This Wednesday, ABC brings its newest family to TV with The Real O’Neals, a sitcom starring Jay R. Ferguson (Mad Men) and Raising Hope’s Martha Plimpton as the parents of an Irish catholic family that bonds when youngest son Kenny (Noah Galvin) comes out as gay.

It’s the first big move for Jay R. Ferguson following the end of Mad Men, trading in his hippie beard and late nights with Peggy Olsen to become the clean shaven, but goofy, patriarch of the O’Neal clan.

I had the pleasure of talking with Ferguson about his burgeoning green thumb, set-bonding through board games, and of course, beards.

How are you doing?

Very good. I’m gonna head out to the garden store in a little bit.

Ooh. What are you looking at?

I’ve got some questions. I got a great guy up there, he always hooks me up with a lot of things that I didn’t know about. I’m getting ready to construct raised garden boxes for my first time. I’m just starting to gather materials and research what we’re going to do this season. Very excited about it. These are the things we get excited about Andy, after we have families. You know what I mean?

Nobody grows up loving gardening, but I feel like you hit a certain age and all of a sudden that’s an exciting weekend option.

Oh absolutely. It runs in my family. Both my Mom and my Dad had green thumbs. It took a while for it to settle in with me, but oh yeah, I’ve got the bug now.

Speaking of, does your family have any similarities to the O’Neals?

Gosh I don’t know, is there a family out there that doesn’t have some level of dysfunction? My family certainly did, so there are experiences that I can draw upon for sure.

I’ll get my most important question out of the way now. Do you miss the Stan beard and hair?

There’s a little part of me that misses it, sure. I knew when I finally cut my hair, this is probably the last time in my life my hair will be this long. To have had a reason to actually allow it to get that long and get paid for doing it, that was the last time that happens. The hair is gone, but you’ll be happy to know that the beard, I became so fond of it, that anytime I’m not shooting, it’s back to beard. I had a pretty good one going at the beginning of the year and then had to shave it for something. Now it’s growing back. The Stan beard will live on.

What gets you excited to come to work every day on The Real O’Neals?

The group is certainly exquisite. It’s never a bummer to have to go to your job and know you’re going to be cracking up all day long. We all bonded quite quickly when we shot the pilot. I really enjoyed our time together, day in and day out, when we were shooting the series. Nobody would really go to their dressing room; we kind of all hung out together and played games, talked, and laughed. Then we go inside and shoot something and laugh while we’re doing that. It’s a joy to get to work with those guys every day.

Plus our crew is fantastic, and our whole creative staff, it really is an All-Star team of fun folks. I told them at the end of the year, our crew especially, that they set the tone for us to be able to be loose enough to do what we do and try to do it to the best of our ability.

What kind of games did you guys play?

I think what bonded us initially was Catchphrase, which was a holdover from Mad Men. That was something that we always use to do, so I tried to bring that to our show, and made everybody gather around. People were a little reluctant at first, a bit apprehensive, but they got over it, and fell in love with the idea of keeping the energy up, and the laughs going, by doing stuff that keeps the motor running. That game is certainly one that’s fast paced, people screaming and yelling.

Then we moved onto things like Heads Up, some card games, I brought in some One Night Ultimate Werewolf, I don’t know if you’re familiar with, and Mafia. The One Night Werewolf is a speed round version of those types of games. We ended the year on those, which were a lot of fun because somebody’s got to be lying and misrepresenting themselves. It’s always fun to see who’s the best at that.

Who is the best at that?

I kind of set myself up for that one, didn’t I? I’m probably up there. I have to say Mary Hollis is pretty good too. And Bebe [Wood]. Both of them can be fairly evil when it comes to that game.

If you get a season 2, do you have any ideas of what games you’re bringing?

Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it. We’ve already got a couple things lined up. We’re definitely going to get a cornhole set, maybe a ping-pong table. But I don’t want to be too presumptuous here. Let’s make this show a success and then we’ll start talking about game central.

You don’t want to jinx it.

It sounds like you’re the guy on set bringing everybody together. Is that something you always do?

It is a role I’ve always enjoyed taking, whether it is organizing some fun activity for everybody to do on our day off, or hanging out on set, anything that makes us stay active and have fun together. I’m all about bonding; I’m all about creating relationships that can then be mirrored on whatever job we’re working on through our characters. It presents a lot more things to explore if you’re able to bring your real life relationships to these characters, and makes them all the more rich.

I feel like we’ve created a bond in the past 8 minutes.

I think so.

Last question: are you a coffee drinker? If so, how do you take it?

I am an obsessive coffee drinker. Two creams, two sugars.

Good luck on the gardening.

It’s an exciting time. I just ordered some juniper wood from Oregon that’s going to be fantastic. Thanks man.

The Real O’Neals premieres for a special preview Wednesday March 2 at 8:30 p.m. EST on ABC, and will subsequently air in its regular time slot, Tuesday March 8 at 8:30.

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