Brothers & Sisters

In case you were worrying about what to watch next Sunday night, with a new episode of Brothers & Sisters scheduled to go up against the last hour of the Golden Globes awards ceremony, your DVR just got a break — according to Deadline Hollywood, NBC has officially cancelled the Globes telecast due to the fact that with the writers picketing it, no stars will show up.

Instead of a three-hour drunken party that you watch in the hopes of seeing someone giving a really funny speech, or a really tipsy one, or being caught in the restroom and missing their speech altogether, the Globes will now be nothin’ but a press event — but presumably one SAG members can show up at, since it won’t be on TV. Stars will still be able to doll up and show off their dresses and tuxes for photographers on the red carpet, and go to parties for their respective shows and films. The awards, though, will be announced in a room without the nominees present, with winners allowed to swing by a table later, snag their trophies, and be mobbed by press.

And I guess it’s sad and all, the ruining of tradition, the robbing of a night of glory for hard-working actors and actresses. I’m looking on the bright side, though, and considering it to be revenge for the failure of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to nominate Brothers & Sisters for best show, and most of its cast for best anything. Ha! Leave the Walkers out of a party with lots of liquor, and we will shut your party down!

Sure, Sally Field and Rachel Griffiths won’t get their night to shine, but they’ll have other chances. Sally has the SAG Awards up ahead, and they have a WGA waiver allowing them to be televised picket-free. As for Rachel … well, if this cancellation saves her from an unfortunate hair moment like the one pictured above, from her 2002 Golden Globe win as supporting actress for Six Feet Under, it will be a blessing right there.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Golden Globes, NBC, writer’s strike

Tonight, once again, is a Sunday night without Our Show. Brothers & Sisters was originally supposed to have returned on this night, January 6, but ABC decided to replace it — not with a holiday special this time, or a beloved movie classic, but with a trashy-sounding new soap opera, Cashmere Mafia, which has been deemed deserving of the ratings heat that comes with following the last pre-strike Desperate Housewives.

I can’t decide if this is good news — that the network thinks B&S is strong enough to do well without the DH push in its remaining three weeks of new shows — or bad news — that the network couldn’t care less how B&S does, and plans to burn the last three when nobody’s watching. I’ll try to imagine it’s the former, and remember that, a few weeks down the road, we’ll just be glad that we have one more episode to watch.

If you’re missing the Walkers, here are a few YouTube videos that might help a little. The first is an interview with Sarah Jane Morris, from November, in which she mentions that as far as she knows, Julia and Tommy will stay together. The segment is longer than all of Julia’s Brothers & Sisters scenes put together, and you may want to knock the heads of the hosts together for asking such dumb questions, but it’s a little Walker fix, nonetheless.

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Aw, put down that remote. There’s no Brothers & Sisters on tonight. No new show, no repeat. Instead, ABC is showing The Sound of Music. All prime-time night, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Four hours of singing nuns and children. Would it kill them to give us re-runs?

How many commercials does it take to make a movie classic into a four-hour all-night event, anyway? And don’t people who want to spend that much time with The Sound of Music already own it on video or DVD? I guess this is counter-programming to football, and maybe re-running the Trapp family saga is an annual ABC ritual that I just haven’t been paying attention to. But it seems like an odd way to fill a whole Sunday night.

Now, if they could have the Walkers watching it, making comments during the showing or at the commercials, maybe playing some trivia games with the families from Desperate Housewives, for that I’d tune in. But no — as it stands, there are still two weeks between us and Walker get-togethers, with the show pre-empted next week and a new episode scheduled for January 13.

I suppose we could always program our own re-run nights, between the first-season DVD set and the ABC Full Episode Player — although I feel like I’m crossing a picket line now when I use that thing, since the proceeds from those ad-studded online episodes are a major sticking point in the writer’s guild negotiations. If you have no such qualms, you can watch “Home Front,” “36 Hours,” “Something New” and “Holy Matrimony!” instead of Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer this evening. And dream of the day when the “something new” will be a bright and shining episode of Brothers & Sisters.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, scheduling

It’s another Sunday, another exciting Brothers & Sisters night … except not, because ABC hates us, and wants us to be unhappy. So instead of the Walkers, we get the Santa Clauses, or specifically, The Santa Clause 2. That might be a fun watch for Lost fans, who can see Elizabeth Mitchell being all sweet and non-Other-y; or for Numb3rs fans, who can see David Krumholtz in an elf suit. But for Brothers & Sisters fans? I guess we could hope for a commercial or something.

Fortunately, there’s a sneak peek of the next Brothers & Sisters episode up on YouTube now, and reproduced below. It’s for “The Feast of the Epiphany,” which ABC’s press release still says will air on Sunday, January 13, at 10 p.m., but the “next episode” widget on the ABC Brothers & Sisters site now says will air on Monday, January 14, at 12 a.m. At least they’re in the same week now.

The clip shows a dinner party at the Walker homestead, and opens with everyone in full squabble. Nora shushes her kids and tells them to act nice for her guest, Isaac, but things don’t get more peaceful when they get quiet. Justin and Tommy are still glowering at each other across the table, and Nora’s instruction to talk about politics steers Kitty and Robert into a conversation about lying, in which Robert accidentally makes it sound like it’s okay to lie to your loved one. This earns him a trip to the kitchen to help Kitty with the wine (and the whine). When Kitty corners him into confessing what he’s lied about, he mentions, hypothetically, what if it was about not wanting a baby right now. To which Kitty jumps to “You don’t want to have kids!” and that cat, it is out of the bag.

When will these people learn that family dinners are nothing but trouble? Never, I hope, ’cause they’re so much fun to watch.

Hey, Brothers & Sisters is on tonight! But wait. It’s a re-run. Sigh.

Take a trip back to nine episodes ago, to the season premiere “Home Front.” Justin is still at war, Tommy is still faithful to Julia, Sarah is still hopeful about Joe, Kevin’s Reverend Boyfriend is still stateside, Kitty is still looking for a wedding dress, Rebecca is still learning why you don’t plan parties for Walkers in public places, and there is still supposed to be a whole season instead of a chopped-up writer’s-strike-impaired one. Oh, those crazy optimistic days!

There’s still no telling whether we’ll get a full season, though ABC’s Winter Schedule has me feeling anything but optimistic. Still, there does seem to be an announcement on when the next new episode will air, though you have to go to the photo captions on ABC’s PR site to find it:

“The Feast of the Epiphany - Tommy and Julia struggle to repair their damaged marriage while Rebecca’s connection with David (Ken Olin as David Caplan) raises some questions about her mother’s past. Meanwhile, Nora and Isaac (guest starring Danny Glover) have a very uncomfortable first date, and Graham (guest starring Steven Weber) helps Sarah regain some of her confidence with the opposite sex, on ‘Brothers & Sisters,’ SUNDAY, JANUARY 6.”

Just from looking through the pictures, it appears that Nora and Isaac’s first date involves a huge family dinner party — oh, my goodness, does Nora never learn? — and that a revelation that makes Julia look angry gets made around the table. A little infidelity for dessert? I continue to be not nuts about the potential of this David storyline, but I’m all for Sarah regaining a little romantic confidence, and all for Steven Weber sticking around for a bit. Sarah’d be well-advised to keep Graham away from her family for a while, though, wouldn’t she?

January 6. We can make it to then, right? January 6. A mere three weeks away. January 6. According to the “next episode” widget on the ABC site, there’s going to be a re-airing of the “Family Album” clip show between now and then, but no indication as to when. Not exactly the Christmas present we might have hoped for. But January 6 is coming soon.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, scheduling, Home Front

Tonight at 10 p.m. on ABC, Michael Imperioli gets to see his mother, Ellen Burstyn, For One More Day. If that doesn’t sound like a Brothers & Sisters story to you, you’re right — it’s the second half of a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie that started at 9 p.m., pre-empting both the desperate housewives and the Walkers.

If you feel like you can’t stand to be without the Walkers for one more day, I hear you. I figure this missed week is a good time to catch up with the only episode now missing from my Season 1 round-up, and that is the never-seen-on-TV episode that got cut from that first season and added to the DVD. It’s going to be a real time-warp experience to go back to those early Walker days, especially since this episode went in directions the show ultimately did not purse. But I’m up for it — are you? If so, watch it with me tonight, then come back during the week for the usual review, recap, memorable lines and questions.

Rather watch something a little more immediate? There are now “Writer’s Room” videos available for all the episodes through last Sunday’s wedding extravaganza. Since the last two have not been featured on the Brothers & Sisters home page, I’d assumed they weren’t doing them anymore because of the writer’s strike (as appears to still be the case for the show’s three blogs, Bloggers & Sisters, McCallister and Me and The Brothers & Sisters Writer’s Blog on TVGuide.com). But if you click on “Writer’s Room” from that main page, they are indeed there.

