The Politics of Bad TV
Okay, so I'm going to take a different tack today with the blog. I'm going to try and share what I think about when I dream of
Brothers & Sisters -- how it can reflect the country we live in now and serve as a dramatic discussion of American values. We all heard the news that ex-athlete and killer see civil court conviction
O.J. Simpson has sold a book called
If I Did It. And that Rupert Murdoch's Regan Books is publishing the thing, which seems to be a kind of stunt-like game of literary and legal peek-a-boo. Not only that, Murdoch's Fox Network is making it into a TV show. It's all contemptible, of course. Assumes the worst of audiences and readers. Assumes that the populace is so numb that it requires the frisson of cheap titillation the way heroin addicts need their fix.
So, what does this have to do with
Brothers & Sisters? A lot, actually, in that it begs an examination of our choices and the kind of moral universe we live in. It points to a collapse of a fundamental goodness the kind of decency that makes a society function, the kind that is necessary if you want honor in it. On CNN, legal analyst Jeff Toobin pointed out (in his own words) that there was something avaricious, pernicious and coarsening in the amorality of Murdoch and Regan's choice. That all the other networks ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and so on had turned the thing down flat is good news, of course, given the cynical state of showbiz infotainment. But even with our relentlessly diminishing expectations, the marriage between O.J. and Murdoch feels like a new low. All of which, I believe, makes our show worthy of your trust, like a real family.
The people who make
Brothers & Sisters, including the crew, which works harder than anyone, have formed a bond. We all believe in what holds us together: familylistening to each otherteaching our children the importance of manners, and of kindness. We all think about how our actions affect the climate we live in. We all believe that the show is in some respects, a prayer for a nation that behaves kindly and compassionately and doesn't discriminate, and protects its own. This is not the America of Murdoch's bottom-line sensationalism.
Brothers & Sisters is just a TV show, but it works because it's about the glue that holds us together love and respect.
Let me tell you where I see it at work; I see it in the gaffers who work for hours and hours, in the electricians on the set, the sound crew, and the camera department. I see in their faces, the best of all of us; people who want their children's world to be a better one, and who believe in hard work and team work. I see it in the actors, who approach this modest proposal of a show with grace and passion, and I see it in the writers. The people who work in Hair and make up and post production. I want all them to feel proprietary about it; that they own a piece of it. And to know that what we make is not a black hole in our culture, but a modest exploration of what makes America great and where we need to be better.
Things are smooth now at the studio. We have wonderful new writers starting work.
Greg Berlanti and
Marc Guggenheim's conclusion to last week's "Mistakes were Made" airs this Sunday.
Ken Olin directed it as only he can, with a deep sensitivity to nuance and detail and feeling. After you see it, I hope you'll understand why I wrote today's blog. I'm proud that I co-authored the first part of this two-parter, and that ABC and Touchstone are encouraging us to realize our ambitions, to talk about our life and times without shying away from the hard parts. We want
Brothers & Sisters to be brave in the way
Edward R. Murrow urged television to be in his famous "Box of Lights and Wires" speech, and the way that
Norman Lear was brave when he gave us the Bunker Family, which he did with laughter and drama in equal parts. Those are our ambitions; we regard them as responsibilities. Thirteen million people tune in every Sunday night. They deserve the smartest, least condescending, most entertaining and searching hour of television we can give them.
After all, it's Sunday night, the workweek is hours away, and our lives are filled with challenges and choices. Life has never moved faster or been more fraught with contradiction. There are political liars on all sides, a shattering war, environmental dangers and corporate scandals all around. Audiences deserve more than the bottom-feeding parlor games of killers both corporate and literal that are out to make a buck by polluting our collective soul.
