generally a traditional middle-aged housewife (but oddly has little problems accepting her soon-to-be daughter-in-law's parents), as well as the couple's tough-but-kind daughter (Paige Moss), who waitresses in the family's bar.

On the other side, there were Simon (Christopher Sieber) and Philip (John Benjamin Hickey), a same-sex couple who takes pride in how well they were able to raise their adoptive daughter. Here, the comedy came from the couple's difficulties in adjusting to their daughter's boyfriend's family, especially his father (Lenny Clarke), and most notably from Philip's notion that his daughter was dating someone "beneath her", both socially and culturally.

The first (and as it turned out, the only) season followed Maggie Lawson's and Reid Scott's characters romance as it evolved from a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship into engagement and, eventually, marriage. During this process, the two families strived to come to terms with the inevitability of being "joined" by their children's union, which would force both sides to revisit their preconceptions and prejudices.

Cast and characters

• Lenny Clarke as Mace O'Neill
• Harriet Sansom Harris as Audrey O'Neill
• John Benjamin Hickey as Philip Stoddard
• Maggie Lawson as Liz Stoddard-Banks
• Paige Moss as Maddy O'Neill
• Reid Scott as Bobby O'Neill
• Christopher Sieber as Simon Banks

Episode guide

External links

• It's All Relative at the Internet Movie Database
• It's All Relative at TV.com