It's Twentysomething

By JAMES COLLINS

The genius of Christopher Keyser and Amy Lippman, the creators of Party of Five, has been to understand the entertainment value of emotional pain. The show is about a family of five orphans and it features enough heavy talk and tragedy to sustain an A.A. chapter. As presented by Keyser and Lippman, though, the relentless suffering is positively enjoyable. That is so partly because Party of Five offers the guilty pleasure of watching other people's troubles, but the show is much finer than any soap. When the competence of Julia (played by Neve Campbell with sensuous innocence and gravity) wounds her ineffectual husband, the moments are pointed and true. Keyser and Lippman produce a discerning weeper, and it has found a large, passionate audience.

And that is the team's problem. Having achieved one success, the two face the oldest and most dreaded question in show business: What can you do for an encore? Their answer comes on March 11 at 9 p.m. E.T., when Significant Others debuts on Fox. Like Party of Five, it is an ensemble drama about young people. This time they are a group of friends in their 20s. The show's tone is much lighter and more romantic than Party of Five's, but it still has its share of anguish. Expectations are high, and if the show is a hit, it will prove that Keyser and Lippman really have the goods.

Three years ago, when Party of Five was struggling, it seemed unlikely they would even be employed, much less have two series on TV. Keyser, 37, and Lippman, 34, met in 1985 in a playwriting class at Harvard, where he was in law school and she was an undergraduate studying poetry. Uninterested in a legal career, Keyser began writing screenplays after graduation; meanwhile, Lippman became a writer on soaps. They linked up officially in 1988, when they both moved to Los Angeles with their future spouses. They have been partners ever since, and their closeness is apparent in how they finish each other's sentences. And in how they argue. "When we're done fighting," says Lippman, "we go out for a great lunch."

After writing for such shows as L.A. Law and Sisters, Keyser and Lippman were asked by Fox to develop a series about some kids on their own after the death of their parents. Early on, the show had few viewers and was almost canceled. To help the ratings, Rupert Murdoch, whose company owns Fox, suggested an episode in which the kids' house burned down. (Keyser and Lippman rejected the idea.) Eventually, the ratings improved, and the show's popularity continues even as the loss of the parents recedes. "These people at any time in their lives are constantly forced back to take care of each other," Keyser says, "which is the original premise of the show. In this way, we bring the show back to its essential question."

In the middle of last year, Keyser and Lippman started considering a new project. Inspired by thirtysomething, they thought of doing a similar show about characters in their 20s. The post-college years, when people are trying to figure out what they're going to do with their lives, offered lots of dramatic possibilities. So they set about creating a group of characters: Campbell (Eion Bailey), Henry (Scott Bairstow) and Nell (Jennifer Garner), who have been friends for 20 years (needless to say, Nell has been involved with both guys). They live in Los Angeles, professionally and romantically adrift.

Is Significant Others as good as Party of Five? Not yet, not nearly, but it shows potential. There is too much forced action and speechifying in the first two episodes. Also too much whining. At the end of the pilot, when Campbell and Henry and Nell all dance together, your heart is supposed to overflow with the affection and promise and pain of the moment, but it just doesn't. The actors are appealing--the fault lies in Keyser and Lippman's scripts. However, by the third episode, the show becomes looser and more engaging. The subplot of Nell's attraction to her father's best friend is ingenious, and it is played with amazing wit and delicacy.

Certainly, Significant Others is far superior to the other young-adult dramas that have created a stir of late--the uniquely precious and vulgar Ally McBeal, and the phony Dawson's Creek. Those shows' gimmicks have given them instant heat, and Lippman is worried that the network will want to see fast results for Significant Others. "This is not the same climate as when we premiered our first show," she says. "We had such luck. People stood by for a long time when there was no indication that it was going anywhere." Network executives and viewers take note: Significant Others deserves your patience.

--Reported by Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles

With reporting by Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles