Our Time is Now

Our Time is Now is an American comedy-drama television series created by Noel Katechis, Jennifer Estelle Nash and Dennis McIver, which premiered on the RKO Network on September 25, 2021. The series stars Xavier Leith as Travis Osgood, a teenager growing up in a upper-middle class family in the suburbs of in the 2000s. It co-stars Rob Bidder as his father William, Saskia Tremayne as his mother Helena, Winifred McLean as his younger sister Courtney, Travis Makins as his older brother Michael and Samantha Matarrese as his older sister Melissa, along with Paul Ovaska and Neveah Clark as his best friends Tony and Charmaine. Paul Tinbergen narrates the series, and makes occasional on-camera appearances, as a older version of Travis.

Plot
The series depicts the social and family life of a boy who is a part of an American upper-middle-class family living in, a suburb of. The series is planned to take place over the course of the 2000s (2000 to 2009).

The show's plot centers on Travis Osgood, son of William and Helena Osgood. William holds a management job at Armstrong Bus Company, a manufacturer of and es, while his mother is a real estate agent. Travis has a younger sister, Courtney, an older brother, Michael, and an older sister, Melissa. His best friends and neighbors are Anthony "Tony" Pasquini and Charmaine Cunningham.

Cast

 * Travis Osgood (Xavier Leith): Travis grew up in the turbulent 2000s. The role of Travis as an adult is played by Paul Tinbergen.
 * William Osgood (Rob Bidder): Travis' father is a sardonic, mild-mannered man; he was born in the son of  missionaries, and moved constantly as a child, spending parts of his childhood in such cities as,  and , and briefly attended the  at one point, but eventually settled with his parents in Grand Rapids, where he attended . He works at Armstrong Bus Company, a major manufacturer of coach and transit buses boasting high-profile contracts with the likes of  and the , in a sales management position. William, described as a "late-stage ", represents the viewpoints of younger baby boomers and  who grew up during the  era and came of age during the similarly turbulent 1970s and/or 1980s. Much of his way of thinking was perpetuated by his  education at . He is described as a "-friendly " who voted for  and  respectively in the  and  presidential elections.
 * Helena Osgood (née Blanchet) (Saskia Tremayne): Travis' mother, a real estate agent. Originally from, she met her husband at Columbia University. When she graduated, they moved to Grand Rapids together "to settle down and raise a perfect family."
 * Courtney Osgood (Winifred McLean): Travis' younger sister with an upbeat, bubbly personality.
 * Michael Osgood (Travis Makins): Travis' nerdy older brother with an interest in science.
 * Melissa Osgood (Samantha Matarrese): Travis' athletic, sometimes bossy older sister.
 * Anthony "Tony" Pasquini (Paul Ovaska): Tony is Travis' long time best friend, a excellent and knowledgeable student.
 * Charmaine Cunningham (Neveah Clark): Charmaine is Travis and Tony's African-American neighbor, who has been friends with the both of them since they were in.

Conception
The series was created by writers Noel Katechis, Jennifer Estelle Nash and Dennis McIver. Katechis and McIver came of age during the 2000s, and felt that "the generation that grew up in that time were vastly underrepresented in entertainment." Working with Nash, the trio pitched the concept to several production companies and networks. None of them were interested, except for (then Litton Entertainment), who made an agreement with Katechis, Nash and McIver and shopped the series around to several networks before the RKO Network greenlit the series.

Katechis had originally wanted the show to be set in, having grown up in nearby , while Nash had wanted to set the series in , where she lived as a teenager. However, the creators decided on setting the series in, partly because McIver spent part of his childhood there and felt like using a locale "not seen very often in TV or film."

Casting
The search for an actor to play young Travis Osgood did not take long. Around 30 boys auditioned for the role of Travis, before the producers narrowed it down to 5. With just days to go before the first screen test, Xavier Leith was selected to play the role.

Katechis had enjoyed Rob Bidder's performance of a "disillusioned thirty-something man" in Bernard Weltner's film I Didn't Want Complications, and sent him a copy of the pilot script. Bidder believed the series would be similar in style to  but changed his mind once he finished reading the script. After he was cast, he persuaded the producers to re-write the character's backstory so he would have been a "" in his youth, as Bidder was the son of missionaries.

For the role of Osgood family matriarch Helena, Katechis at first wanted a "quintessentially American woman" to play her, and at one point stopped watching audition tapes from non-American actresses. At the time of casting, Saskia Tremayne was on vacation in. She recorded an audition tape on her in a hotel billiard room, and apologized for the "rushed" appearance of the video. Tremayne improvised, using a crumpled-up fast food takeout bag as a clipboard. Katechis was initially unaware that Tremayne was a New Zealander, due to the American accent she used. Though he eventually figured it out, he and the other producers still thought Tremayne was the best fit for the role, with Katechis commenting well on how Tremayne was able to grasp the character.

Samantha Matarrese's boyfriend suggested she audition for the role of Melissa Osgood. Matarrese, an Australian, felt the American accent she used for the audition "sounded too generic", but Katechis felt that she was still the best choice for the role, so the producers allowed her to stay in Grand Rapids for one week to help her develop a "natural-sounding Michigan accent" she could use to play the character. Travis Makins was attracted to the "nostalgic feel" of the show and his character's "smart and kind attitude", and was cast as Michael Osgood.

Filming
Although set in, the series is shot in and around ,. Most of the exterior shots within the neighborhood the Osgoods live in are filmed in the suburb of. Additional filming is done in, and at  in.