Pulling NBC’s ‘First Years’ Through a Rocky Birth

It’s every TV series creator’s wake-up-in-a-cold-sweat nightmare: cancellation. Try being canceled multiple times--before the show even hits the air.

Jill Gordon, creator and executive producer of “First Years,” saw her dramedy “die a thousand deaths” before finally making it onto NBC’s midseason schedule. It launches tonight with an eight-episode run in an unenviable 9 p.m. time slot--up against CBS’ powerful “Everybody Loves Raymond” and Fox’s own quirky law series, “Ally McBeal.”

Along its bumpy on-again, off-again journey to the schedule, it was resuscitated even after some senior-level network executives said they hated it, and the ruling regime went through a major change that ushered out entertainment head Garth Ancier and brought in former NBC News executive Jeff Zucker. It also put a few executives in the precarious position of championing a show that was, at times, completely out of favor and, worse, yesterday’s news.

“I never thought this show would get made,” Gordon said. “Usually, when a project’s dead, it’s dead. I had no idea what a roller-coaster ride this would be.”

The show, loosely based on a British hit called “This Life,” centers on five recent law school graduates in their first real-world, lackey-level jobs. The cast includes Samantha Mathis, James Roday, Ken Marino and well-known actors’ progeny Mackenzie Astin (the son of Patty Duke and John Astin) and Sydney Tamiia Poitier (Sidney Poitier’s daughter).

Not intended to be a legal-eagle series, the show puts its focus as much on the characters’ lives as on their work. That is to say, there are lots of relationship story lines and, since it’s about twentysomethings, sex. As opposed to many dramas, this one aims to strip away angst instead of slathering it on, Gordon said.

“The characters aren’t allowed to whine,” Gordon said. “They’re young, they’ve got jobs, they’re healthy. What do they have to complain about?”

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The show initially was planned for fall 2000 but didn’t make the cut with new one-hour shows like “Ed,” “Deadline” and “Titans” (only “Ed” is left standing from that crop). “First Years” did, however, gain some fans at the network and at NBC Studios, a co-producer with Studios USA. Among the proponents were Ted Harbert, president of NBC Studios, and Chris Conti, NBC’s senior vice president of drama development, whom Gordon credits with keeping “First Years” alive even after she herself had “started the grieving process” and was about to look for a new project.

After the original half-hour pilot presentation, which was poorly received by network brass, Harbert and Conti persuaded Gordon to do some tweaking and try again to make the schedule. The show needed a stronger framework, they said. More law office scenes were added, though the characters still didn’t set foot in a courtroom.

Conti, who had gotten hooked on the British series during frequent trips to the U.K., said he loved the idea of adapting it for the U.S. and particularly fell for Gordon’s interpretation. “First Years” could help the network reach young viewers, the most desirable demographic to advertisers, according to Conti, and give it a fresh, non-”Law & Order”-style approach to a legal show.

“It’s a celebration of youth,” he said. “It’s about that first real job, the first real commitment, the first real step into adulthood. And Jill’s dialogue is incredibly lyrical.”

Problem was, even after creative changes and a new script, some network execs still didn’t like the show, in particular its style. Gordon, who has been in the entertainment business for nearly 15 years and has written for such critically acclaimed shows as “My So-Called Life,” “The Wonder Years” and “thirtysomething,” said she was ready to call it a day on “First Years.” She had incorporated changes from the network while retaining her vision of the show’s direction, including its sexual candor, she said. With that done, and the show still not headed for the air, she felt the twain probably wouldn’t meet.

“There was a true generational divide,” said David Kissinger, president of USA Television Production Group, Studios USA’s parent. “Everybody under 30 was completely on board. The others took some convincing.” In doing so, Conti said he and others veered into touchy territory, continuing to push network execs who were not enamored with the show, to say the least.

“There are job goals, like getting a hit on the air, and there are career goals, like keeping your job,” Conti said. “In a way, it was dangerous and scary. But in a way, it was easy, because it’s rare that you get a really good show that deserves fighting for.”

Good show or not, that kind of support is rare in the TV business. “If a project isn’t sailing through, it’s more common for executives to run away from it,” Kissinger said. “It was so pleasantly surprising to see executives stick their necks out for a show that was seemingly dead.”

A bit of progress came when network execs asked late last spring for six more scripts. Studios USA agreed to provide one more, which Gordon wrote last summer. By August, the show still hadn’t been picked up for midseason, but again Harbert and Conti encouraged Gordon to keep the faith. There also was a vocal contingent of young devotees internally at NBC that kept momentum going.

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All the cast members had been hanging on too and had not committed to other series, remaining available if “First Years” got a green light. That go-ahead came, finally, in the fall, when the network told Gordon to be ready for a spring run of eight episodes. At that point, there was no staff, no set, no crew or infrastructure. The next six weeks was an adrenaline rush of epic proportions compared with the hurry-up-and-wait of the previous months, Gordon said.

The executive switch, from Ancier to Zucker late last year, solidified the show’s position, though Ancier had eventually changed his mind and thrown his support behind it. Zucker liked “First Years” right away. Its somewhat tortured history predated him, and, probably, so did its baggage as being a project that had been waiting in the wings.

Gordon, who has an “ironic and healthy attitude toward this business,” according to Kissinger, once thought her challenge was just making it to the schedule. Now, with a Monday 9 p.m. slot, she is girding for battle against its “Raymond” and “Ally” competition. “We’re an underdog, no doubt about it,” Gordon said. “We have been all along.”