Question: Maybe I've been tainted by Jon Robin Baitz's Huffington blog. Watching Brothers & Sisters last Sunday, I was struck with déjà vu. Nora has another ill-fated family dinner, and the siblings all end up in the kitchen spilling one another's secrets, leaving Nora mortified in the dining room with her guest of honor while the kids all stomp off to sulk? Yawn. Been there, seen that. Is it just me?
Answer: It's never just you, trust me. Maybe it was because I turned to Brothers & Sisters in relief after the Golden Globes debacle on NBC, but I was just happy to have an hour of scripted entertainment to settle into Sunday night. (Enjoy it while you can.) And while it was unquestionably a formulaic hour, I enjoyed the family meltdowns in the kitchen (and the way all of the Walker conflicts were played off the smaller, quieter dinner involving Holly, Rebecca and Ken Olin), if not the cornball political subplots. Face it: If you don't enjoy a show that's going to play out many of its bi ...
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Question: I'm sure you've read most or all of Jon Robin Baitz's Huffington Post entry about his ousting — not firing — from the creative team that actually gets to map out the story arcs for Brothers & Sisters. Do you think the show will be OK creatively, since he himself admitted that the people still there are really great writers and that he's just not good at playing the day-to-day TV showrunner game? He also seemed to look down on your colleague, Michael Ausiello, for reporting what he heard in a "cutesy, blind item." He intimated TV reporters often report what these studio people want planted in the media with the promise of a free keychain or handshake with a future star. How do you walk the line of reporting what you have heard but not feeling like you are playing into the hands of a source with an ulterior motive? Whether Baitz is partially at fault or not for this show "divorce," it is sad that he will not get to continue to drive the show that was his creation.
Answer: I have
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Jon Robin Baitz has left the show he created, Brothers & Sisters, after repeatedly bumping up against differently thinking ABC decision-makers. "These little rumors floated about for months," Baitz says in a blog at TheHuffingtonPost.com, making reference to a "cutesy blindish item" posted to TVGuide.com's own Ausiello Report. What brought about this breakup between successful show and its sire? As shared in a separate posting, Baitz — who last season blogged for TVGuide.com — cites pressure to steer B&S away from older-skewing characters and dramatic stories and toward the younger set and soapier tales. Now, the always-candid writer says, "I can... only watch as the demographic demands that have turned America into an ageist and youth-obsessed nation drives the storylines younger and younger, whiter and whiter, and with less and less reflection of the real America. I will never again have to do a notes call wherein the fear and seasickness of the creative execs al...
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Brothers & Sisters creator Jon Robin Baitz has inked a two-year, seven-figure deal with ABC Studios to stay on as the an executive producer for the Sunday serial and develop new projects.... Also per Variety, Mark Steines has signed a multiyear deal to continue coanchoring Entertainment Tonight/applying Kiehls twice daily to Mary Hart's legs.... Hairspray producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have landed a lucrative production deal at CBS to produce movies and miniseries for the tube.
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There are moments in this week's episode where everything I think Brothers & Sisters [Sundays at 10 pm/ET, on ABC] should come together perfectly; comedy and tragedy coexist — just like they do in real life, turning, dancing with each other in perpetuity. The episode has it all — male passions run amok, female passions threaten to cause thermonuclear war, farce, drunkenness, sorrow and laughter. In my humble opinion, a great episode. There are moments of acting in "Grapes of Wrath" that took my breath away when I saw it. One in particular stands out. I don't want to say too much, but it takes place in a kitchen during a showdown between Nora and Holly. Both actresses, Sally Field and Patty Wettig are real and funny and frightening in a way that brings to mind some of the great turns that John Cassavetes managed to capture on film — I'm thinking of Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence in particular. The camera comes close in so as to deprive them of any pri...
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