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When I got married, I was a California transplant living in New Jersey with little family of my own flying in to attend the ceremony. On my husband’s side, though, was a vast array of Italian relatives whose worthiness of a wedding invitation was determined by a complex generational code understood only by my mother-in-law. The one cousin of his I actually knew, for example, could not be invited because then we would have to invite everybody on her particular generational tier and above, and there goes our down-payment for a house.

From the looks of it, Kitty McCallister’s wedding will be smaller than mine turned out being, lucky girl. It looks, from the (always unreliable) previews, as if it may even be smaller than her engagement party was. But my interest in the politics of guest lists and the complexities of wedding etiquette still makes me wonder about who will and will not be in attendance at the affair, with only the press release for tonight’s episode, and the previews up at ABC.com as my guide.

It looks like the mother of the bride was allowed to invite only one friend, and she chose her old high school beau Stan Harris (Chevy Chase). The guest list does not seem to include her old girlfriend Emily Craft (Margot Kidder, above left), which is probably a good idea since she’s such a troublemaker; or Margaret Packard (Meredith Baxter, above center), allegedly Nora’s best friend until the “For the Children�? episode, with whom she apparently never made up, as we have never seen her since.

You’d think that Nora might want to show off her new senatorial son-in-law to that judgmental Miranda Jones (Susan Sullivan, above right) by inviting her to the wedding. I mean, whether you agree with his politics or not, he’s a pretty handsome and successful catch. Well, except for that too-good-to-be-true thing, and that lying-about-wanting-children thing, and that anybody-who-wants-to-be-president-is-sick-with-ambition thing. But the dude looks good in a tux, there’s no arguing with that.

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The start of Ken Olin’s guest turn as an old flame of wife Patricia Wettig’s Holly isn’t the only family reunion on tap for this Sunday’s episode, “Holy Matrimony!�? Judging by the press release for the episode, there’s a good chance that we will see the first meeting of prospective step-cousins Paige Whedon and Sophie McCallister, played by real-life sisters Kerris (left) and Justine Dorsey.

Justine’s on the guest list for the episode, and presumably Sophie would be on the guest list for her father’s wedding to that skinny lady she doesn’t like. Could be Sophie will turn up just to have a conversation with Robert about how she has to be with Mom that weekend and can’t attend. You can’t be sure of too much based on guest-star lists.

But it would be fun to have the Meeting of the Dorseys, the battle of the young blonde actresses. Maybe Sophie could trash-talk about Kitty and Paige could throw food at her. Or maybe the two daughters of divorce could bond while all the adults around engage in their petty squabbles, and undertake some sort of junior dirty tricks campaign.

They might as well get some emoting in, and display some promise as mini-troublemakers, because this show is going to need a new blonde baddie soon. Emily Rose’s arc as Walker-boy bait Lena should be coming to an end soon (right? please?) and unless Holly’s going to make a swerve back into manipulative villainess mode — always possible, given the Olin arc mentioned above — there may be an opening for girl trouble.

Paige should have the inside track, since she’s been on the show from the start, she’s got a handy health problem perfect for adult manipulation, and she’s already run away once this season. But Sophie has more reason to hate the Walkers, especially Kitty, and can throw a lot of misery into her dad’s new marriage by making him choose between her and his new wife.

Come out swinging, girls! Little kids deserve some drama, too!

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Holy Matrimony!, Kerris Dorsey, Justine Dorsey

Tonight’s episode, “Something New,” introduces two new love interests for Walker women, to occupy them for at least a few episodes. The previews on ABC.com do nothing to shake me from my first impressions when I heard about the casting of Steven Weber and Chevy Chase — that the former would make a charming foil for Sarah, and that the latter would be excruciating as Nora’s old high school flame. But who knows, it’s hard to tell from short clips how either star turn will play out.

These aren’t the guest appearances that really have me excited, though. That honor would go to our musical guest, Lyle Lovett.

Now, normally, I’d read a sentence like this one in the press release for “Something New” — “Robert enlists the help of a musical icon (guest starring Lyle Lovett as himself) to fend off Kitty’s bout with cold feet” — and roll my eyes. What, Robert just happens to know or have some pull with a famous musician who is available to serenade his fiancee? It’s almost shark-jumpy.

