Justin Bartha

Attention The New Normal fans! One Kings Lane is hosting a flash sale of goods from and inspired by the show. In case you don't watch as much TV as we do, allow us to give you some background. Ryan Murphy (creator of Glee) has a new show called The New Normal, about a gay couple that are becoming parents via surrogate. Set in California, couple Bryan (Andrew Rannells) and David (Justin Bartha), reside in a Spanish Colonial house that is based on show creator Ryan Murphy's own home (which also happens to be the former home of Diane Keaton, home design enthusiast and author of California Romantica). Got it? Good. The sale goes live at 9 p.m. ET today on OKL and includes 120 pieces directly from the show, as well as items inspired by the set. We've got our eyes on those beautiful orange Bauer pots and that Edward Curtis photograph!

Glee creator Ryan Murphy is expanding his television empire with another envelope-pushing series. Tonight, he's debuting a new half-hour comedy on NBC that's a bit more grown-up than the teen musical: The New Normal, about a gay couple trying to find a surrogate.

• What it's about: Committed couple Bryan (Andrew Rannells) and David (Justin Bartha) want to add a tiny new member to their family. Though they would provide a loving and stable home, they're having trouble finding the right surrogate. Enter Goldie (Georgia King), a doe-eyed single mom whose cheating husband has left her looking for a major life change.
• Where it works: The cast is solid; Ellen Barkin is the strongest link as Goldie's brazenly intolerant grandmother, and I was surprised by how well Bartha and Rannells (hot off his gig on Girls) mesh as the fathers-to-be. I was skeptical about the decision to have NeNe Leakes play Bryan's cheeky personal assistant, but I have to admit that I enjoyed her performance.
• Where it doesn't: Goldie's naiveté is a bit unbelievable for someone who had a baby as a teenager. I'm not saying all teen moms have to be jaded, but her idealistic mentality gets grating.
• When it's on: Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on NBC
• You might like this show if: You've been waiting to see a more progressive comedy on network TV.

Check out a preview of The New Normal after the jump.

Glee and American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy is bringing another TV series to the Fall lineup, but this time, the subject matter is hitting a lot closer to home. At the TCA panel for The New Normal, Murphy shared that the new show — about a gay couple who uses a surrogate to have a baby — is actually loosely based on his own life. Read on to get the details on that, as well as some fun tidbits from the stars of the show, including Justin Bartha and Andrew Rannells as the main couple, David and Bryan, and NeNe Leakes as Bryan's assistant.

• Murphy was very forthcoming about how his own life was the loose inspiration for the show. He said that he and his partner have been having conversations about kids and surrogacy, and it seems that of the two characters, Bryan (Rannells) is modeled after Murphy. Murphy praised Rannell's hair and paid him a compliment, saying, "If someone's loosely playing you, you want them to be much better looking than you."
• The New Normal has already been the subject of controversy, with the organization One Million Moms calling for a boycott. Murphy said he wasn't surprised to hear about the issue but that he finds it "interesting when people take that position before they've seen it," and added, "I actually think if they watched it, they'd like it." Rannells, who's best known for his role on Girls and the Broadway play Book of Mormon, made a joke about the situation, saying he was honored to be mentioned "by first and last name!"
• Justin Bartha said that he wanted to get involved with the show after reading about Rannells and Murphy doing a show together, at which point he had already seen the former in Book of Mormon. "I kind of initiated it," he said, speaking very highly of Murphy: "Ryan is brilliant . . . a modern-day Oscar Wilde." Bartha added that he likes that The New Normal deals with "love [and] real issues in a nontrite way that is also entertaining."
• Murphy talked about casting Leakes, whom he first cast on Glee as Roz because he had seen her "take down Star Jones on Celebrity Apprentice." He reached out to her again for this show because he thinks she's hilarious, and, as if proving his point, when Leakes was asked about the subject matter of the show, Leakes exclaimed, "I live in Atlanta, GA, and it's a very popular city for gays. We love them!"

To see more pictures from the panel, just read more.