'Office' regular to star as gay son in CBS pilot 'The McCarthys'

CBS comedy pilot The McCarthys has outed its gay son.

Jake Lacy, currently appearing on the final season of NBC's The Office as customer service representative Pete, will star in the single-camera sitcom as Ronny, the smart, funny, and neurotic son who came out to his large Irish-Catholic family two years ago.

Although Ronny finally decides to move out of his parents' house and start his own life, his family constantly finds ways to involve him in their drama. To the McCarthys, Ronny's greatest sin isn't his homosexuality, but his desire to spend less time with them.

Earlier this month, Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook) signed on for her first regular series role as crass and unfiltered matriarch Marjorie, while Jack McGee of FX's Rescue Me will play politically-incorrect basketball-obsessed father Arthur.

Set in Boston, The McCarthys is loosely based on the life of Brian Gallivan, a staff writer on ABC's Happy Endings who created and wrote the new project. Will Gluck (The Loop) serves as executive producer. Fred Savage has been tapped to direct the pilot.

I've enjoyed Lacy on The Office; he isn't particularly funny himself, but he has a likable persona and plays a solid straight man amid the lunacy of the long-running NBC series. If this show gets picked up, the character could represent a continuing trend for gay characters in which their orientation isn't the main focus, like Max on Happy Endings.