Tim Doyle, the man who narrates The Kids Are Alright, is also the creator and producer of the show. In fact, his professional experience is primarily producing but is one of the creators on the show.
According to Variety, Tim Doyle was actually inspired by his own childhood when working on The Kids Are Alright. Those who grew up in the 1970s may appreciate the throwbacks to Wonder Bread, rotary phones, and the colorful wallpaper.
During an appearance at the annual PaleyFest Fall TV Previews, he revealed that he really wanted to document those times and be realistic in what life was really like. The show focuses on an Irish-Catholic family raising eight children, and one of the children is named Timmy played by Jack Gore.
He also revealed that ABC allowed him to do whatever he wanted, so he chose to keep those things he remembered from his childhood.
Doyle has previously revealed that he didn’t think that people would be interested in a show that was essentially about himself.
“I didn’t expect anyone would be interested in the Tim Doyle origin story,” Tim revealed in an interview with Media Village about the show. “[The fact] that stuff that is so personal to me feels relatable to other people is surprising. I am pretty narcissistic, but not so narcissistic that I think everything about me is fascinating.”
“The most contrived part of the pilot is that the family has eight boys, which is [also] the most accurate,” he said. “I grew up in a family of eight boys, no girls.”
Yes, some of the material, some of the inspiration, some of the moments have been kind of divvied up to different characters and this and that. The character of Timmy, who is a bit of a jackass who’s got this wonderful verve for putting himself in front of the audience, that’s pretty much me.
The Kids Are Alright airs on Tuesdays at 8:30/7:30c on ABC.