Kate Jackson says her J.C. character is different: "Because i am a different person." Baby Boom presents a new bundle of joy for Kate Jackson. The half-hour comedy - her first - comes after four demanding seasons with the one-hour drama Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Baby Boom also becomes her fifth series, in addition to Dark Shadows, The Rookies, Charlie's Angels - an admirable track record. And she only acts here, no producing, directing or writing. The husband and wife team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers who created, wrote and directed the movie and the series, are in charge. 

"That was my choice," Jackson says. "This isn't a step back, but forward. I am working with two of the most talented people in television." 
Certainly, Baby Boom is "more realistic than a housewife/spy" she says. J.C. nicknamed "Tiger Lady" for her drive, "has evolved," Jackson says. "I was that way 10 years ago...Now there are other things in my life that are important to me - as there are in J.C.'s life." After the tribulations of Scarecrow during which her father died and she was divorced for the second time, Jackson made a list of things that she didn't like about series work. "To make sure they didn't happen again."
One peeve: 18-hour days.
"So i have had a schedule built into my contract which was specific about what i need to function as a happy human being. And have a life on the outside. So for the first year, i will work a 10-hour day, plus hair and makeup."
Like her character, Jackson is single and childless. "I want children," she says. "I hate all the images the biological clock conjures up. My grandmother lived to be 95 and her mother had her when she was 45 years old. I think i still have time. If i don't have a child i think i will adopt a child or children. There are so many single parents now who are really trying to juggle everything and trying to be good at everything and trying to keep on caring about the things that they care about and give everything the attention and the time that it needs. Its not easy, but hopefully, it'll  be fun to watch this character try to make it all come together and keep everything in the air, and not let anything hit the ground with a big splat."  Meyers and Shyer are doing the show without a laugh track, they wouldn't consent to do it otherwise. And at least some of the sequences within the episodes will be marked off with "title cards" similar to those we got in Hannah and Her Sisters. They definitely don't want to see the show go the way of the TV sitcom based on Private Benjamin. They had no control over the spin-off and the results were such that they say they were relieved to see that female version of "Gomer Pyle" go off the air, even though the duo made money every time an episode hit the air.

Choosing the young performers Kristina and  Michelle Kennedy for  the role of Elizabeth was not child's play. Shyer and Meyers looked over 300 set of twins and triplets. They also saw some would be identical siblings. Meyers recalls a mother who brought in two unrelated kids. And then she says "some of them brought in boy and girl twins with the same outfit on - put them both dresses." They finally picked out the winning tots from a line of auditioners in strollers that went around the UA building in New York. They saw these girls in line and they just knew they had found the right ones. And they said "Get them into the front cause what if they get cranky and their parents take them home?" So they hired them immediately. Kate Jackson was also an immediate choice partly because, Shyer says, "we didn't have to put glasses on her to make her look intelligent."