Big Love

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Big Love
The cast of Big Love
Genre	Drama
Creator(s)	Mark V. Olsen Will Scheffer
Starring	Bill Paxton Chloë Sevigny Jeanne Tripplehorn Ginnifer Goodwin Amanda Seyfried
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	12 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	approx. 60 min
Broadcast
Original channel	HBO
Original run	March 12, 2006 – present
Links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Big Love is an HBO television drama about a polygamous family, starring Bill Paxton, Chloë Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ginnifer Goodwin and Amanda Seyfried. It premiered in the United States on March 12, 2006 following the sixth season premiere of the popular HBO series, The Sopranos.

HBO confirmed on April 20, 2006 that it picked up the series for a second season.^[1] Production began in June 2006 and new episodes will begin airing in June 2007.

The theme song for the series is "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys. Score for the series is composed by Mark Mothersbaugh.

The show was co-created by Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer who also serve as executive producers. Olsen and Scheffer spent 2 1/2 years researching the show, ^[2] with the intent of creating a fair portrayal of polygamy in America without passing judgment.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Crew 4 Episodes 5 International broadcasting 6 DVD Releases 7 Trivia 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Plot

The series revolves around polygamist protagonist Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton), his three wives: Barb (the legal wife/first wife), Nicki (the second wife) and Margene (the third wife), and their extended family of seven children. The series is set in present-day Sandy, Utah (a suburb of Salt Lake City), but it is filmed mostly in California at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute in Simi Valley.

HBO has taken pains to state that the family portrayed in the series is not part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which banned the practice of polygamy in 1890. The writers portray the family's religion as a fundamentalist splinter group that actually keeps their lifestyle secret from their LDS neighbors. The fictional group in which Bill was raised bears more than a few similarities to the real-life Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Kingston Clan, including assigned polygymous marriages, church ownership of all residential property, and routine expulsion of teenage boys for seemingly minor and arbitrary offenses. However, the LDS church has expressed its worry that this distinction will be lost on the series' viewers in spite of the disclaimers.^{[citation needed]} Some claim the LDS church fears that the show will draw attention to the similarities of the polygamists in the show to the LDS church's own practices during the 1835-1918 period in which polygamy was practiced by LDS members.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Cast

Frank Harlow (1941)Bruce Dern

Lois Henrickson (1942) Grace Zabriskie

Adaleen Grant Mary Kay Place

Roman Grant (1930) Harry Dean Stanton Prophet of the United Effort Brotherhood (Compound)

Rhonda Volmer (Sep 1991)Daveigh Chase

Joey Henrickson (1967)Shawn Doyle

Wanda Henrickson Melora Walters

Barbara "Barb" Dutton Henrickson (Jun 10 1960)Jeanne Tripplehorn

Bill Henrickson (May 17 1958) Bill Paxton

Nicolette "Nicki" Grant (Nov 18 1974)Chloë Sevigny

Alby Grant (1972) Matt Ross

Margene "Margie" Heffman (Mar 21 1983)Ginnifer Goodwin

Sarah Henrickson (Dec 3 1990) Amanda Seyfried

Ben Henrickson (Jun 22 1992) Douglas Smith

Tansy "Teeny" Henrickson (Mar 16 1998) Jolean Wejbe

Wayne Grant (Mar 17 2001) Keegan Holst

Raymond Grant (2003) Garrett Gray, Spencer Gray

Aaron Heffman[3]

Lester Heffman[3]

• Tina Majorino - Heather Tuttle, Sarah's co-worker at the fast food restaurant

• Joel McKinnon Miller - Don Embry, Bill's closest friend and business partner, Peg's husband
  • Wendy Phillips - Peg Embry, Don's wife, Home Plus manager
    • Kyle Gallner - Jason Embry, Don and Peg's son, Ben's best friend.
  • Annie Fitzgerald - Verna Embry, Don's wife^[4]
  • Renee Albert - Julep "Jo Jo" Embry, Don's wife^[4][5]

• Carlos Jacott - Carl Martin, neighbor, Pam's husband
• Audrey Wasilewski - Pam Martin, neighbor, Carl's wife
• Wendy Hunt - Jodie Markell, secretary for Bill
• Sarah Jones - Brynn, Ben's girlfriend
• Lawrence O'Donnell - Lee Hatcher, family attorney

[edit] Crew

The head writers for the series are the co-creators: Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer. The writing staff includes staff writers: Dustin Lance Black and Eileen Myers. Other writers include David Manson, Alexa Junge, Karen Sprecher & Jill Sprecher and Jeanette Collins & Mimi Friedman.

