Leisha: People are gonna call it a lot of things...
Laurel: Luscious
Kate: How do I describe it...?
Laurel: Lusty
Jennifer: Lusty, it certainly is one at times.
Laurel: It just simply a show that you'd have to watch
Eric: It's so much more than you can possibly conceive of
Erin: This is NOT a female Queer as Folk!
Guinevere Turner: It's a lot less drugs and a lot less dancing...its a show about a group of wonderful women...
Ilene Chaiken: ...and also this guy...never forget the guy...
Guinevere: The L Word is the first of its kind.
Jennifer: I think the show defies any kinda category...

NARRATOR: This January the buzzword is The L Word, a new Showtime original series that will have America talking... or... leave it speechless.

Leisha: I look at it as THE biggest thrill of my life, pretty much.

[THE L WORD DEFINED]

NARRATOR: "About women and the women who love them" The L Word is sure to make television history, and it's been a long time coming. In 1991, TV saw it's first lesbian kiss on L.A. Law, shortly after, CJ, the bisexual lawyer, saw the door. A few years later, Roseanne was kissed, and even Party of Five's very own good girl got confused. But even the smallest same-sex smooches have been cause enough for uproar and fallout. But in recent years, with the success of shows like Queer As Folk, Will & Grace and Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, America has proven it's ready to experiment... or is it?

Guinevere: I really don't understand where this trend is coming from!
Jennifer: I think it's clear that things are changing...
Erin: I'd like to believe that America is becoming more open...
Guinevere: It's really hard to believe but it may be true...
Rose Troche: QAF is SO responsible for making the show ever hit the air! If it wasn't for that show, the show wouldn't go on first.
Erin: America's been exposed more and more, and realizing that...guess what?! Who we sleep with doesn't define who we are.
Eric: It's the same as watching any other hour-long except that there are circumstances that we're not used to seeing on television. To that extent, it is groundbreaking.

[scene where Tim looks for jenny in the ladies room while she makes out with marina]

Tim: Jen?!

Rose: There's that thing about people just wanting to get all the gay material into as big bucket and call it the same. That's annoying.
Mia Kirshner: I think that people are fed up with being backed into a corner and being marginalized and told what their life style is.
Eric: I think very quickly people are going to forget they are watching a show about lesbians, per se.
Leisha: I hope that the world really opens their arms...

[scene with Shane talking to Dana]

Shane: Sexuality is fluid. Whether you're gay, or you're straight, or you're bisexual... you just go with the flow.

Leisha: It shows the beauty of our diversity, and the community, and reflects, somehow, what the gay community is like.

Off: Even taking the TV’s biggest gay breakthroughs into account, there has never been a series like The L Word.

Guinevere: There's enormous pressure!
Rose: It doesn't have that sorta self-conscious... sorta trying to undo a stereotype.
Erin: We certainly can't represent all lesbians in every end of the spectrum...
Ilene: There are a lot of sub-cultures within the lesbian community, and I think we're portrait them as they come into our stories.

Guinevere: I would challenge you to find a lesbian that doesn't wanna see themselves on TV, and not everyone is gonna see themselves.
Laurel: I stepped away from that 'cause I realized that is an impossible task, and my responsibility is to tell these stories, and what is truth for these women.

Guinevere: I've talked to so many lesbians about this show in the process of making it, and everyone was saying "well, as long as there's a cowboy boot wearing... lesbians with 4 cats, and a girlfriend who's Chinese…" And I'm like "You just described yourself." (laughs)

Laurel: We live in Los Angels. We are from a sort of trendiness in L.A.
Jennifer: My greatest responsibility is to be as truthful as I can... given the scenes that I'm asked to play.
Guinevere: And I already felt the real pressure, you know people saying "Well, Isn't it true they are gonna be lipstick lesbians, or isn't it true that men control the content of the show, or it can only be a good show if lesbians played the parts...". And I'm like... "No, Actors play the part! Actually, actors are better at acting than lesbians might be!"

Off: Jennifer Beals and an ensemble cast, eliminate life in the City of Angels.

