LOS ANGELES - Television love triangles tend to be lopsided, with one character clearly more sympathetic than his or her rival for the third's affections.

That's not the case on NBC's "Ed," where Carol Vessey (Julie Bowen) and Bonnie Hayne (Rena Sofer) each have a Pythagorean pull on the heart of bowling-alley lawyer Ed Stevens (Tom Cavanagh). That's exactly the way the show's creators, Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman, want things to be.

"It's a lot like life," Burnett tells Zap2it. "When you're writing dramatically, you want to make things as difficult as possible to unwind. If it's easy for you as a writer to unwind, then it's not going to be interesting for the audience."

"What's fun about it is it really divided the viewers," adds Beckerman. "Some of the Internet fan clubs were having feuds about pro or con Bonnie. That makes you feel like you're doing something people care about."

Bowen, for one, isn't sure how things will play out. "You know, they haven't told me a dang thing. I know that audiences love a love triangle, so I'm sure they'll play that up for a little while." The actress doesn't think that the triangle is so even, either. "According to my father, there's an online poll that says Bonnie is kicking my ass clear across the network. It's like an Archie comic."

Regardless of the polls, Bowen thinks Sofer was a great addition to "Ed." "I think it's great for everybody. It allows us to see a side of Carol kind of yearning for Ed that without [Bonnie], you wouldn't get to see."