Brothers & Sisters? No. Bloggers & Sisters? Yes.
In case you haven’t been in on the mourning of the past few weeks, no, there is not a new episode of Brothers and Sisters on tonight, and no, nobody’s happy about it. But the strike time must be made up, and we must be made to wait, and April 20 is our target date to get back to the Walkers and away, far away, from programming like this, airing tonight in our 10 p.m. timeslot:
“No Honey, You’re Perfect” — As the competition heats up, the five remaining couples continue to compete for the life-changing jackpot. There is a relationship test to see how well the husbands know their wives’ physical flaws, and an experiment to show off the couples’ parenting skills by spending time with several playful, energetic children. Then the men go grocery shopping, with the women only allowed to describe in broad terms items on the list via cell phone, on Here Come the Newlyweds.
At times like this, I am reminded of the immortal words of Saul Holden, who said:
“I don’t hate golf. I loathe it, I despise it. I would rather spend all eternity at a dinner party seated next to Britney Spears than waste an afternoon lugging clubs around with a bunch of overfed, overprivileged Arnold Palmer wannabes.”
Substitute “reality TV” for “golf” and “Here Come the Newlyweds” for the wannabes, and that pretty much sums up my thoughts on ABC’s B&S replacement fare. Walkers, Walkers, hurry back!
The writers are back on PR duty, anyway. A new post is up at Bloggers and Sisters, but it raises as many questions as it answers, such as:
1. In regard to the show returning, the post says, “As soon as we have a firm airdate, you will have it too.” Now, I thought we did have a firm airdate — April 20. Does this mean the show might come back earlier than that? Or (gulp) that it might be later?
2. An extensive description of the fortunes of the show’s softball team made me wonder, are they going to be keeping Joe on as a recurring character just so “Pyper” can keep pitching?
3. The return date of one of the show’s other blogs, McCallister and Me, is promised for three days before the show’s return. Or is that threatened? Seriously, is there a fund somewhere we can donate to to make that creepy misbegotten product extension go away?
4. Three new writers have been hired — Jennifer Levin (Felicity, Without a Trace), Nancy Won (Jericho, Everwood), and Michael Foley (Cane, What About Brian). Is that good news or bad news? On the one hand, the writing has been undeniably shaky this season. That may be in great part due to the rush and lack of rewriting forced by the writers strike, but bringing in people who didn’t know the show to guide the show didn’t help. Maybe these folks will be just the ones to take the Walkers into their next chapter. Just hope that’ll be a chapter we’ll want to read.
5. Lip-synching contests? Seriously? I knew Sarah Jane Morris didn’t have enough to do on the show, but it’s worse than I thought.
Maybe I’ll be able to find something more productive for Julia to do in the character check-ups next week, which focus on Tommy and Julia and family. (No, wait, come back! They need you!)
Brothers and Sisters, ABC, scheduling, Bloggers and Sisters
March 16th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Since Monica/Alison are no longer in the regular pecking order (promoted to showrunners), and since Jennifer Cecil most likely left along with Mark Perry, I figured they would have to hire new writers. On the whole, their pedigree looks pretty good to me. (In particular, I’m told Won wrote some great episodes of Everwood.)
In any event, I think it’s a much greater concern when you bring in an outsider to become showrunner (which they did with Perry), as opposed to hiring new staff writers. So the fact that Berlanti is back to a greater degree and the showrunners are B&S insiders are encouraging signs.
March 16th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Good point, Scott. I also heard that Won and Foley worked on American Dreams with some of the current writers.
March 17th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Terri, I don’t know if I’m putting this in the right place, but I hope you will do a checkup on the music of BAS. I have such mixed feelings about the soundtracks: maybe half feels right, but the rest I really hate (too loud, too obvious, right song but wrong version, etc.) And I know I’m not alone in this.
I know tastes vary, but it’s always interesting to hear other opinions. It’s on my mind today because music is a big part of celebrating my Irish heritage, and it’s my son’s first language. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!
March 17th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Colleen! This is a fine place to mention the need for a music check-up. I’ll add it to my list, because goodness knows I have enough days to fill before the show returns. But in the meantime, if folks want to discuss it here, I’ll be listening in.
Just off the top of my head, I’d say that I haven’t really noticed the actual songs used all that much, but the incidental music that’s supposed to cue us that something’s moving or funny or troubling is intensely annoying. It’s kind of like the drama version of a laugh track.