'The Kids Are Alright' creator Tim Doyle takes pride in small details which are 'dead-true' to his childhood
The '70s are a distant history for most millennials, a time you cannot relate to — when kids were allowed to do what they wanted with minimal parental supervision, when being unique or even happy did not hold much value over merely surviving, and when political correctness had not become a word to be feared and revered. However, it is the similarities in the political climate, love within a tightly-knit family and the sheer savagery that only mothers of every generation seem to possess that Tim Doyle seems to focus on with the upcoming ABC sitcom ‘The Kids Are Alright.’
A story about a quintessential Irish Catholic family in suburban Los Angeles circa 1973, ‘The Kids Are Alright’ is inspired by Doyle’s own childhood as one of eight boys in a family of ten. Created, produced and narrated by Doyle, the show seems to be resonating with people from radically different backgrounds. Doyle tells Meaww, “The 1972 specifics don’t seem to be much of a barrier for people to identify with the humanity of these characters — at least that’s my hope. Maybe you didn’t have a mom like my mom, maybe your home wasn’t as overstuffed and chaotic, but the caring underneath the conflict and the insecurity under the aspiration has to be pretty universal.”
In the representation of his family, Doyle has had to make some artistic license with a few details but, ultimately, he was able to bring about a true representation of his family on screen. In fact, he takes pride in every small detail which he claims is “dead-true” to his childhood, an example of which is the children using the dining room closet for privacy when they use the telephone. He claims it "delights me every time we use it in a scene.”
