The New Normal Preview: Clips From Ryan Murphy's Upcoming New NBC Comedy

Ryan Murphy's Glee drifts into comedic territory on a weekly basis, but we'll see what he can do with a half-hour series when The New Normal arrives at NBC this fall. These clips from the pilot give us a look at the humor and the set-up for the story, which has a gay couple looking to have a child through a surrogate.

Created by Murphy along with Ali Adler, The New Normal is set up to air between another new NBC comedy (Go On) and Parenthood on Tuesday nights, which is fitting, given that The New Normal combines humor with family, so it should make for a nice transition from comedy to drama on Tuesdays.

As mentioned in NBC's official synopsis below, the show pairs Andrew Rannells (star of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical The Book of Mormon) and The Hangover's Justin Bartha, playing two well-off men in a relationship who are looking to hire a surrogate. Enter Georgia King's Goldie, the likely candidate to carry their child.

These days, families come in all forms – single dads, double moms, sperm donors, egg donors, one-night-stand donors… It's 2012 and anything goes. Bryan (Andrew Rannells, "Girls," "The Book of Mormon") and David (Justin Bartha, "The Hangover") are a Beverly Hills couple and they have it all. Well, almost. With successful careers and a committed and loving partnership, the one thing missing is a baby. And just when they think the stars will never align, enter Goldie (Georgia King, "One Day"), an extraordinary young woman with a checkered past.A Midwestern waitress and single mother looking to escape her dead-end life and small-minded grandmother (Ellen Barkin, "Ocean's Thirteen"), Goldie decides to change everything and move to L.A. with her precocious 8-year-old daughter. Desperate and broke – but also fertile – Goldie quickly becomes the guys' surrogate and quite possibly the girl of their dreams. Surrogate mother, surrogate family.

As I mentioned earlier, Glee has a tendency to get funny, and there never seems to be any shortage of snark on the musical dramedy series. The overflow may end up in this comedy, which could be a good thing. The clips below give us a fair introduction to Bryan, David and Goldie and the kind of humor we might be able to expect from the series.

Maybe it's because I have Glee on the brain, but something about Golide reminds me of Rachel Berry, Quinn and Kristin Chenoweth's character all rolled into one. This looks cute. We'll have to see how the pilot looks and where things go with the story once the show settles in at NBC next fall.

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Kelly West
Assistant Managing Editor

Kelly joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006 and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before moving over to other roles on the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing feature content on the site. She an expert in all things Harry Potter, books from a variety of genres (sci-fi, mystery, horror, YA, drama, romance -- anything with a great story and interesting characters.), watching Big Brother, frequently rewatching The Office, listening to Taylor Swift, and playing The Sims.