2/15/2007

By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY
Is there something in the bottled water? Lala Land is quickly becoming Mama Land with a parade of pregnant prime-time actresses.

Those expecting, all in the next three months, include Marcia Cross, ABC's Desperate Housewives; Jaime Pressly, NBC's My Name Is Earl; Diane Farr, CBS' Numb3rs; Julie Bowen, ABC's Boston Legal; Melissa McCarthy, CW's Gilmore Girls; and Amanda Peet, NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

PREGGERS ALERT: Who's really expecting on your favorite show?

Producers are happy for the actresses, but a pregnancy raises questions that stretch back to when Lucille Ball's maternal state was made part of I Love Lucy. Should it be written into the show? What changes must writers make in the story? How will the bump be shielded from view, if producers don't go with a pregnancy story?

Housewives, which has hidden Cross' pregnancy, has dealt with all those questions. On Sunday (9 ET/PT), the show ends a mystery story line featuring Cross' Bree that was originally intended to last the season but was shortened to finish before her temporary departure. Cross, pregnant with twins, is due in April.

"It made the story much more interesting, having to condense it into a smaller window," co-executive producer Bob Daily says.

When Cross was put on bed rest with two of her episodes remaining, she gave Housewives the OK to film at her place. "The crew descended on her house. They built two sets, in her living room and family room," Daily says.

Whether art imitates life depends on a variety of factors, including the nature of the show, its plotlines and the ramifications for the character.

Numb3rs decided against a date with the stork because it wasn't a good fit with a workplace drama about a dynamic FBI unit. The timing also wasn't right for Farr's Megan Reeves, a newer character still being developed, executive producer Cheryl Heuton says.

Other shows, including Boston, Gilmore and Studio 60, added pregnancy to the plot. Earl turned Pressly's impending motherhood into a new story and a twist on an existing one: Her character, Joy, decides to become the surrogate mother for her half-sister's baby, hoping that being with child will garner jury sympathy as she goes on trial for what would be her third strike. Surrogacy allows the series to avoid having to figure out what to do with a baby. Pressly praises the inspiration: "It was a great twist. No one would have come up with that" without the pregnancy.

Gilmore Girls even undid a plot point to make Melissa McCarthy's pregnancy part of the show. After her character, Sookie, had a second child, she ordered husband Jackson to get a vasectomy.

Guess what? To Sookie's — and viewers' — surprise, writers decided that Jackson didn't get a vasectomy. "He was planning on telling her eventually," executive producer David Rosenthal says. "This seemed like a fun thing to do. And, we wouldn't have to have Melissa hiding behind the furniture wearing a strange caftan all the time."

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