Tonight, on ABC’s latest comedy ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED, Alyssa Milano returns to our TV screens as Rebecca Thomas, a recently divorced lawyer (and mother to a 15 year old son), who is trying to get out there into the dating world, and is finding it rather difficult.  Together with her best friends – her little sister Lisa (Kelly Stables), her best friend from childhood, Perry (the always awesome Kyle Bornheimer), and his rent-free roommate Shawn (Josh Lawson) – she sets out to try to find love after so many years out of the game.

I recently spent some time chatting with the fantastic Alyssa Milano – here’s what she had to say about the show, and why people will relate to these characters:

So let’s talk about ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED!
Yeah!

Some people, you know, maybe not have heard much about the show, but they know Alyssa Milano is coming back to TV.   What is the show?  What is it about?  Tell us a little bit.
It’s about basically a group of friends that are so bad at dating, that they will make anyone’s own life look good, and then in essence, the sort of heart of the show, is about a group of friends that are really functional together but as soon as they have to sort of stray from their immediate circle they become totally dysfunctional.

I think a lot of people these days have that group of friends that they can’t stray away from.
I totally agree.  Like I was thinking back to my, you know, my best friend, and my early 20’s I used to look at him and be like “God, nobody is every going to understand me like this guy understands me”.  So I think it’s a universal thing.  Not only that aspect of having that core group of friends but also looking for love.  There’s not really anyone that I know that hasn’t, at some point, been romantically challenged in their life.

One of the questions I got was, I don’t see how Alyssa Milano is going to be so romantically challenged and I said it’s not about this woman, necessarily, it’s about her coming out of a divorce, a long marriage, that’s what the challenge is.
Alyssa Milano has had a lot of romantic challenges in her own life as well. [laughs] I mean I hated dating and that is the whole point of the show.  It doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, how much success you had in your life, it’s really hard to find someone to love and to be compatible with.  I love that the show is not a high concept show but it’s really about, sort of love.  And, yeah, the character itself, she has been married her entire life, she just got divorce no more than six months ago, she has never dated, she has been with one guy sexually.  This is sort of new and scary and terrifying and also you know exciting.  But she is not good at it.  She is awkward. She just grooms her awkwardness.

I like that too; that she totally knows she can’t handle it and she asks for help from her friends.
Right, exactly.

It doesn’t hurt or it doesn’t help I guess, you have a fifteen year old son that is also thrown in the mix and a lot of people don’t have that when they are trying to date the first time really.
Right exactly

Why do you think, like you said, why is this a show that is relatable, that people will want to watch?
I think it really doesn’t matter what a show is about, I think as l long as, at least for me, specifically what a show is about never really matters.  What matters to me is the chemistry between the cast and the dynamics between the actors and, you know I think we have that plus the universal theme of looking for love plus the incredible quirky edgy writing of  Richard Blitt and the director James Burrows, who literally can find comedy at any moment you meet him.  That man has a bag of tricks that is just unbelievable and you know I think when you watch the show, I think that the people will be able to feel how much fun we are having.

What are some things that people can kind of look forward to in upcoming episodes, some of your favorite moments that they can catch for the rest of the season?
One of my favorite story lines, because you know I am a huge sports fan, Josh Lawson who plays Sean he starts a dating a girl, because she has the hockey package and I think it hilarious.  The whole episode he is just trying to prolong the episode so he can continue to watch the hockey play off.  You know stuff like that, Perry and I, played by Kyle Bornheimer, Perry and I go to our high school reunion and I try to you know show that the guy that stood me up at the prom, what a wonderful successful person I have turned into.  He asks me out on a date, Perry totally sabotages the date.  So, you know, fun tales and I set my sister up on a date with this really crazy guy, and she gets mad at me about it.

Well my last thing here is Opening Day is coming, are you excited?(we talked right before Baseball season started)
So excited I’m going to an exhibition game tomorrow.

I’ve been watching exhibition games all spring because I just can’t wait for the games to start.  It’s been driving me crazy.
I know, this is my favorite time of year.  Not only because baseball season is coming but its spring and it feels like everything is reborn.

I agree with that completely.   Well, I’m looking forward to the show.  I know the fans are, too and we hope to talk to you again soon.
Thank you so much for your time and your support.  I really appreciate it.