Abigail Spencer at the NBCUniversal Press Tour 2024 for EXTENDED FAMILY – Season 1 | ©2024 NBCUniversal / Todd Williamson

In NBC’s freshman comedy EXTENDED FAMILY, airing Tuesday nights, Abigail Spencer plays high-level executive Julia Mariano. Julia is amicably divorced from Jim Kearney (Jon Cryer), with whom she has two children, Grace (Sophia Cappana) and Jimmy Jr. (Finn Sweeney).

To make the split easier on the youngsters, Julia and Jim are practicing “nesting,” where the kids stay in the home, with the adults moving in and out, depending on who is on deck as supervising parent. Complicating the situation: Jim is a huge Boston Celtics basketball fan, and Julia is now seriously dating Celtics owner Trey Taylor (Donald Faison).

How does real-life Boston Celtics owner Wycliffe “Wyc” Grousbeck feel about EXTENDED FAMILY? Just fine, actually, as he and Jim’s real-life counterpart, George Geyer, pitched the show about their family situation in the first place. Mike O’Malley created the series based on their stories, and both Grousbeck and Geyer serve as executive producers, with Geyer also advising in the writers’ room.

Spencer, who has previously been a series regular on such dramas as TIMELESS, RECTIFY, and SUITS, expresses her delight with all of them during a chat at NBC/Universal’s party at Pasadena’s Langham Hotel for the Winter 2024 Television Critics Association press tour.

“I was actually with Wyc and Emilia [Fazzalari, the basis for Spencer’s Julia character] last night, and they’re the most wonderful, the most lovely people,” Spencer enthuses.

The concept of “nesting,” with the children remaining in one household with the parents rotating in and out, is not confined to EXTENDED FAMILY, or even its executive producers. It has been in the news recently. Had Spencer heard of nesting before she joined the series? And what does she think of the idea?

“I am divorced, actually. We [in the main cast] all are divorced, and we’re like, ‘Why didn’t we think of that?’ I wish I had done a little more of that; when I was going through my divorce, my son’s father and I, we did a little bit of that. But I love bringing it more to the forefront, because I think it is very healthy for the children. Now, what it requires is a tremendous amount of adulting to be great co-parents for the kids, and really put them first. But I’d never seen a sitcom in this world and what I like about it is, ‘Maybe consider that. That’s a possibility.’”

Despite her adulting, Julia is allowed her own absurd side. “I get to go off the rails, and we still love each other, so we can come back to the center, and I think that’s what’s so sweet about the show, is this whole family, we love each other, we’re going off the rails, and we’re pulling you back. And for my character, I love that Mike knows that about me, she’s together, C Suite-level.

“What I really like about it is that I think they’re actually quite grown up when it comes to the kids. They’re making very conscious choices for the kids, they’re able to put their egos aside. When the kids leave – that’s part of the fun, is being the children when the children aren’t around. And sometimes the children are the adults. We play with all of those dynamics.”

Spencer also is enthusiastic about working with creator/showrunner O’Malley, who is an actor as well as a writer. “It’s such a joy as an actor to be led by an actor, to have a head coach who is an actor. To be led by someone who really understands, it is such an honor.”

As the primary female lead in a male-dominated cast, Spencer says, “It seems to be a trend for me. But I take it very seriously. I know I’m working with wonderful men, so we’re working on it together, but I feel like I am holding the space of and trying to present the wholeness of being a woman on the show, and we have very honest conversations about it, and why I wanted to play Julia is because I felt like I saw myself in her. I hadn’t seen a woman who owned her own company, had two kids, was the one working, was going out, was coming in, meeting someone new, in a love – I felt like I just saw more of me, and I wanted more of that on TV.”

EXTENDED FAMILY – Season 1 Key Art | Abigail Spencer at the NBCUniversal Press Tour 2024 for EXTENDED FAMILY – Season 1 | ©2024 NBCUniversal

Speaking of the two kids, what’s it like working with younger costars Cappana and Sweeney? “Finn and Sophia are amazing. They’re pretty phenomenal. Jon and Donald and I look at each other, and we’re like, ‘Wow, we really, really lucked out.’ And also, things change. Like the other night, two weeks ago, we were doing a show, and Finn, who is twelve, they gave him a whole new paragraph [of dialogue], and he just received it, and then he just did it, and we were like, ‘Wow.’ I mean, really, really wow. That’s why people should come watch. It’s really exciting to see.”

To leave the subject of EXTENDED FAMILY briefly, how does Spencer feel about the way cult favorite time-travel series TIMELESS wrapped up, with two seasons and a telefilm?

“Well, I never feel like it totally wrapped up, because they kept trying to kill us, and we were like, ‘We’re still not dead!’ And actually, I’d love to do another movie. Now that there’s Peacock, maybe we could go do a Peacock movie. And I really wanted to direct on the show. So, if it had gone on, I would have moved into directing. And maybe there will be more. That’s what I’m saying, you never know. I mean, who knew about SUITS?”

Spencer is referring to the fact that the long-running SUITS is now getting a new spinoff on NBC, SUITS: L.A., from original SUITS creator Aaron Korsh. Might her SUITS character, Dana Scott, appear on this? “You never know,” Spencer laughs. “I don’t see why not. And Aaron Korsh, I’m so excited that he gets to keep being celebrated. He loves those characters and that show, and it’s just so cool that he’s going to create a whole universe around that.”

With so many drama series behind her, how does Spencer find being on a half-hour comedy? “My friends in high school called me ‘Elaine Benes’ [Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s character on SEINFELD], and then I have friends who call me Mary Tyler Moore now. Like Donald [Faison] mentioned during the panel, I also really love to watch [EXTENDED FAMILY]. Can I say, it’s so much harder than I thought it would be. It’s very challenging. It requires all of your skill set. So, I want to hug everyone who’s ever been on a sitcom and done it well, like, ‘You’re doing tremendous work.’

Her background in stage acting helps, Spencer adds. “I got my start in theatre, and so it’s really a joy to return to that part of me. But it’s a blend. I get to bring the film and television part of me, and the theatre part of me, and I get to learn a whole new skill set.”

Having played women with extremely fraught family relationships on TIMELESS and RECTIFY, Spencer jokes, “It’s my specialty.”

So, is it easier or harder to play someone who is in a more comfortable domestic situation? “Well, there’s more ease, because we can move into the laughter and the fun and the joy of it, but I think the delicate dance of any storytelling is that it’s rooted in something real, and family dynamics are very real. But what I love, and what Mike has created, is that there’s a joy and a knowing that we want to do it together. We’re on the same team. Whereas on some of my other shows, it was not that,” Spencer laughs. “So, I’m grateful to work in this medium, but what I love is that you feel the family, you feel that this is still about a family, and that’s shining through and that makes me very happy.”

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Article: Exclusive Interview: Actress Abigail Spencer on new NBC comedy series EXTENDED FAMILY

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