Jennifer: I play Bette Porter... I'm a complete type-A personality. She certainly thinks she is the adult of the group.
Leisha: Bette goes through her life in a forceful way, and…

[scene with Bette and Tina]

Bette: Sheesh, Tina! You invited someone to dinner?! I had the worst f***ing day...

Jennifer: she's been with Tina for 7 years.

[scene with Tina and Bette at the Doctor's office]

Bette: Here I am!

Laurel: Tina is the better half of Bette Porter, she has just quit her job...
Jennifer: ...and they are about to try to start a family.

[more of the scene at the doctor's]

Tina: We're both ready to start a family, right?!
Bette: Absolutely.

Ilene: She has the responsibility for supporting her family, and it's a role that women weren't necessarily brought up to think would be on their shoulders.

Laurel: What I like exploring about Tina is that there's this certain loss of identity if you've always been self-sufficient financially, and all of a sudden you've just made this decision, and you're gonna be supported by your partner...

[Bette and Tina getting ready for a party]

Bette: Tina, you're not wearing that dress. You know... I'll just pick something else. Can you at least take the tags off the present?!

Laurel: So a lot of what goes on with my character is that she loses some sort of sense of independence.

[Bette and Tina talking on the phone]

Tina: Just promise me that you'll come home for dinner tonight.
Bette: I will TRY tonight, that's the best I can do.

Pam: I portray a musician and singer named Kit Porter. She is the half sister of Bette Porter, portrayed by Jennifer Beals, who is the Ivy-league sister and I'm like the street sister...

[Kit getting stopped by cops]

Kit: Hey!

Pam: She is just dealing with her demons.

[Tina and Kit talking]

Tina: Is this a 12-step thing?
Kit: I have to do this, or I'm not gonna get my license back.

Pam: And her crutch is her alcoholism.

Eric: Tim is the next-door neighbor to Bette and Tina, on the show.

[Bette and Tina seeing each other going to work]

Bette: Hi Tim!
Tina: Hi!
Tim: Hey...!
Bette: Bye... good luck!

Eric: ...who's preparing his home to receive his girlfriend.

Mia: I play Jenny Schecter, who moves to L.A. to be with her boyfriend.

[Time picking up Jenny from the airport]

Tim: Can I offer you a ride?!
Mia: She is this exuberant, sexually open woman who is on this sort of sexual odyssey...just absolutely trying to do the right thing, but can't.

[Alice, Jenny and Tina at the party]

Alice: Jenny, this is Marina.

*staring between Jenny and Marina*

Alice: Wow!

Karina: Marina is the mysterious one.

[Marina waiting with Jenny outside a bathroom]

Marina: There you are.

Mia: Marina is beautiful, and I think that it's easy to make Marina into this fantasy object for Jenny.
Karina: whenever you're fearless! You're so attractive.

Eric: He is progressive, he's a sensitive guy but he's not... wimpy.

[Tim talks to a friend]

Unknown guy: If you don't trust her, you don't marry her.
Tim: I trust her.
Jenny: That was Marina. We're gonna have dinner on Saturday night.
Tim: Having dinner with Marina is fine...

Eric: I don't control her life in any kinda macho way. I give her... leeway to be who she needs to be.
Mia: The relationship with Marina shakes the foundation of Jenny's life.

[Jenny talking to Marina]

Jenny: Tim's been so wonderful to me and I think this is the very first time in my life that I've actually felt safe.
Marina: Do you wanna be safe?

Eric: I gave her enough slack to...uh…hang me with.
Mia: I think this is the first time in her life that she is really forced to sort of examine the emotional havoc that her choices have made.

Erin: I play Dana Fairbanks. Dana is a tennis player. She is not huge yet, but she is certainly on her way I guess... I'm out with all of these friends...

[Bette arriving at the planet cafe]

Bette: Dana ?? at The Planet in West Hollywood?!
Alice: Shhhhh! She doesn't want her tennis fans to know she is a gay lady!

Erin: But very much in the closet publicly, 'cause of her career pressures.

[Scene with Dana kissing her girlfriend]

Sponsor: Hey, hey!

Erin: Billy Jean King lost every campaign she had after she came out of the closet.

