By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. � Inside a cavernous soundstage sits a small bedroom. Cameras surround actors Lauren Graham and Mae Whitman, who play a single mother and her witty daughter on Parenthood, NBC's modern-day ode to thirtysomething-style family dramas dipped in comedy.
By Byron Cohen, NBC
The family drama, starring Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia, is rooted in the ebb and flow of everyday life.
By Byron Cohen, NBC
The family drama, starring Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia, is rooted in the ebb and flow of everyday life.
Graham: "I love taramosalata."
Whitman: "I'm not sure what that is. Is that like tiramisu, but smaller?"
Graham: "No. It's fish eggs, not an Italian dessert."
Whitman: "Oh. So it's like the exact opposite of what I thought."
Graham: "Duh."
It's funny dialogue ? except the cameramen are off duty. As are the actors. The fact that this personal exchange about confusing food names sounds as if it's ripped from a Parenthood script speaks volumes how the actors create the family vibe that distinguishes this series.
"The show doesn't strain or sensationalize," says Ron Howard, who produces the dramedy along with his Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer. Imagine was behind the 1989 Steve Martin movie of the same name, which served as a loose framework for series creator Jason Katims. "Parenthood doesn't play for shock value," Howard says.
"It's about the meaning of life," Grazer adds.
Which could be why the show continues to fight for an audience ? averaging just under 7 million viewers ? as it waits for the network's decision in May about a third season (though its return on equally challenged NBC is likely).
Helping the cause: Richard Dreyfuss, who tonight (10 ET/PT) begins a four-episode arc as a theater producer and war buddy of patriarch Zeke Braverman, played by Craig T. Nelson. Dreyfuss says he was lured to this small-screen project by the cast ("I've known a bunch of them a long time") and the show's air of openness ("The first thing I did was change the way my character dressed, and they said fine").
Also in Parenthood's corner: Despite struggling in its time slot against CBS' The Good Wife, the show recently saw a 37% bump among younger viewers who recorded the program and watched within seven days.
"People may not watch us live as much, but it's clear they become deeply invested in the characters and check back," says executive producer Katims. He's also the man behind Friday Night Lights, another more-admired-than-watched drama that has survived thanks only to a partnership with DirecTV, which airs episodes well before NBC.
Stories that hit home
"Both my shows have struggled, but I do feel the network sees the value they bring," says Katims, whose connection to one big Parenthood theme ? the Braverman family's embrace of an autistic child ? is personal. His son, Sawyer, 14, is autistic.
"At first I wasn't sure I wanted to go there," Katims says. "But then I started to remember that everyone is dealing with something, and the goal of great TV is to reach a universal truth."
But life has become so full of uncomfortable truths that escapist TV, from crime dramas to reality shows, easily outpaces programming that mirrors our personal reality. With the world leaping from crisis to catastrophe to conflict, no wonder viewers don't flock to the gritty issues shows like Parenthood dish up.
Besides the couple with an autistic son, a brief roll call includes a daughter dating an African-American teen who's a reformed alcoholic; a dysfunctional mixed-race couple who are fighting to stay together; a stay-at-home dad who is fighting insecurities; and a family patriarch who comes across as cool but sits on his own powder keg.
"The cast is large and the show is not simplistic, which makes it hard for audiences," says Tim Goodman, television writer for The Hollywood Reporter. "It has some comedy, but there's a lot of yelling. So if that's your own family, you might not want to watch. That said, the quality of the show is just obvious."
Goodman says while Parenthood might be a better fit "on something like TNT, with a run of maybe 13 episodes," it could still break out as a bona fide network hit. "Both Jason (Katims) and Imagine have great track records. And the show's on NBC, which needs a breakout hit and will have more patience than, say, (front-running) CBS might."
When Nelson first read the pilot's script, he immediately had the sense "this was going to be a great show that would not be discovered quickly," he says, puffing on a cigar outside the same soundstage where his 1990s sitcom, Coach, was shot. "But when I do run into people who watch, they seem to love it. It has to do with the way it tells so many stories that feel genuine."
Series lead Peter Krause has been a parent for some time, but he says "being on this show has actually made me a better one." Krause, who plays the clan's unflappable glue-stick, Adam Braverman, says that just as starring in HBO's Six Feet Under became "a five-year meditation for me on death, being on Parenthood has made me pay more attention to the little things in life."
For Katims, the decision to tackle autism has been rewarded by a chorus of fans who appreciate the tactful way the topic is handled. A scan of posts on BabyCenter.com's Parenthood fan club page shows comments such as, "The writers are so wonderful, they really 'get it,' " and, "I watch Max (Braverman) and see so much of my own son."
Katims fiercely rebuts the notion that Parenthood's realism makes it a less viable option for viewers seeking escapism.
"In its day, thirtysomething had an element of fantasy and wish fulfillment, which was a bunch of friends in their 30s who would still show up at each other's houses unannounced as if they were teens," says Katims, whose mentors and early employers were thitysomething producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz.
"Parenthood is a bunch of kids who've gone off to create their own families but are still a unit and still drop by and are there for each other," he says. "For many of us, that's a fantasy."
Far from being down on the future of high-quality dramas on television, Katims says the growing number of cable channels getting into scripted dramas bodes well for the genre. "Network audiences are diminishing in general, and audiences overall are very sophisticated," he says. "Maybe the place to go (for dramas) will be the HBOs, Showtimes and AMCs of the world."
Indeed, "you have to be very careful how you define success or failure on TV these days," says Herskovitz, who runs feature-film-focused Bedford Falls Productions with Zwick. "Cable networks are fine with the kind of audience Parenthood gets now for NBC, because they already have an economic model that works for them," he says, noting thirtysomething was constantly under threat of cancellation by ABC throughout its 1987-91 run. "But networks are like aircraft carriers; they're hard to turn fast and don't like taking chances."
'Controlled looseness'
That's something the cast of Parenthood isn't afraid to do.
Nelson says the caliber of the actors ? including Bonnie Bedelia as matriarch Camille, Dax Shepard as lovable screw-up Crosby and Monica Potter as earnest Kristina ? means "everyone's always prepared, so we have time to play with scenes if needed."
Katims encourages the actors to bring ideas to the set, which explains why Graham and Whitman's bedroom scene, once cameras are rolling, unfolds five different ways over the course of five takes. When the naturally goofy Graham-as-Sarah tries to reassure her daughter, Amber Holt (Whitman), that a play she has written isn't a scathing tell-all, her various ad libs include "Don't worry, it's called Mommy Dearest. I hope that's OK," and, "It's not about you, it's about a girl named Bamber Bolt, no one will know." Each time Whitman laughs, it's for real.
During a break in shooting, former Gilmore GirlGraham jokes that the outtakes on future Parenthood DVDs will be longer than the episodes themselves.
"There's a controlled looseness on the set that's encouraged, and we all bring something to the party," she says. "I think there is reality in what we're creating. But I think (viewers) are out of the habit of being confronted with their own lives on TV. I grew up watching thirtysomething, and sometimes I wonder where are those shows today."
Graham pauses, then sinks deeper into a couch on the set, as if hunkering down for the long haul. "It's almost like we're one of those shows from the old days," she says. "Which, personally, I think is a good thing."
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