It was strangely quiet at the Phoenix home of Steven and Roger Ham, two gay men raising 12 children, all adopted from foster care.
The family?s car and 15-passenger van were out front, and everyone was home.
But 8-year-old Jackson was the only kid in sight, curled up on the couch in the front room, wearing headphones and watching a movie on an iPad. Nor was there any sign of the Hams? four dogs, two cats or very boisterous parrot Corkie.
PHOTOS: Gay dads raise 12 adopted kids
?Quiet, please,? says Ken Mok, president of 10?10 Entertainment in Los Angeles and producer of CW?s ?America?s Next Top Model.? And it was.
Bright lights and cameras were set up in the family room, where Roger was being interviewed about how he and Steven, partners for 18 years, had brought together their large family here in Arizona, where two men can?t marry and where conservative lawmakers have tried a half-dozen times to keep single people, including gays and lesbians, from adopting foster children, and where those lawmakers this year succeeded in passing a bill that moved married couples to the top of the waiting list for adoptions.
Mok usually doesn?t come on location, but this pitch for a reality show is for Oprah Winfrey and her Oprah Winfrey Network. He is excited not only about its chances but also about the potential for a show like this to change perceptions about adoption, gay parenting and what makes a family.
?This show could really make a difference,? Mok says.
He knows that people typically think screaming-drinking-cheating when they think ?reality TV.?
In comparison, the Hams would be sedate, even with 14 people trying to get ready and out the door at the same time in the morning. Roger and Steven don?t fight. They don?t even drink.
?It?s the normalcy that makes it a good show,? Mok says, particularly for a network like OWN. ?Roger and Steven are the same as you and me. They have the same hopes and dreams for their children.?
But Mok is a father of three, a 10-year-old and 2-year-old twins, and he?s exhausted, even though he and his wife have family nearby as support. The Hams have no family nearby, yet their dozen kids, all from challenging backgrounds, are confident, polite and doing well in school.
?They are a remarkable family,? Mok says.
He thinks people could learn a lot from Steven and Roger about parenting, commitment and tolerance.
The unusual quiet is broken by the cries of 2-year-old Olivia coming down the hall, and Steven calls, ?Daddy?s coming!?
Olivia, the youngest, is mad that Ambrose, who?s 4, won?t share a doll. Madison, 8, is lying on the top bunk.
?It?s kind of boring when they film because you have to be quiet,? Madison says. Unless she?s on camera.
The film crew followed the family Aug. 12 and 13, shooting 20 hours of footage, including the kids playing a game where the person who can put the most marshmallows in his or her mouth and still clearly say ?chubby bunny? wins. Madison won, with six marshmallows in her cheeks.
?I was ready with towels in case someone threw up,? Steven says.
The crew returned last week to record more audio. And now the family awaits word on whether Winfrey is interested.
The dads still marvel that anyone would be interested in their daily life, though there?s always something happening.
Andy, 11, had his tonsils out. Cooper just turned 4, with a party at Chuck E. Cheese?s. Logan, 7, has new Air Jordans and new hearing aids. And Marcus, 5, lost two front teeth and found the girl he plans to marry.
After the family appeared in a May 1 story in The Arizona Republic chronicling the dads? efforts to adopt in Arizona, they got calls from journalists around the globe, accolades from human-rights groups and offers from almost every network and a dozen production companies.
If the show is picked up, filming would take about three months out of the year. And if it was successful, it would pay for the kids to go to college. Steven says rising tuition costs keep him awake at night.
?This gives us an idea of what it would be like to do a show, and if it would be conducive to our family,? Steven says, Olivia now in his arms.
The boys are playing video games in a bedroom on the other side of the house. Steven peeked into another bedroom, where Elizabeth, 12, napped, while Vanessa, 16, and Isabel, 13, played with their hair, a camera trained on them.
Isabel says it was fun to have the film crew at her eighth-grade open house at school. It was like being followed by paparazzi.
?We would be more interesting than the Kardashians,? Isabel says, referring to ?Keeping Up With the Kardashians? on E!, and the girls laugh.
Outside, 13-year-old Michael dunks a basketball in the hoop on the driveway and then says, ?I think it would be cool to be on TV because everybody knows you.? The eighth-grader would be instantly popular, he says, grinning.
Michael is the last one in the van, as the family piles into two vehicles to go to dinner at Ming?s Pagoda Fine Chinese Dining, the film crew following in three more vehicles.
In the parking lot, a cameraman asked Mok, ?Want me to get them getting out of the car?? Yes, he does.
Already out of the car, Madison dropped her shoulders dramatically, turned around and got back in. And then she got out again, all smiles the second time, too.
The Hams get their usual table for 14, but there is nothing usual about the three cameras, two boom microphones hanging overhead and additional lighting.
Isabel is right. It is like paparazzi.
The waitress recited the family?s order: five orders of orange chicken, one beef-and-broccoli, two orders of crispy pork, one Hunan chicken, one teriyaki chicken and one twice-cooked pork, nine Sprites, four Pepsis and one iced tea.
Cooper reached for a wonton and knocked his water glass with his elbow, but Roger caught it before it fell over.
And Mok says, ?That?s a wrap,? even before the entrees arrived.
Reach the reporter at karina.bland@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8614.
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