And yet … aw, c’mon, it’s Lyle Lovett. I will willingly suspend disbelief for Lyle Lovett any day of the week. I hereby give all TV shows a free pass to shoehorn Lyle Lovett into their plotlines. Heroes, give his hair some magic powers. Lost, make him another odd island manifestation. Book him a gig at the bar near Seattle Grace, or turn the Pie Hole into a folk nightspot. The possibilities are endless.

My main curiosity about tonight is not so much how they’re going to slip the singer believably into the plot, but what song he might sing that would warm Kitty’s chilly tootsies. I love the guy’s music, but I wouldn’t necessarily think of him as a go-to artist for inspirational romantic ballads. Still, the one in the YouTube video below might do. Any Lovett fans out there care to make their own guesses?

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Something New, preview, Lyle Lovett, Steven Weber, Chevy Chase

The last couple of Brothers & Sisters episodes haven’t exactly been walks in the park, but they’re looking like a day at the spa compared to “36 Hours,�? tonight’s knock-down-drag-out intervention session for druggie Justin. Confrontations! Secrets! Yelling! Shameless plays for Emmy nominations! They’re all on display tonight, by all appearances, and I’m going to go with it. But they’re going to need a road trip or a party or a wedding pretty soon along here.

Depending on your feelings about previews and spoilers, there’s enough material on the ABC site for the show now to a) whet your appetitle or b) ruin the suspense. Four, count ‘em, four previews are ready and waiting to tease you with dramatic moments, though I’ll warn you, one of them has Tommy giving Lena a foot massage or something, and I really didn’t need to see that. Of course, the same scene finds Tommy pretty much busted by Saul, and one of the other previews shows Kevin confronting him, so maybe the days of dallying with the help are done, please, please, please.

According to the press release for the episode, Justine Dorsey, sister of Kerris Dorsey, who plays Paige, is returning as McCallister’s daughter Sophia (it was Sophia, right, and not “Sophie�? as listed in the press release?). I wonder whether her presence will bear in some way on the senator’s quandary over having kids with Kitty. One preview shows his fiancee asking him pretty directly to confirm that he does want kids, and he has a look on his face like, “Boy, I was hoping I could put off this conversation for at least a few more episodes.�? Will he answer like a straight-shooting candidate or waffle like a sleazy politico? And more importantly, will hanging with his petulant daughter make him want to try again or cease all further procreation?

There’s a heavy implication in the previews that we finally get to some sort of Saul revelation this week, with Saul saying “We all have our secrets�? and Nora looking shocked … but I’m thinking it’s a tease, and they’ll keep drawing out this storyline. There’s a pretty chilly scene between Saul and Kevin in the previews, with Kevin still trying to prod his uncle out of the closet and Saul beating him about the head with hangers. I guess, having complained last week about stories being rushed, I can’t gripe too much about stories going too slowly. But I can gripe a little.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, 36 Hours, preview

Your presidential campaign is picking up steam, but about to get derailed by an unplanned pregnancy. Who’re you gonna call? A character played by Danny Glover, apparently. The actor makes his debut in tonight’s episode, “Two Places,” as political consultant Isaac Marshall, whose first order of business is to get the candidate married off to his expectant fiancee on the double.

You have to plan a wedding in two days. Who’re you gonna call? Nora Walker, obviously, though it appears from the previews on the ABC site that the mother of the bride calls her own self in to argue against a businesslike union under fluorescent lights and for a romantic ceremony in her overworked backyard. Sparks fly between her and Marshall, and we shouldn’t be surprised if a romance develops — any man who puts an event like this in Nora’s hands, especially over the protest of one of her children, is going to have a place in that woman’s heart for sure.

What else can we expect from tonight? The press release promises (threatens?) that “the Walkers suffer a very tragic, private loss,” and “Sarah is forced to reevaluate her custody arrangement.” I suppose it’s unrealistic to hope that these two are linked, and that the tragic loss is Joe getting hit by a bus. More likely, I suspect, it involves the reason for that quickie wedding becoming less urgent. There’s a doctor and a nurse on the release’s guest-cast list, so something medical seems likely.

There are three previews in all on the ABC site, two focusing on Glover’s arrival and wedding planning, the third showing some scenes of Justin, Lena, and Rebecca out on the town, with Lena talking obliquely about her “boyfriend” and how all they do is … well, let’s just say that the yuckiness factor of this storyline is through the roof. Maybe the tragic loss could be Lena getting hit by a bus? ‘Cause I feel like we’re getting hit by a bus every time she’s involved in the plot.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Two Places, preview

The previews are promising a night of tricks, treats and surprises for tonight’s new Brothers & Sisters episode, “Domestic Issues.” Accent on tricks, because the previews have been lying and misleading before. That funeral fake-out was like a bunch of eggs hurled at our doors, or maybe TP in our trees. So take the following apparent plotlines with a grain of salt, and your weight in candy corn.

