Brothers & Sisters

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.

(more…)

“Family Portrait,” the episode, is not going to re-run this summer. You can watch it online, which I hope to do this weekend, and finally write up a recap. Look for that next week.

“Family Portrait” the Brothers & Sisters retrospective, on the other hand, will be airing two weeks from tomorrow, September 23, to refresh everybody’s memory of the season past and get us all in a lather for Season 2, which starts September 30.

It’s nice to get a special, I guess. Personally, I’d have rather ABC reviewed the activities of the Walker family by showing all the re-runs, in order, once through, throughout the summer. But if the hour is entertaining and true to the show, and not cheesy and over-dramatic — and has Kevin in it, for goodness sake — I’ll be in a forgiving mood.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

It’s pool party time for the Walkers again as ABC re-runs the season finale, “Matriarchy,” tonight. But if you’re new to the show, the willy-nilly way that repeats have been shown this summer may leave you a bit at sea. To review what happened since Episode 19, “Game Night,” which reran two weeks ago, read the recaps for:

• Episode 20, “Bad News”
• Episode 21, “Grapes of Wrath”
• Episode 22, “Favorite Son”

Now you’re ready for Episode 23, “Matriarchy,” in which we say hello a family even wackier than the Walkers, say goodbye to soldier-boy Justin, and ponder the quantity of “Dry Clean Only” clothing ruined in the climactic “All Walkers in the pool!” sequence.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, reruns

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Tonight’s re-run episode, “Game Night,” is one of the few TV offerings that might have actually earned one of those “Don’t miss the last five minutes!” tags that used to get tacked onto everything. Because for most of the show, we’re in comfy slapstick territory, with Nora making a fool of herself trying to one-up the Joneses; Kitty being a matchmaking ditz; Kevin making an ass of himself over coffee with McCallister’s brother, Jason (because Kitty kinda forgot to mention that “McCallister’s brother” part); and everybody taking party games waaaay too seriously.

And just when you’re thinking “Oh, you silly Walkers,” and writing this off as a light-hearted lark, Rebecca stops by the Whedons for a guitar lesson, and the episode — the entire season — veers off in an unexpected and upsetting direction.

Personally, I wish we could have missed those last five minutes. Sarah and Joe were doing a good enough job of ruining their marriage without Rebecca’s help, and I really did want to like the girl. But like a bad Trivial Pursuit answer, once something’s out there, there’s no taking it back.

Okay, so it wasn’t just some terrible, annoying mistake. ABC does have a method to its madness in scheduling “Mistakes Were Made Part 2″ for a fourth showing on August 26, all out of sequence.

As Scott pointed out in the comments to my earlier post, this showing is part of an ABC celebration of its Emmy-nominated shows, as special episodes are featured throughout its weekly schedule. The network is selecting episodes whose submission resulted in Emmy nominations, and “Mistakes Were Made Part 2″ was apparently Sally Field’s successful best-actress entry. Just for wearing that awful flashback hairdo, the lady deserves a trophy.

So, hooray and congratulations, we’re getting “Mistakes Were Made Part 2″ again. And just in case you’re thinking the third time was the charm, and you’ll skip this fourth outing, thanks anyway, ABC has a diabolical plan to get you back: They’re premiering scenes from the new season in this special-event showing. So yes, you do have to watch it. Again. After only a month off. But at least you’ll have Road Trip Sarah for company.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Mistakes Were Made Part 2, Emmy, Sally Field

Talk about mistakes being made!

According to an ABC press release, the re-run scheduled for August 26 is not Episode 19, “Bad News,” which would follow sequentially from next Sunday’s showing of “Game Night”; or Episode 20, “Grapes of Wrath,” the food-fight fiesta that would logically come next if the network continued its habit of leapfrogging over the grimmer episodes; but (drum roll please) “Mistakes Were Made Part 2,” the ninth episode of the series, which we have already viewed, let’s see, one, two, three times before, in November, March, and most recently July 8.

May I just say, ABC, WTF?

Why would they possibly be going back in time to air an episode that’s had so many previous showings? Are they trying to discourage newcomers from catching up with the storyline? Do they find the aftermath of the Rebecca/Joe kiss too upsetting to revisit? Do they have some kind of contract with Tom Skerritt that requires his episodes to receive a certain number of airings? Or is this (please, please, please) a massive typo that will be rectified in a future press release?

I love that first Walker road trip as much as anybody, but come on!

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, re-runs, Mistakes Were Made Part 2, commentary

Can’t wait to relive those Walker hijinks? That McCallister family tension? Nora’s deathless prose? Read all about it in these posts written the first time this episode aired, back in April.

• Recap: 1-17 “All in the Family”
• “All in the Family”: Memorable Lines
• Five Questions: “All in the Family”

The episode that comes after “All in the Family” in sequence is “Three Parties,” which follows Justin and Rebecca to an ill-considered drug-fueled shindig, Nora to a party at the professor’s house (with some sartorial assistance from crazy Emily), and cougars Kitty and Sarah to an underage bash in McCallister’s hometown.

