Courtney B. Vance and wife Angela Bassett are truly practicing the art of give and take -- as actors, as a couple, and as parents of three-year-old twins, Slater and Bronwyn.

"My wife helps me run lines. When she was on 'ER,' with that crazy schedule and all that medical dialogue, she needed me to run lines with her. Now, the shoe is on the other foot," says the actor, who plays the FBI's L.A. bureau chief in ABC's just-launched "FlashForward."

According to Vance, he and Angela try to stagger their work schedules so that one of them can be at home with the kids, too. "We have to. They're in school. Somebody's got to pick them up and drop them off. Generally, I get the children up in the morning. They go to bed relatively early -- eight o'clock. If I miss them at night, I'm usually there to wake them up."

Still, there are times when the Vances just have to do their best, despite conflicting schedules. "My wife -- if something comes up that is a good opportunity, she would take it. If she got a Broadway musical, she would go."

But that would be a bi-coastal challenge.

"We'd just make sure we did things to take the family out there periodically to do visits. If she was there for an extended time, we might relocate the children. These days, you just don't know. There's good work in New York," notes the Harvard and Yale-educated actor.

Still, he stresses, "Angela and I -- our focus is around the family. The most important thing to us is family life, and we know not to get it confused with our work life."

His work life is quite interesting, with "FlashForward" giving him challenges. The sci-fi drama is centering on a yet-to-be-explained global incident that allowed everyone on earth a momentary look into their futures. "It really helps that I have five years of 'Law & Order,' and I know that you really have to look ahead -- especially since, on this show, we're shooting two episodes at a time. You really have to keep your eye on what's coming up and what's been done, to keep on your feet and be able to dance a little bit."

He notes, "All of us in the cast are very happy this is an ensemble. When you're in the kind of show where you're the person in every scene of every episode, you have no life. One hour is like doing a movie every eight days. It's grueling. I have to have time to rejuvenate and have some down time. Otherwise, after two seasons, you're fried. This is a great situation in that it's interesting and there's a lot to do, and you get shown well, but you can also have some family time and life time."