Milo Ventimiglia on the appeal of new family drama ‘This Is Us’

TORONTO – With many calling it the new “Parenthood” and over eight million views of its trailer on YouTube alone, it’s clear there’s much anticipation for the new series “This Is Us.”

Debuting Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on CTV, the family drama follows a group of everyday characters, with several sharing the same birthday and having intersecting lives that come together at the end of the first episode.

Milo Ventimiglia co-stars with Mandy Moore as a married couple about to give birth to triplets. As she goes into labour, she faces a health complication that creates immense suspense.

Other cast members include Chrissy Metz as a woman struggling with her weight. Justin Hartley plays her brother, an actor bored with his career, and Sterling K. Brown (who won an Emmy on Sunday for “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”) plays a businessman in search of his birth father.

“I think people are wanting a show like this,” said Ventimiglia.

“I think people are wanting something that is deeply human and emotional and uplifting at the same time. I think people want to feel something more than who’s shooting who, who’s sleeping with who, who’s flying off and who’s looking in the sky for aliens.”

The show — created by Dan Fogelman, who wrote the film “Crazy, Stupid, Love” — stands out in a TV landscape filled with “high action, high impact, over-exposed type storylines and characters,” he added.

“This is just something that’s simple — a couple having triplets, a woman battling her weight, a successful man reconnecting with his birth father, an actor who’s kind of bored and disappointed in the idea of fame and money. It’s life, a lot of tears, a lot of laughter.”

Ventimiglia said he was excited to get a script for a regular character, after playing roles including superhero Peter Petrelli in “Heroes.”

“There were no superheroes, there were no aliens, there were no guns or uniforms,” he said. “It was just like, ‘Oh, I get to be just a guy? Just a guy who works in construction and is expecting a family? How exciting!’ And refreshing.

“He’s very different than guys I’ve played in the past where I constantly had to furrow my brow and do some kind of crazy superhero pose or say something wry and off-centre.”

Twenty years into his acting career, the California native said he feels like he’s “just getting started.”

“I feel like I just finally took one step off the start line and I feel like the last 20 years, all that was preparation to be right here.”

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version had an incorrect time for when the show airs.