Big Love is an HBO television drama about a polygamous family, starring Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin. 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 they have picked up the series for a second season, set to begin production in June 2006 with episodes beginning to air in Spring 2007.^[1]

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, a gay couple, [1] spent 2 1/2 years researching the show, [2] and their intent was to create a fair portrayal of polygamy in America without passing judgment. Some commentators have suggested that the series is a medium for exploring the meaning of "family" and its implications for such issues as gay marriage.[3]

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 Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as the "Mormons" and the largest group of the Latter Day Saint movement, which banned the practice of polygamy in 1890.^[2] The writers portray the family's religion as a fundamentalist splinter group that actually keeps their lifestyle secret from their LDS or Mormon 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, including assigned polygynous 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.^[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
  • Annie Fitzgerald - Verna Embry, Don's wife^[5]
  • Renee Albert - Julep "Jo Jo" Embry, Don's wife^[5][6]

• 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

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.

Big Love also appeared in the following countries and stations.

• In Canada the series on was shown on The Movie Network with approximately the same schedule as the United States.
• In United Kingdom series appeared on terrestrial channel Five on Mondays at 10pm during the summer of 2006.
• In New Zealand the series was shown on TVNZ's TV2 on Wednesdays at 8.30pm.
• In Belgium the first season premiered September 2006 on the Flemish TV channel Canvas.
• In Peru the show aires on HBO LA.
• In Scandinavia the series is shown on Canal+
• In Israel the series is shown on YES+.
• In South Africa the series is shown on M-Net.
• In Turkey the series is shown on Foxlife.

• 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 polygymists 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.^[7]
• Jeanne Tripplehorn and Tina Majorino have worked together before, in the Kevin Costner movie Waterworld, playing Helen and Enola, respectively.
• Tina Majorino has also worked with Amanda Seyfried on the TV show Veronica Mars although the two didn't share any screen time.
• Kyle Gallner (Jason Embry) also starred in "Veronica Mars", where he played Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie's (Tina Majorino) love interest.

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

• "Big Love official HBO Site". hbo.com. Retrieved 2006-07-30.
• Big Love at IMDb
  • "Episodes Cast for "Big Love"". imdb.com. Retrieved 2006-07-30.
• Template:Tvtome show
• "Church Responds to Questions on TV Series". lds.org. Retrieved 2006-07-30.
• Authur, Kate (2006). "Wives Are a Pain, Especially Your Husband's". The New York Times: 36. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Egan, Timothy (2006). "Notice Anything Funny About the Folks Next Door?". New York Times. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) Review of Big Love
• Kurtz, Stanley (2006). "Big Love, from the Set I'm taking the people behind the new series at their word". National Review. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) 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.