Apparent Plotline #1 centers on Joe demanding full custody of the kids, and … well, that’s not such a surprise, is it? He kind of had full custody of them when he and Sarah were married, what with her workaholic ways. It’s hard to argue for Joe and against Sarah, given how scummy he’s been behaving lately, but how exactly is she going to manage being the primary caretaker half the time? Both for consistency for the kids and Sarah’s very real need for a break, I wouldn’t mind having those rugrats around alternate weekends only, freeing Sarah to pursue more varied and interesting stories. If they were my kids, on the other hand, I’d be leaning across that conference table and tearing that weasel’s heart out. So who knows.

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Does anybody else think it’s odd that we met McCallister’s whole wacky extended family before we met even one non-child family member for existing Walker spouses Joe and Julia? Just me? Okay.

That in-law-free streak ends tonight, anyway, with the arrival of Julia’s parents, Ben and Beth Ridge. They’re played by two familiar actors, Bill Smitrovich and Tess Harper (above). It’s nice to meet them, I guess, but if they play a significant part in this inevitable-seeming “Tommy and Julia split” storyline, I’m going to wish we could go back to the days when Julia seemed to have nobody but the Walkers.

Other never-before-seen family members making trouble in this week’s episode, “History Repeating,” are McCallister’s ex, Courtney, played by Marin Hinkle. Is this the return of nanny-gate, now? That scandal sorta got forgotten a while back there, but it sounds like it might be returning. I don’t know that I’m all that interested in a Kitty-Courtney confrontation, but if they can work in a food fight, I’m there.

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New episode tonight! And I’m going to give you ABC’s description of the episode, “An American Family” so if you watched last week’s previews and feel quite certain that Justin is dead and you will be watching his funeral, you might want to stop reading here.

Hah! As if we bought that. ABC’s press release makes it pretty plain, pretty quick, that it was all a pretty weak trick. Here’s the run-down: “While Kevin, Kitty and Nora take a road trip to pick up Justin, Kitty balances personal and political issues with her future husband. Meanwhile, Tommy can’t seem to get fatherhood right, and the truth finally comes out between Sarah and Rebecca.”

The press release also lists guest stars for the episode, revealing that this is the first installment of Emily Rose’s guest run as Rebecca’s friend, Lena Branigan. Another name on that guest list that caught my eye is Phill Lewis, playing the character of Dr. Peter Edwards. Lewis has a long and varied resume of TV appearances, but if you have a Disney Channel-loving child (and if you do, my sympathies), you will almost certainly recognize him as Mr. Moseby from The Suite Life of Zach and Cody. It’s hard for me, now, to imagine him as anything else.

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Tonight, at 10 p.m., a never-before-seen offering on Brothers & Sisters! But not, of course, a new episode — we have to wait one more week for that. Tonight, we get the special “Family Album,” of which ABC promises “This one hour special presents the exposed secrets, hilarious adventures and dramatic stories that made the series a breakout hit last season. Get the exclusive reveal of the casts’ favorite moments, hilarious outtakes and sneak peeks at what’s in store for America’s most loved TV family in Season Two.”

Exposed secrets and hilarious adventures! That’s the show we love.

I’m a sucker for a good clip show, so I’ll be tuned in tonight. I’ll try to have a recap up tomorrow for those who missed it, but c’mon … who’s going to miss it? We’ve been waiting a long time for new content here.

If you need something to whet your appetite and help you make it through the long hours until tonight’s show, there are a couple of new goodies on the ABC show site. One is a full-length video of the song “Pictures of You,” which includes pictures of all the Walkers this time, not like the Kevin-free shorter promo, as well as pictures of The Last Goodnight, the group that sings the song.

There are pictures from Season 1 that weren’t in the shorter version, including the Rebecca-Joe kiss, the Nora-Holly food fight, and the Nora-Kevin pelting with dinner roll. There are also, if I’m not mistaken, some pictures of Season 2 that we haven’t seen in any prior clip compilation, including a couple of Kevin-Jason moments, Rebecca carrying a (rather small) birthday cake for Cooper, and Nora and Holly at William’s grave — laying down flowers, not throwing them at each other, alas. They could at least throw a cake at that old SOB’s tombstone.

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