'The House Arrest Rooneys' Confines Dysfunctional Family and Talk Show Host Jerry Springer

All marriages require sacrifice and contain many challenges—especially when children are involved. But in Peter Welch's new family oriented sitcom, The House Arrest Rooneys, the storyline takes us way beyond those obvious facts of matrimonial life. And not just in name of the show either.

"When it comes to family, we're essentially all under house arrest,” said Welch. “We can never fully get away from them no matter how hard some of us might try.”

Dysfunctional Family Scrum and Some Big Names

Hoping to make the rounds during fall pitch season in LA, the series is set in the suburbs of the creator's hometown of Albany, NY. The drama picks up when a happily estranged family is suddenly forced to live together again.

The unhappy reunion occurs when retired History teacher William Rooney and his New York City based, spoken word poet son are sentenced to home confinement. Trying to escape his nagging wife of 40 years, William fakes his death and is convicted of insurance fraud with his son Paul.

The scrum set in motion, Welch took the house arrest for a reading at Shelter Studios in Manhattan, and attracted a lead actor who knows something of not staying above the fray.

“Jerry Springer read the part of William Rooney,” says Welch of the trash television icon.

The interest in airing it out from other notables didn’t end there either. Lev Gorn of The American's and Greg Mullavey of iCarly took a seat and saw the potential. They were joined by former Saturday Night Live alum Denny Dillon, Emmy Award winning producer/writer/actor William Electric Black and drag queen icon Charles Busch. “Having that kind of talent taking part in the reading gives me a lot of confidence going forward,” says the NYC based actor/writer/filmmaker.

House Arrest is Outer Worldly

But star power aside, the show's ability to constantly look back gives the Rooney's an untried form of story development, according to Welch. “It’s very rooted in the history of the family,” he said. “The ghosts of different generations of Rooney’s fill out the story.”

Welch does this in part through the granddaughter April. Read by Brigid Harrington, her character uses a Ouija Board to communicate with deceased family members and high profile characters.

For instance, the reading featured an amusing discourse with Punk Rock Legend Joey Ramone. Another conjuring came from the departure of the family’s youngest son, Robert, who died of cancer at age thirty.

He’s summoned back from heaven by family matriarch Margaret Rooney (Charles Busch). The former favorite child, Margaret leans on Robert in order to cope with her newly returned husband and son.

A Real World Dramady

On the other hand, Welch’s inspiration grounds itself in real life exasperation. “Growing up, I saw a lot of frustration in my own family,” he said. “My father often expressed it to me, and as I got older, I became aware that maybe he wasn’t always so happy in his situation.”

House Arrest if you will, but his father did his sentence until death do us. “He toed the line and wasn’t going skip out like William does in my show. But I'm sure he often felt like it.”

That futility of escape also extends to the character of Paul. His artistic exploits never quite led him to a place where he could completely escape his family.

As Welch puts it, “When you’re 18, you think there’s this whole other world out there that is apart from the one you grew up in. Then you move to places like Paris or New York, but realize family is still pulling at you. That’s even when you’re not sitting in the living room that you grew up in."

Unlike many other half hour shows, The House Arrest Rooneys is not looking for a laugh out loud every 15 seconds. “It will be a very funny show at times. But as it's based on a play of mine, it will go much deeper in terms of characterization than most family oriented half hour shows," says Welch. "It won't always be set up, set up, punch.”

This has Welch labeling his new show a dramady.

A Pitch for All Seasons

The genre in hand, his plans are afoot for the Hollywood pitch season this fall, and he feels pretty good about the prospects of having the biggest name in tow. “Everyone who did the reading seems to want to be involved going forward—especially Jerry Springer."

Of course, if big names don’t breakdown network doors, he definitely sees openings along numerous alternate routes such as Hulu and other on demand platforms. Failing that, Welch may film a few episodes to prove its mettle online.

Either way, the Rooney family won’t settle their differences for quite some time, and that will keep Welch going for the long haul.

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