[cont. of scene]

Sponsor: You can be a lez when you retire.

Erin: These are very real pressures. Me, Erin, would wanna see her come out. Just because I think it's so much easier to be successful and happy if you're honest with yourself.

Leisha: I play Alice Pieszecki, I'm a bisexual journalist.

[scene of Alice talking]

Alice: I wonder if I can sell a story on L.A.'s best nipple...

Leisha: She is very outspoken, which I enjoy, ‘cause I'm quite the shy person.

[Alice at the planet cafe]

Alice: I am looking for the same qualities in a man as I am in a woman.

Laurel: she is very adamant about - about being bisexual...

Dana: Spare us the gory bisexual details.

Leisha: They want me to be categorized...
Laurel: She is very open about it and very firm on her stand with it.

Kate: I play Shane, she is a hairdresser.

[Shane styling someone's hair]

Shane: tell me what you want.

Leisha: Shane is very private... and VERY cool.

unidentified woman: Are you... with anyone?
Shane: Hmm...No.

Kate: She doesn't care about other people's opinions, which is a very rare quality to have.
Eric: She's kinda like the lone wolf in the whole pack.
Kate: One who's notorious to sleep around, and not having any problems with it. Even though people consider that cruel.

[montage of Shane kissing a bunch of women]

Shane: I don’t do relationships.

Kate: She still has real solid heart.

Pam: Each character's a feast. You really can't get enough of each character. It's rich and (???).
Leisha: To me the show is about sexuality.
Ilene Chaiken: People who are gay, at one time or another, have dealt with those issues of sexuality, in a way that has dominated their lives, more than the people who never have to go through the process of coming out.

Jennifer: It infiltrates every aspect of your life.
Laurel: Sexuality in our show it's sort of two things: it can be the driving force for one character, but it might be the aspect, for another character.
Kate: They have more things going on then just their sexuality, like every human being does in their life.
Mia: I can only speak for Jenny, but I don’t think the character's journey is about what her sexual orientation is, it's about where her life is going and who rocks her world...
Kate: And that's what I like...it that it doesn't just end with the sexuality.
Mia: I never wanted to be a part of a series that was about gay women, because I think it marginalizes gay women. I wanted to do a show of people's relationships with one another.
Erin: If you're a woman feeling love, regardless of loving a man or a woman, it's still love. The emotion doesn't change.
Rose: We understand desire from within ourselves. We have it in us.
Erin: There are a lot of issues that are talked on the show that anyone can relate to. I mean, there's a couple trying to get pregnant, that's having a hard time.

[Bette talking to the doctor]

Doctor: That stuff wouldn't get anyone pregnant!

Leisha: Raising a kid is raising a kid.

Erin: There's, you know, Dana, my character, who's struggling with her identity, and everybody goes through that at some point!

[Bette arguing with a co-worker?]

Franklin: He is way out of your league, dear.
Bette: He may be out of the CAC's league, Franklin, but he is certainly not out of mine.

Erin: There's people trying to figure out how to label themselves career wise...
Leisha: Having a job, is having a job. I think things in life are the same pretty much across the board.
Mia: We've all come to a place in our lives, where we meet somebody whom are in a relationship, or that person is in a relationship... where they sorta shake our world, and it's a choice we make whether to continue on that path...
Erin: You find yourself going... "I've SO been there! I totally understand what she is feeling, or what he is feeling, in some cases."

[Jenny and marina talking]

Jenny: I'd like to see you again.

Ilene: I think those stories will resonate to people who aren't gay.
Mia: What a rare opportunity, to get to do a show with a bunch of women who are interested in doing a show about real women!
Guinevere: I think usually what attracts people to shows is unique voices, is interesting writing...

[Dana and Alice arguing in a living room]

Dana: Huh? I thought Jenny was straight!
Alice: Dana, most girls are straight until they are not.

Guinevere: Hopefully we have that. I know we have that. We have that!
Ilene: It's about relationships, and ambition, and... uhm... fidelity and monogamy, and all of the things that life is about!

