HBO’s Big Love
According to a joint report issued by the
The new HBO drama series Big Love tells the story of Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) and his life in suburban Salt Lake City, balancing the needs of his three wives -- Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicki (Chloe Sevigny) and Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin) -- their seven kids, three new houses and the opening of his newest home improvement store. Kicking off its 12-episode first season Sunday, March 12, 2006 at 10 p.m. the series was created by Mark V. Olsen & Will Scheffer, who executive produce Big Love (and are seen in the photo, left by: 2006/Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage.com) along with Playtone's Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman.
Q: How did the idea for the series come about?
WILL SCHEFFER: Mark and I had been talking about different ideas for TV, and he came up with polygamy. And I said, "Polygamy? Yuck!"
MARK V. OLSEN: Six months of research later, Will got on board.
Q: What made you believe this was a promising subject?
MVO: We felt it could be a family show through a really interesting lens. We developed it with HBO in mind. Somewhere else, we would have had to either cheese it up or glib it down, make it the three babes in a hot tub.
WS: We were trying to craft something that could sustain interest over the long haul. We're very interested in exploring marriage and the struggle of a family to maintain itself.
MVO: Our interests are really the universals that everyone can identify with. The struggles of being in a family. Holding a family together. Sacrificing for a family.
Q: Were there specific inspirations when you were developing the concept?
WS: As aficionados of much of HBO's programming, we feel there's a thing you can call the HBO family drama, and it includes "The Sopranos" and "Six Feet Under."
Q: Do either of you have any Mormon background?
MVO: Neither of us is Mormon, but I grew up in a part of
Q: The stars of BIG LOVE are best known for their work in movies. Was it hard to sell them on the idea of a TV series?
WS: Not really. For example, we had written Chloe Sevigny's part with her in mind, but she didn't know that. She found out about the show and came to us independently. And from there, we had an embarrassment of riches, when it came to actors being interested.
MVO: HBO gave us license to take as long as we needed to cast the show. We took three months, and that's pretty rare.
WS: Harry Dean Stanton was very cagey, and it took about six meetings to convince him. Finally Mark cornered him and said, "We would kill to have you on our show." And that did it for him.
Q: One of the interesting things about BIG LOVE is that it doesn't belittle anyone.
WS: That was a conscious effort. We don't have any axes to grind.
MVO: We're not interested in passing judgment. A glib, cynical show is very easy to do. But it's an absolute mandate for us to make sure the story lines aren't pat, or judgmental, or cynical, or too hip. It has to be about the characters.
I would expect some critics to ask whether we're glorifying polygamy, airbrushing its dark underside. But I don't think we are.
