PASADENA, Calif. -- Real-life husband and wife Ken Olin and Patricia Wettig are acting together on TV again in the CBS series "L.A. Doctors," just as they did on the acclaimed "thirty-something" for four years -- but with one major difference.
On "thirtysomething," they played friends who were married to other people. But on "L.A. Doctors," they're playing old flames who rekindle their romance -- a romance with an edge, given that he's a doctor and she's a patient with a brain tumor."We've been married for almost 17 years, and this is the very first time that we've ever really gotten to play our romance," Wettig said. "And it actually turned out to be like, 'Oh, wait a minute. This is fun!' We've had a really good time. I've enjoyed it a lot, actually."
Not that there wasn't a good deal of pressure to go along with the onscreen romance.
"Well, yes -- what if it doesn't work?" Wettig said. "That would be awful."
"I have bigger fears -- what if the SHOW doesn't work," Olin joked.
Olin did, however, admit that he had similar fears about his onscreen relationship with his real-life wife -- fears that were unfounded.
"I don't know why that is because we've been married and very happy for almost 17 years, so why would you anticipate that there would be a problem if somebody else wrote the lines?" he said. "You know, it makes it easy.
"I think that it's just the same kind of nerves that you have doing scenes with anyone, and it feels so strange to be at all timid or something with somebody you've been so intimate with for so long. And it just worked. It's very romantic."
It's also a bit of a surprise. Olin is one of the stars of the show, and Wettig was supposed to do just one episode of the series before her character succumbed to that brain tumor. But the response to the episode changed those plans.
"They talked about chemistry or something," Wettig said. "So they asked if I'd stay around for a little bit."
"We can give her cancer, but we just can't kill her," Olin joked.
Exactly how long Wettig will remain on the show has yet to be determined. She's already filmed three episodes, and she's going to do more.
"She'll definitely be here for the rest of the season," Olin said. "How many episodes she does in the course of the season is still being determined because the decision was made, based on the response to the first episode, that we wanted to continue this story. We wanted to continue this relationship. How that evolves and stuff is being worked out now."
Wetting wasn't immediately enthusiastic about accepting the role. She's been working on a master's in fine arts at Smith College in Massachusetts -- she wants to be a playwright -- so "I wasn't really into acting."
"I do a lot of faxing, a lot of telephone, a lot of tapes," Wettig said, to keep in contact with Olin and their two children in California while she's in Massachusetts. But it's part of a longtime dream she's had.
"I've always written on the side," Wettig said. "My first acting job ever, I bought a typewriter with the money. So that's always what I've done on the side. It's important to me that I feel really engaged creatively. And acting, when you get older there aren't great parts all the time."
But she does relish the opportunity to play out the relationship with Olin, which has echoes of their real-life romance.
"We met each other and it was such instant chemistry," Wettig said. "We almost got married within a week of meeting each other."
(They quickly changed their minds and decided to wait -- a few months.)
"We met at Grand Central Station, and I saw her from behind and there's the answer," Olin joked. "She looked really good in those corduroy pants. She always liked nice Jewish boys."
Wettig said that soon after they met she had a sudden flash that Olin was going to be the man she would spend her life with.
"We were in a room together, and we were just not an item, as it were," Wettig said. "We were just friends and we were working together. And someone said, 'Why does anyone get married unless they have children?' You know, one of those kinds of discussions.
"And I looked across the room and I saw him and it was like, 'Oh my gosh -- that's the man I'm going to have kids with. I had to stand up. I literally thought I was going to pass out. I walked out in the hall and I went, 'That's the man I'm going to have kids with.' I knew it like it was meant to be. I knew it absolutely."
Of course, their real-life romance didn't always play out so well with the public.
"On 'thirtysomething,' especially in the first year, people would be furious to find out that I was married to Ken because he was supposed to be with Hope," Wettig said of Olin's fictional wife, played by Mel Harris. "They would see us together when they weren't used to it and really object -- strongly object -- to the fact that we were together."
And their own children, ages 13 and 15, aren't exactly their parents' biggest fans.
"They go like this -- hmmmmmm," Olin said.
"They're just not interested," Wettig said. "My daughter went to bed" rather than watch her first episode of "L.A. Doctors."
"She said, 'I'm tired, Mom. I'll watch something later.' We're just the parents to them, which is what we really want to be. They're not that impressed yet."