'Big Love' has big plans

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Now that "Big Love" has been renewed for a third season — to air sometime in 2008 on HBO — here's what you have to look forward to: a bit more interaction between the polygamists and the Mormons. Hmmm. ...

"We're going to start to explore that side of it a little more," executive producer/creator Will Scheffer told the Deseret Morning News. "It's always been in the background. We're going to look at it closer."

Not surprisingly, he didn't want to give away too much. But keep an eye out for Ellen Burstyn's debut in Episode 11 of Season 2 (scheduled to premiere Aug. 20). She'll play the wife of a prominent leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

And, apparently, it's a theme that will carry into Season 3 of "Big Love," which follows the lives of a family of polygamists living in suburban Salt Lake area. Sandy, to be exact.

Those who might have thought that Scheffer, executive producer/creator Mark Olsen and their team would run out of stories as the series entered its second season were quickly proven wrong. If anything, "Big Love" has only gotten better; the family's unmasking in the Season 1 finale was a jumping-off point for more stories.

"That's what we wanted to tap people on the shoulders about," Olsen said. "We've always seen a much longer trajectory for the show than just hiding in the suburbs. Everyone thought we (peaked) with the exposure at the governor's mansion. ... We felt like the show was not about that. There's many more cycles to go with that." (At least one more cycle. HBO gave the series an early pickup, and it's expected to go back into production in November for Season 3.)

And we're seeing more polygamists than just the suburbanites and those at the compound that have been part of the show since it began. "You might have thought that the polygamous world was nothing more than the suburbs and Juniper Creek, but guess what? There's other major players in this enterprise. And we start to meet some of those other groups," Olsen said.

Except for a few exterior shots at various points in the Salt Lake area, "Big Love" is shot in Santa Clarita, Calif. But Olsen and Scheffer still spend some time in Utah doing research. This season's storyline about Bill (Bill Pullman) pursuing a gaming business was, for example, inspired the the Kingstons.

And they hear from a lot of people in Utah — including a lot of actual polygamists. "Yes, we do. But that's not where the stories come from," Olsen said.