WHAT'S ON TV TONIGHT? WHAT'S ON TV TONIGHT? Polygamists are multiplying on the small screen. The fifth season of HBO's Big Love, about the travails of Bill Henrickson and his three wives, returns this January. But for those hungry for more plural families, there's plenty to fill the void. On Fox, there's the series Lone Star (Mondays, 9 p.m. ET/PT), starring James Wolk as a man on the verge of polygamy. TLC's Sister Wives, a seven-part reality show about real-life patriarch Kody Brown and his three — soon to be four — spouses, premiered Sunday (10 p.m. ET/PT). And David Ebershoff's positively reviewed novel The 19th Wife, about a woman living a plural lifestyle and accused of killing her husband, made its debut last week as a movie on Lifetime. Over on the big screen, Katherine Heigl is developing a movie based on the life of Carolyn Jessop, who escaped a polygamist sect and wrote a book, Escape, about her ordeal. And among bookworms, Brady Udall's summer read The Lonely Polygamist provided a humorous look at the unique challenges faced by a man trying to juggle numerous wives, a slew of unruly children, a mistress and a dead-end career. "The story itself just angers me a lot because obviously, it's a cult, and it's become this situation where it's lose-lose for these women," says Heigl, who is set to play Jessop. "They're born, raised, bred into this way of thinking that is all fear-based and all about being afraid of God and what God will do to you if you don't do what the men tell you to. There's nothing even to give them a hint of anything other than that, because they're surrounded by like-minded people in an environment with no television, no books, no education. The fact that this woman was able to not only change her perspective — without having any opportunity to see a different perspective — but get herself and her children out I found really inspiring and really quite amazing." Our fascination with a lifestyle that is illegal and exists on the fringes of society doesn't surprise Ebershoff, who spent four years writing The 19th Wife. "You just can't quickly dismiss polygamy or embrace it. As a country, we haven't quite wrapped our minds around this. It goes straight to core American values. Polygamy asks us to think about religious freedom, the right to privacy, and are there limits to those rights? And if there are, who determines them? It's this moral murkiness that draws us in," says Ebershoff. The practice itself is illegal in all 50 states and, though associated with the Mormon religion, was formally abolished by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1890. But, says Barbara Lieberman, the executive producer of the TV movie The 19th Wife, news stories about practicing polygamists such as Warren Jeffs keep the topic vital and current. "It's out there and it's being covered extensively, and it's so exotic but in a negative way that people are just interested," says Lieberman. "The fact that this kind of thing happens in 2010 is fascinating to people. It really has been in the last three to four years that there's a new story every few months that breaks. That's what is driving it. The phenomenon is just fascinating, and it's a secret world that people want to know more and more about. Those who practice polygamy are not really telling us what's happening, so for them, it's a world they keep to themselves." Actually, that's the very reason the Browns of Sister Wives decided to go public. They wanted to show the world the humdrum normalcy of families most of us don't know personally, they say. "The women in our family chose this life, often, over the option to pursue traditional monogamous relationships," says Janelle Brown via e-mail. "We are very happy, and our children are extremely well adjusted. We have raised our children talking about choice and consequence in a very real fashion and emphasize personal choice in their lives. We emphasize education for our children and do not condone underage or arranged marriages." And yes, the Brown family is worried about the legal repercussions of going public, says soon-to-be fourth wife Robyn. "We have talked about it a lot and decided before pursuing the show that we were willing to take the risks. Someone will have to, whether it is us or not. It is just the only way America will be able to see our side of things and realize that we should be able to love who we choose as well," she says in an e-mail. Sure, the public fascination with polygamy seems strong. But can there be such a thing as overkill? Maybe, says Big Love scribe Will Scheffer, who says his show isn't so much about the nitty-gritty of having numerous wives as it is about a complicated family and how it functions day to day. And he says there's a big difference between showing actual plural families and the fictionalized, attractive one on his show. "I don't want to see any more real-life polygamy. People have been turned off by the idea of polygamy — there's a yuck factor," he says. "When we started, people didn't know much about it and were really interested by this subculture. And then Warren Jeffs and his compound exploded in the news. We were at the right place at the right time." Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more