PASADENA, Calif. — If you were inside the state of Utah, you might have thought that there was a big controversy over the HBO series "Big Love." Not only was the local media coverage heavy — some might say excessive — but lots of people, up to and including Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., weighed in on the show about a family of polygamists living in suburban Salt lake City.

Meanwhile, back at HBO offices in New York and Los Angeles, the controversy was, well, pretty much non-existent.

"I don't know that we've had a lot of controversy about a lot of our shows," said HBO president Chris Albrecht. "I'm not sure when you say controversy. . . ."

True, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement reiterating its opposition to polygamy. But Albrecht and the folks at HBO were unfazed.

"We did a lot of work before ('Big Love' premiered) to reach out to influential people in the Mormon community and let them know that we respected the LDS movement and that this was not a show about that," he said. "And we were careful to distinguish in the show between polygamists, people in the compounds, even our main families in the show, and mainstream Mormons. And we really did not have a lot of controversy about that.

"And I think that was because we had the added benefit of truth when we said that's not what the show was really about and that's not what we were trying to do."

In point of fact, Albrecht is right. Throughout its 12-episode first season, "Big Love" did indeed clearly distinguish between mainstream Mormons and polygamists. It was a central plot point that ran throughout the episodes that the polygamist family at the center of the show was trying to hide its lifestyle from the members of the LDS Church, some of whom display strong anti-polygamy attitudes.

Of course, some of the Mormons portrayed in "Big Love" aren't shining examples of the faith, but then that's also something you can defend with the added benefit of truth.

All in all, Albrecht sounded pleased as punch about the first season of the show. "We feel 'Big Love' was a big success story for us in many ways. One is just the quality of the show and the uniqueness of the show. I think 'Big Love" does what HBO has done really well, which is take an interesting arena and through it tell stories that are really relatable.

"I mean, it's really a story about marriage and family and relationships between men and women, and women and women, and I think it achieved a tremendous amount of high-quality creative work in the first season.

"It also did extremely well (in attracting viewers), and the buzz factor of the show seemed to build all the way through."

It didn't hurt that real-life polygamist Warren Jeffs was placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list during the show's run.

"It also reflected unintentionally something that started to happen in the off-entertainment news world, where there became a real-life polygamy story that was big news," Albrecht said. "And we are anxious to get the second season on the air. I've read a few of the scripts, and I think the show is going to start off really strong."

That second season is slated to premiere in early 2007.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com