Jay Bobbin
Zap2it.com

Television finally is letting Scott Wolf act his age.

After six seasons pretending to be almost a full decade younger as earnest Bailey Salinger on "Party of Five," the actor plays a single parent in his new TV movie. Airing Sunday, the ABC Family romantic comedy "Picking Up and Dropping Off" stars Wolf as a divorced father who keeps running into a soon-to-be-single mother (Amanda Detmer, "A.U.S.A.") at the airport as their respective children shuttle between parents. The friendship that develops between the newly single adults could lead to more if each is willing to open his or her heart again.

Co-produced by Lisa Kudrow ("Friends"), "Picking Up and Dropping Off" serves Wolf's desire to return to television and films after focusing on theater work.

"I've been proactively looking for great stuff to do for the first time in a couple of years," he says. "Lots of things are floating around, but the fact that Lisa was one of the producers of this was one of the first things that got me excited about it. I've always admired her choice of material, so that was a great endorsement for this script."

Wolf also was attracted by the opportunity to do some new things, including playing a character closer to his own age.

"I've always looked a lot younger than I am," he says. "I mean, I started the part of Bailey when I was 24, playing a 16-year-old. I also loved the idea of exploring a father-son relationship, plus this was my first opportunity to do a romantic comedy. It's a fine line between one that works and one that doesn't, but I really felt this was a great script."

Wolf realized he'd need the right acting partner to make the story work. "After I was cast, I was able to be somewhat involved in the process of casting the (female lead). Lisa was very generous in allowing me to be present for that; as a performer herself, she knows how important it is to have that kind of chemistry and rapport. A lot of really talented people came in, but Amanda (Detmer) is kind of goofy and fun. She smiles easily, and there's something about that in itself. You see the person underneath the problems that she's facing, and you root for her."

At the same time, Wolf hopes audiences will cheer for his character, too.

"Mostly these two people are trying to piece together lives that have fallen apart a bit," he explains. "Their first marriages haven't worked out for one reason or another, and they're trying to piece together themselves, their children and their relationships with their children, yet in the midst of all of that, there's still the spirit of taking another chance on something that fell short of their expectations.

"This is a really sweet story of people trying to make the best out of things that haven't quite worked out. Life is going to knock you around, and if you choose to sit on the sidelines and stay safe to avoid getting hurt, you're going to miss out. In the end, it's always worth putting yourself out there again, and it does take a little courage and a little effort."

Though "Picking Up and Dropping Off" is Wolf's first starring TV project since "Party of Five" ended, he doesn't necessarily deem it a comeback.

"When you're living your life, you don't feel like you're out of the picture," he reasons. "In the three years since `Party of Five' has been off the air, I moved back to New York for a while and did quite a bit of stage work. I also did a couple of film projects, but when you're on a series, you're thrust upon folks, so it was a pretty big shift of presence."

It also gave Wolf a taste of "The Real World": He's engaged to Kelley Limp, from the New Orleans season of the unscripted MTV series.

"We were set up through a friend," Wolf says. "I've done a bunch of things with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and I've co-chaired a campaign with this great guy who met Kelley when she came to one of the events. They got to talking and he said, `You have to meet a friend of mine.' He also told me about her, and we got around to going out on a date. Over the next several weeks, it became clear we were going to be spending a lot of time together."

As he and Limp plan their spring wedding, Wolf isn't sure what his next professional move will be, but he's eager to entertain whatever comes his way. He says that after six years on one show, "You want to restart yourself creatively and not have everything else be a function of (the series). In the last few years, I was able to get ready to be really excited about working again, which I am now."