"Twenty-five to 30 years ago, our characters borrowed a cup of sugar, and now they can borrow an egg. Or a uterus," declares Oliver Goldstick, co-creator of NBC's new fertility-clinic drama, "Inconceivable."

Goldstick, who, along with his partner, is expecting a second child through a surrogate mother, says his experiences with surrogacy, along with those of co-creator Marco Pennette, who shares the parenting of a daughter with his partner, inspired the series.

Under questioning, Pennette reveals that the neurotic gay guy in the pilot who harasses a surrogate mother, even going through her garbage to see what she's been up to, was loosely based on himself.

"I didn't go through the garbage," he said.

Star Ming-Na ("ER"), meanwhile, gets up to show us her stomach (she's expecting in October), but offers up no details about how the baby got here, bless her heart.

A show about conceiving babies, though, inevitably leads to working with babies, and it's not always easy, says Goldstick, noting that they use 3-week-olds and that the law limits their work to 10 minutes at a time, which is why they usually hire sets of twins and triplets.

"We knew this was a big trial, production-wise, but we've been doing very well," Goldstick says. "The babies have been very cooperative."