HE’S TALKING ‘SPEECHLESS’

J OHN Ross Bowie, who plays unconventional dad Jimmy DiMeo on “Speech

less,” says Wednesday night’s episode finds him in dramatic waters with co-star Micah Fowler, who plays teenage son JJ.

“What I like about the show is that we’re able to take kind of trope-y sitcom conventions and show them through a new lens ... and this is the kind of episode where we’re firing on all cylinders,” says Bowie, who co-stars on the ABC sitcom with Minnie Driver (Maya), Fowler — who’s got cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair — Mason Cook (Ray), Kyla Kennedy (Dylan) and Cedric Yarborough (Kenneth). “Because this is ‘Speechless’ it gets very fun and silly then intense again and then kind of crass — and ends on an upbeat, silly note.”

In the episode, Jimmy takes JJ on a camping trip to have “the talk” with him about sex. “It turns out JJ is way ahead of Jimmy on that front but has a slightly serious, deeper question about what someone of his abilities can do vis a vis having a wife and raising a family,” Bowie says. “It’s a pretty intense moment ... it takes the idea of being able to lead a ‘normal’ life, when living with a disability, and looks at it from a bunch of different angles.

“We shot the camping trip out in a national forest near Malibu and it was intense — just the two of us for a very long day of shooting,” Bowie says of he and Fowler. “At the end — I already feel like these are my de facto kids, the second tier after my real kids — but Micah’s my guy now. We got really close.” Bowie also recurs on “The Big Bang

Theory” as Sheldon’s (Jim Parson) nemesis, Barry Kripke (he’ll return this season).

“‘Speechless’ allows me to be funny but push into all these dramatic directions that’s never really been asked of me [on TV],” he says. “Nine times out of 10, I’m ‘Red Herring Suspect #1.’ That’s been the lion’s share of my dramatic work on TV.”