Tyler Ritter says he's okay with
kissing men as the lead character on CBS' The McCarthys.
Ritter plays openly gay Ronny on the
sitcom, which premiered Thursday.
(Related: CBS'
The McCarthys off to slow start.)
In discussing his first gay role with
TheBacklot.com,
Ritter, 29, laughed when told he “might have to kiss some dudes.”
“Yeah, I'll have to kiss dudes, and I
will,” he answered. “Because I imagine this show is gong to go
on long enough [that] Ronny is going to find love someday.”
Ritter, the son of the late comic actor
John Ritter, who is best known for pretending to be gay on the ABC
sitcom Three's Company, and actress Nancy Morgan, and brother
of actor Jason Ritter, said that he grew up in an accepting
community.
“There was never a strange feeling
around someone because of their sexual orientation, it was just
another characteristic and I have since grown to realize how
fortunate I am in that regard, that the rest of the country isn't
quite on that level in some aspects,” Ritter said. “Some people
won't be as comfortable seeing a gay man as a lead in a show. But I
think what’s great about The McCarthys is that because he's
having so much fun and he's a spark in the family and he's
intelligent and I think people are going to relate to him and they're
going to say, 'I'm relating to this guy who is a high school guidance
counselor and who's gay.'”