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 by John Shearer/WireImage.com
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 by Justin Stephens/ABC
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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As far as I can remember, this is the first year in awhile that I am really loving Sunday night TV. With Discovery's special eye-opening series Planet Earth (which I've raved about before), the return of Entourage and Ari's fuming and hysterical ways, and ABC's new family hit Brothers & Sisters, I've ended my weekends on a good note recently, instead of wishing for more free time to play. And although staying up for Brothers & Sisters, which airs at 10 pm/ET, is tough some weeks and forces me to wait until the next day when I can fast-forward through all the agonizing commercials, I truly believe this is one of the top new shows — in fact, the top on my list — on television and everyone should be tuning in. Here's why:5. If you don't have a big, overbearing family, you'll sink right into the complex nature of this one and feel grateful for your manageable relatives while watching a well constructed cast maneuver jaw-dropping obstacles combined with everyday worries...
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Question: Before the current TV season began, two of the most talked-about shows were Studio 60 and Brothers & Sisters, both shows with all-star casts and great teams of producers and writers. Studio 60 was expected to do well and was a preseason favorite, while Brothers & Sisters was getting bashed before it began because of on-set problems and reshoots. Now it seems like the tables have turned, with Brothers & Sisters getting all the praise while Studio 60 has yet to live up to its potential. Why do you think two shows with so many great people working on them have taken such divergent paths? What has Brothers & Sisters done right that Studio 60 hasn't?
Answer: What great timing for this fascinating question, given that Studio 60 just slinked away into early hiatus while Brothers & Sisters currently graces the cover of TV Guide (on stands now, everybody). Just goes to show you how unpredictable the TV business is. I do not apologize for gushing over Studio 60's dazzling pilot while
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So, before I talk about this week's episode, I thought I might catch you all up on the goings on at Stages 6 & 7 at Disney. It's been a while since I wrote an episode. Sunday night's "Love is Difficult" (co-written with humor and grace by Ms. Molly Newman) represents my first writing on Brothers & Sisters since "Mistakes Were Made, Pt 1." Also, today I finished co-writing episode 18 with Marc Guggenheim, and Greg Berlanti and I are going to pen the season finale together, which I am looking forward to. His hand is on all the scripts, and I freely acknowledge that we would not be here had it been left to me alone — Greg understands the delicate and sophisticated balance of dark and light, escapism and truth-telling that works here. I honestly believe that my episodes would have been a miasma of angst without his gentle touch, and we'd be off the air. Not that I don't have a sense of humor — I mean, I know my way around a joke — but somehow, I tend to gravitate ...
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Rachel Griffiths, Sally Field and Calista Flockhart, Brothers & Sisters
When we first met the Walkers back in September, it was like watching home videos: They reminded us of our own relatives, but with 10 times the drama and wittier banter. Here, we've got the inside scoop on the twists and turns coming up on ABC's Brothers & Sisters (Sundays at 10 pm/ET). Just make sure to check your issues at the door — the Walkers already have plenty to go around.
Nora Holden Walker (Sally Field)Who she is: After suddenly losing her husband, William, to a heart attack and then discovering he had a mistress, Nora's become the ultimate meddling mom. What's coming up: "Nora's defined herself as a wife and a mother for 40 years and now it's time for her to rediscover herself," says executive producer Greg Berlant
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Sunday's Brothers & Sisters is a glorious confection, sort of like something that Marcel of the addictive Top Chef might have made this season — perfectly constructed, a bit exotic and just slightly unhinged. Its subject: The horrors of romance as Valentine's Day approaches. Its authors: Our youngest writers, two troublemaking boys named Cliff Olin and Peter Calloway, who are hip beyond their years. (Both writer-boys are hovering at the frightening precipice of their mid-bloody twenties. I would get rid of them, but there's a law against clubbing baby seals.)Now, some backstory. Valentine's Day began many centuries ago to commemorate two Christian martyrs named Valentine, but has devolved, like most holy things, into a horrid and syrupy commercial holiday based mostly on the marketing of greeting cards, chocolates with wretched liquor centers, and overly red roses bred to capture the imaginations of gullible last-minute shoppers.And yet...Whose heart hasn't skipped a beat u...
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