For Ray, Jamie Foxx wore contact lenses that blinded him. For Million Dollar Baby, Hilary Swank took months' worth of hits in boxing training. For The Machinist, Christian Bale starved himself into near-oblivion. But the cast of Fox's whodunit drama Reunion - about a sextet of friends caught up in a murder mystery - suffered for their craft in ways that will send chills up the spine for anyone who came of age during the Regan administration: Big hair. Lots of lace. And - gulp - white pumps. "You gotta do what you gotta do to get a feel for the attitude of the time," says Sean Faris (life as we know it) of his gag-me-with-a-spoon sartorial sacrifice, a rosy polo shirt with an erect collar. "But I f---ing hate pink."

Luckily for him, 1986 last roughly 45 minutes (plus commericals) in Reunion's world. One of the most ambitious series of the season, Reunion covers 20 years in the life of this gang, one year per episode. It begins with the present-day funeral of one of the friends and then flashes back 20 years to high school graduation. After each subsequent year has been mined for clues, the season culminates at the group's present-day 20th high school reunion - at which point the mystery of the murderer's identity will be solved. "It's not just telling the stories of six extraordinary lives," says creator Jon Feldman (Tru Calling). "It's the daunting task of figuring out how things happened to you 20 years ago shape you today."

To populate his mystery, Feldman settled on a John Hughes-ian mix: the ethically challenged richie (Faris), the lovesick jock (American Dreams' Will Estes), the dork (Spellbound's Dave Annable), the pregnant beauty (Angel's Alexa Davalos), the wallflower (girls club's Chyler Leigh), and the sensitive sexpot with a Madonna - as in Ciccone - complex (The O.C.'s Amanda Righetti). The creator is tight-lipped with it comes to spilling details of the death, except to say that in episode 5, viewers will find out who's been offed.

But the real mystery looming over the series is how it's going to compete in television's most ferocious time slot. "When I heard we were going Thursday at 9 p.m., I went into war flashbacks," says Feldman of his Tru tour of duty. Like Feldman, the cast is very familiar with the high-profile failed series, be they beloved (Estes' American Dreams) or reviled (Leigh's girls club). But those grads say this time their future's so bright...they gotta wear shades. "It's such a relief to have a network supporting us, " says Faris, who has no qualms about bashing ABC for canceling life as we know it. "It's hard to know you're doing quality work and you get no support."

Of course, even if Reunion becomes the biggest hit of the season, isn't it by virtue of its formula a one-year gig? "My goal is to take a couple of characters we've met over the season and spin them off into a new group of six people in a whole other city," explains Feldman. At least one cast member doesn't mind that the series is potentially a short-term assignment. "This show is an actor's dream job if he wants to go on to film," says Faris. "Ain't no way I'm playing the same character for six years straight!" Especially not one who wears pink. - Jessica Shaw