Three men and a maybe.

Here's a switch: ABC's new Oh Grow Up includes a leading gay character who's still pals with his ex-wife

Oh Grow Up is a show about "a gay married guy living with a couple of straight guys married to each other." At least that's how gay main character Ford (played by John Ducey) describes the living arrangements on the ABC sitcom, which debuts this month in the coveted time slot following The Drew Carey Show, Wednesdays at 9:30 P.M. Eastern time.

Ford is someone we haven't seen before on series television: The adult gay man coming out of a straight marriage. Will & Grace this isn't. For one thing, "I don't look at our show as being about a gay man," says series creator and executive producer Alan Ball, who spent three seasons as a writer on Cybill. "It's a show about three men who are trying to find themselves. One of them's gay; two of them aren't." For another, Ford will actually be dating in the show's first season. "Our plan as of now is that Ford is really the only character this season to have a relationship," Ball says. "As far as seeing him naked in bed with another man, we're not gonna see that. But we're not gonna see the straight people naked in bed, either." (The same may not be true of Ball's first produced movie script, the just-released American Beauty, in which suburban dad Kevin Spacey has a yen for his teen daughter's best friend.)

What we will see in this Brooklyn-set comedy is Ford's shell-shocked ex-wife, Suzanne (Rena Sofer); his roommates, struggling artist Norris (David Alan Basche) and Hunter (Stephen Dunham), who has just learned he has an 18-year-old daughter, Chloe (Neisha Trout); and their dog, Mom. "The characters are loosely based on real people," says Ball, who borrowed his three male leads from his semiautobiographical play, Bachelor Holiday. In real life, he adds, "I was the gay guy living with straight guys. It took me a long time to come to terms with being gay. [But] there was no daughter; there was no wife. We did live in Brooklyn, and there was a dog named Mom."

Of Oh Grow Up's characters, Ford is "the most mature person in the show," Ball says. And that was his downfall. "He tried to grow up too fast and become a suburban dad and denied who he was in the process," Ball offers. "Part of what's fun about this show is that he's trying to make his way in the world of being gay and has no training or background. So he's going to be kind of foolish."

Ducey says his revolutionary role benefits from Ball's experience. "He's really a very well-rounded, wonderful character who happens to be gay," says the actor, whom audiences may remember as a flustered room-service waiter dealing with Niles and Lilith's romantic tryst on Frasier. Ducey (who confesses he's straight) actually sees a lot of himself in Ford: "I'm an organized overachiever; I like to have my life in order." Maybe it's that impulse that nudged the Harvard grad on the path to medical school before he allowed himself to explore performing. "I guess that was my own coming out," he says with a laugh.

"John has a very specific dry, deadpan style of delivery," says Ball. But he adds that casting Ford was not easy: "I was really surprised in this day and age at the number of actors who balked at being considered for the role."

Finding Ford's formerly better--and now somewhat bitter and boozy--haft was equally challenging. "We saw over 100 women for the role," recalls Ball, who notes that most played too much anger and not enough comedy in their audition. "Rena [Sofer] came in, and you knew [Suzanne] was going to be OK, and that gave you permission to laugh at her and laugh with her."

"The joke of me getting the job is the number of people who have come to me and said, `They picked the perfect hag to play this role!'" says Sofer. "I have many friends who are gay and used to be married and now are divorced and fully out." A familiar face from Melrose Place and General Hospital, Sofer also guest-starred in Ellen's "women's music festival" episode. "I loved being on Ellen," she gushes. "I loved being a part of history." And now, with Oh Grow Up, Sofer deadpans that she looks forward to "being boycotted by the religions right. I'm so excited to finally be a part of that!"

Ball knows the show is bound to get heat from some quarters but admits he's not quite sure how to prepare for that. "If people find this show controversial ... I don't even know how to respond," says the writer, who grew up in Marietta, Ga., part of Newt Gingrich's old congressional district. ("Needless to say, I left home as soon as possible," he quips.) "People who subscribe to that narrow-mindedness--I'm never going to win them over. I just want it to be the funniest, most interesting show I could do."

Besides, as Ducey puts it, "If you write a show with five characters and you don't piss anybody off, you probably have a pretty boring show."

Epstein is West Coast editor for Soap Opera digest and regular contributor to E! Online.