Back in the Oval Office

Geena Davis's Oval Office has reopened for business now that the off-again, on-again political drama "Commander in Chief" has resumed its run.

The show, which debuted last fall to much hype, has endured producer changes, an almost two month absence from prime time and now a shift from Tuesdays to Thursdays, where it's scheduled to air through mid-May.

For fictional President Mackenzie Allen, that means global crises, political enemies and a looming election campaign, as well as domestic challenges such as moody teenage twins and a husband who chafes in the role of "first spouse."

Davis likened her character's daily obstacle course to "a movie that never ends." Her presidential role is a model for her own life, she said, but "I have an easier time juggling it than Mackenzie."

Davis, 50, the mother of a 3-year-old and year-old twins, brings her family to work, "and they run around on the set and sit on these fancy chairs," she said. "I get to spend time with the kids, even if I am in every scene."

The show is "less about politics and more about what it is like to be this particular president," she said.

"She wasn't elected, she has had no time to assemble her Cabinet and she has kept her head above water," Davis said. "We learn how it all works as she does."

Dee Johnson, one of the original executive producers who is now running the operation, also takes a wider view of the program's initial premise.

"While there's the novelty of her being the woman president, you are still talking about the president, and the job is the same for whoever has it," Johnson said. "She has not painted her office pink."

-- Kathy Blumenstock

COMMANDER IN CHIEF

Thursdays at

10 p.m. on ABC