"Party of Five" reaches a climax in its seasonlong alcoholism story this week. But that doesn't mean the story is over.
In a powerful episode that will make you cringe and might make you cry as Bailey (Scott Wolf) is confronted by his siblings and his former girlfriend about his drinking problem.If this were your average TV show, this episode, titled "Intervention" (Wednesday, 8 p.m., Ch. 13), would be wrapped up with a neat little bow. Bailey would see the error of his ways and make a remarkable recovery.
But "Party of Five" has never been your average TV show. It's always been more like life.
Life heightened for TV, admittedly, but something closer to reality nonetheless.
Soon after "Party" premiered in the fall of 1994, viewers got an indication that creators/executive producers/writers Amy Lippman and Chris Keyser had something other than conventional TV in mind. They wrote a script that had Bailey witnessing fellow members of the football team smashing a window at the high school. The coach didn't see the perpetrators, but he did see Bailey.
And Bailey was given an ultimatum - either rat on his friends or face suspension from the team.
In rather typical television fashion, Bailey delivered an impassioned speech to his coach about how that just wasn't fair - how he wasn't responsible for the vandalism and he shouldn't be punished for something that wasn't his fault.
In countless shows over the years, the coach's heart would have softened and Bailey would have been forgiven. But in "Party of Five," Bailey was suspended from the team.
And the suspension held for the rest of the season.
Right then and there, you knew that Lippman and Keyser weren't going to take the easy way out.
That's happened only once in the nearly three years the show has been on the air. And, in that case, the executive producers were forced into compromising.
Last season, 16-year-old Julia (Neve Campbell) became sexually active. And, unlike so many shows that have pregnancy scares that don't pan out, Julia did indeed become pregnant.
The scripts had the character in turmoil. This was not a problem that was easily solved. After much personal struggle, Julia eventually decided to have an abortion.
But, bowing to pressure from the network, Julia had a miscarriage just before she was scheduled to terminate her pregnancy.
"We weren't happy about it, but we did make the point that she had decided to end her pregnancy. And, even though she had a miscarriage, she suffered because of that decision," Lippman said. "This wasn't something we took lightly. It wasn't something that the character took lightly.
"We thought this was an important issue for us to face."
And, while the show is criticized in some quarters for portraying teenagers having sex, "Party of Five" deserves praise for how it handled the issue. The end result was that Julia decided she had made a mistake and has not entered into another sexual relationship. And other teenage characters on the show, learning from Julia's mistake, have done likewise.
That's the same approach the producers have taken with the alcoholism storyline. Instead of creating perfect, role-model characters who never do anything wrong, the characters in "Party of Five" make mistakes.
"I think it's actually a more interesting message and a much better way to teach kids . . . about the problems of drinking and of premarital sex than to just say these are good, solid kids who don't do anything wrong," Keyser said.
Wednesday's episode is wrenching. Bailey, whose drunken behavior ruined his 3-year-old brother's birthday party in last week's episode, is avoiding his siblings. He knows they're worried about him, but he doesn't want to face them or his problem.
So Charlie (Matthew Fox), Julia and Claudia (Lacey Chabert) resort to drastic measures to get their brother to face them.
Their intervention - which includes Bailey's ex-girlfriend, Sarah (Jennifer Love Hewitt), and Charlie's girlfriend, Grace (Tamara Taylor) - doesn't go exactly according to plan. Bailey is evasive and defensive, and soon launches into vicious, hurtful attacks on the people trying to help him.
It's enthralling and disturbing, but it rings true.
"Chris (Keyser) has been, in his own life, involved with a friend's intervention," Lippman said. "And we used a lot of that to try and tell a story that was real."
All the Salingers are shaken by a revelation from their family's past. And just when you think you know where the episode is headed, there's another surprise.
"So it's not a smooth path," Lippman said. "And, there again, we tried to be honest with it."
While "Party of Five" is a show that contains important messages, it by no means beats its viewers over the head with them. It isn't the sort of show that teens are going to turn away from because they think it's preaching to them.
"I think what makes something feel preachy is to have an intervention episode and at the end of it, he says, `You're right, guys. I should stop drinking,' " Keyser said. "And he goes to (Alcoholics Anonymous) and turns to the camera and says, I was wrong this whole time.'
"And we don't intend to do that. We're going to take as much time on the other side as we have developing the problems. . . . It won't be easy for Bailey to get to the point where he says, `I can be OK with myself and stop drinking.' "
And that's what makes "Party of Five" a cut above most network television.