Directors of the series include many veteran directors from other programs on HBO including Rodrigo Garcia, Charles McDougall, Michael Spiller, Alan Taylor, Mary Harron, Steve Shill, Julian Farino, Michael Lehmann and Alan Poul (former executive producer of Six Feet Under).

Producers on the show are Ann Holm, Ron Binkowski, Bernadette Caulfield, Angela Courtin, Jeanette Collins & Mimi Friedman, and Shane Keller. David Knoller, Alexa Junge, and David Manson serve as co-executive producers. Executive producers are Gary Goetzman and actor, Tom Hanks.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Big Love episodes

Season	No. of episodes	First Airdate	Last Airdate
Season 1	12	March 12, 2006	June 4, 2006
Season 2	TBA	Spring 2007	TBA

[edit] International broadcasting

Country	Alternate title/Translation	TV Network(s)	Series Premiere	Weekly Schedule
United States		HBO	12 March 2006
Canada		The Movie Network (East) Movie Central (West)	14 March 2006
Argentina		HBO
Australia		SBS		Wednesdays at 8.30pm
Belgium		Canvas (First run) and BeTV (Re-runs)	September 2006
Brazil	Amor Imenso	HBO	1 October 2006
Chile		HBO
Czech Republic		HBO
Chile		HBO
Finland		Nelonen	19 February 2007	Mondays at 9.00pm
Hungary		HBO	5 January 2007
Israel		YES+
Italy		satellite channel
Mexico		HBO
New Zealand		TV2
Peru		HBO
Poland		HBO
Romania		HBO
Scandinavia		Canal+
South Africa		M-Net
Turkey		Foxlife
United Kingdom		Channel Five (First run) and Five Life (re-runs)
Uruguay		HBO

[edit] DVD Releases

DVD Name	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
Big Love Season 1	October 17, 2006	TBA	TBA

[edit] Trivia

• The show's fictional fundamentalist Mormon group, the United Effort Brotherhood, is in some ways similar to and was largely inspired by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, one of the most prolific and well-known remaining groups of polygamists claiming to be the successors of the original LDS church. (The name may be inspired by the church's financial and legal wing, the United Effort Plan.) Creators Olsen and Scheffer even included a harried drive through the twin cities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, the largest standing FLDS stronghold, as part of their research for the show.^[6]
• Jeanne Tripplehorn and Tina Majorino have worked together before, in the Kevin Costner movie Waterworld, playing Helen and Enola, respectively.
• Tina Majorino, Amanda Seyfried, and Kyle Gallner worked together on the TV show Veronica Mars. Majorino and Gallner's characters were dating, Seyfried's didn't share any screen time with either.

[edit] See also

• Mormon fundamentalism
• Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Bill Paxton and Harry Dean Stanton have both appeared in Alien films - Paxton in Aliens and Stanton in Alien.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Big Love official HBO Site. hbo.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.
• Big Love at the Internet Movie Database
  • Episodes Cast for "Big Love". imdb.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-30.
• Big Love at TV.com
• Authur, Kate (May 21 2006). "Wives Are a Pain, Especially Your Husband's". The New York Times: 36. 
• Egan, Timothy (February 19 2006). "Notice Anything Funny About the Folks Next Door?". New York Times.  Review of Big Love
• Kurtz, Stanley (March 13 2006). "Big Love, from the Set I’m taking the people behind the new series at their word.". National Review.  Commentary from a viewpoint centered in traditional family values.
• Polygamypage.info Big Love an Education. Commentary on the show from a Christian pro-polygamy perspective.