NARRATOR: The show's ability to take universal themes into new territory has sparked interest among cutting-edge directors. Mary Haren, responsible for hits like "I Shot Andy Warhol" and "American Psycho", Tony Goldwyn, known for his critically acclaimed "A Walk On The Moon", and Rose Troche, who adapted and directed "The Safety of Objects", are among the many filmmakers collaborating with the award-winning producer Ilene Chaiken, to give this show a look and feel like no other.

Mia: Each of these filmmakers has carved a little niche for themselves, where they explore intimacy in sexuality, and coldness in our society...
Rose: It's been almost 10 years since I've done "Go Fish", it seemed about time for someone to do a show with lesbian content.
Guinevere: I am the responsible, like I wanna make sure it is as good as it can be.
Leisha: I got the chance to watch some of the episodes yesterday and I was really surprised myself about how different they look. And it's fun working with different directors, because it brings out a different part of you, when you're acting.
Mia: It's never felt like we're making a TV show, we have rehearsals on the weekend, we are allowed to improvise scenes... it does feel like little original films are being made every week, and that's highly unusual in terms of television.
Ilene: For a first season show, we have had an amazing good luck getting guest stars...
Guinevere: Rosanna Arquette is on the show, Lolita Davidovich, Anne Archer, Ozzie Davis...

Melvin Porter (Ozzie Davis): I don't understand...
Tina: I'm pregnant!

Guinevere: we've had some great guest stars giving amazing performances.
Leisha: Today we had Snoop Dog, we were very excited. We're saving our call to have when we're all grandmas.
Jennifer: I'm always very thankful, when we have group scenes, ‘cause I know I'm gonna laugh really hard that day.

[The gang at The Planet]

Dana: There's this giant billboard of Shane on Sunset! Just kidding.

Erin: When you hear L.A. actresses, you're like "what is this going to be? Is it going to be like a lot of women looking to every shiny surface as they walk by...?". This is a really down-to-earth group of women who just have a whole lot in common.
Rose: One of the nice things about being plucked away from your home, these are women that do hang out together...a lot.
Erin: Actually Mia, Leisha and I all live next-door to each other.
Mia: And Kate, who plays Shane, lives down the street from us.
Erin: We all get together and play a lot of music and dance around the living room together.
Leisha: We literally can't get enough of each other. When we leave the set, we're all going out to dinner, for drinks, to the movies...

Dana: oh, oh, oh...
Alice: Now she is cute!

Leisha: I think it's grown as you watch the episodes, it's becoming more obvious that we're becoming... closer.
Kate: We have this unspoken understanding between each other.

Shane: Fresh meat.
Alice: New blood!
Dana: Crispy
Alice: Uh-uh.

Eric: I think it's not by accident the show ended up on Showtime, because this show couldn't have been on any other network.

Peggy Peabody (Holland Taylor): I was a lesbian in 1974.

Rose: There is not a micromanaging of the every moment of the show.

Bette: That is what we refer to as "hasbian".

Ilene: The creative freedom has to do with being able to tell stories more frankly.
Leisha: I think the way we talk is a lot more real.

Tina: Oh... she looks like she is having fun!
Bette: she's being melted.

Off: The L Word glimpses through the lives of a group of women, and by doing so, changes the face of television forever.

Rose: I think everybody believes the show is needed socially. Fulfil two needs: the need to work, and the need to feel like you're doing something in the world.
Jennifer: I'm particularly proud of bringing to the forefront a group that's been treated for so long as an outsider.
Kate: I think we nailed the fact that a woman can love a woman, period. They are not crazy for it, they are not wrong for doing that, and they are just another human being, going about your life.
Mia: What does The L Word mean?
Rose: What?! Someone said "Lunch"?!
Eric: It's much more than that wink-wink, nudge-nudge
Leisha: I think that it represents everything you want it to. That's what's great about it.
Mia: Loss.
Leisha: Legs... I'm kidding.
Rose: The L Word means the word that's not spoken.

Dana's brother: When mom and dad disown you and all, I'll still come and visit.

Rose: And I love its little badness, I love its euphemistic, like...bad quality.
Pam: The L Word is a show about living the life you love, loving the life you live.

Off: The L Word - A groundbreaking new Showtime original series, premiering Sunday, January 18th.