Excited to see that again? Tough luck. ABC’s not showing it next week. Instead, we’re skipping ahead to “Game Night,” which is mostly about silly competition between the Walkers and a family we’ve never heard of before, but in the last few minutes becomes all about The Kiss. Guess we can kiss that idea of ABC showing re-runs in order right up to the second-season premiere goodbye.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, All in the Family, recap

Which dinner party do we get in tonight’s re-run, “All in the Family”? Why, the cozy family get-together that marks the entry of William’s illegitimate daughter, Rebecca, into the Walker clan. Highlights include Justin and Kevin fighting over Rebecca’s glass, Kevin pulling a hair from Rebecca’s head for DNA testing, Nora pelting Kevin with a dinner roll, and Rebecca declaring her new siblings to be “wack.”

And even with all of that, it goes better than Kitty’s dinner with McCallister’s children, during which his daughter pretty much agrees with all the Americans polled in the last episode in hating daddy’s girlfriend’s guts. Trivia note, if you missed it the first time around: Robert’s daughter, Sofia, is played by Justine Dorsey, sister of Kerris Dorsey, who plays Sarah’s daughter, Paige. Should be fun to see those two duke it out for flower girl honors.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, All in the Family

To whet your appetite for tonight’s showing of “The Other Walker,” two videos: The first, a promo for the episode. The second, Rebecca’s rebuke of her mother after discovering her paternity. “It seems pretty simple to me, Mom. You were willing to be sloppy seconds for some rich jerk with a wife and kids, and my dad didn’t want to fess up to having a bastard child with his mistress because he didn’t want to risk his Norman Rockwell life. Do I have it straight, Mom?” Burn!

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, The Other Walker

Due to ABC’s scheduling sleight-of-hand, the re-run being shown tomorrow night, “The Other Walker,” does not immediately follow the re-run shown last week, “Valentine’s Day Massacre.” ABC is skipping us right over “Love Is Difficult” — or maybe sparing us the agony of seeing it again, because that episode? Not a barrel of laughs.

You remember — it’s the one in which Joe and Sarah’s therapist sits passively by as they rip each other’s hearts out; Kevin allows himself to re-board the Chad Express even though there’s clearly a train wreck ahead; Tommy backstabs Sarah by going into business with her mortal enemy, Holly; and Kitty … well, Kitty is hated by most of America.

If you’re just as glad not to go through that again, you can still get some continuity leading into tomorrow’s episode by reading the “Love Is Difficult” recap, memorable lines, and questions. And if it brings you pain to know you won’t be able to wallow in all this heartbreak one more time? Perhaps these words by the Whedons’ therapist, Dr. Jude Bar-Shalom, will help you through:

“There are no shortcuts, in life or in love. Its pain must be felt. The alternative is much worse. It’s what makes us special. It makes us beautiful. It makes us worthy. The pain of how we love. But that pain is accompanied by something else, isn’t it? Hope? With your pain there is hope, and that is where you are. Somewhere between agony and optimism and prayer. So, you’re human. You’re alive. And that is what we have.”

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, scheduling, re-runs

“Valentine’s Day Massacre” is tonight’s re-run of ABC’s choice, and that’s just fine because it’s the one where:

• they do that great cell-phone-tag opening
• Margot Kidder debuts as crazy Emily
• Kitty and the senator finally start their highly inappropriate but completely inevitable romance
• Nora gets busted!
• Justin is the worst babysitter ever, but the cutest ex-boyfriend
• Scotty returns, briefly
• Sarah says to her mother, “You spent a night in jail for smoking pot. This family should have like a bat signal for news this good.”
• Holly lures Tommy away from the family business

Well, okay, that last part wasn’t exactly good times, but the rest was fun. Enjoy the pre-Rebecca days while they last, ’cause next week’s “The Other Walker” already.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, re-runs, Valentine’s Day Massacre

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about “Valentine’s Day Massacre,” the repeat ABC’s chosen for this week’s showing. Today, though, let us mourn “Something Ida This Way Comes,” the episode that was originally scheduled for July 29, then cruelly bumped.

There are parts of that episode I won’t be sad to miss, and the promo above centers on two of them: Anything involving Chad and Kevin, and that silly “sex tape becomes part of a birthday tribute” plot. Plus, Marian Ross did not endear herself to me with Ida. Yikes.

But I was looking forward to the jokes about the mid-level package that turned out to be the Medieval package. The extensive closet drinking. The big blow-up in the kitchen, with Kitty outing two brothers at once. And all the endless snarky family interaction.

It’s not the same as actually getting to watch the episode, but these three videos — viewable on YouTube, but not postable here — can give a little taste, anyway. Please enjoy, courtesy of YouTube poster RogueRaven07:

• Party #1: Storebought cake and a lovely frame!
• Nora getting surprised, although not so much
• Kitty and the senator discussing shoes

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, re-runs, Marian Ross, Something Ida This Way Comes

September 30, 2007.

That’s the date to mark on your calendar, the date when the re-runs go ‘way and the brand-spanking-new episodes of Brothers & Sisters return to your screen.

That leaves nine Sundays to go. And 11 more episodes to re-run, if ABC were to show a re-run every night and go exactly in sequence from last week’s “Sexual Politics.”

So, of course, they’re not.

That episode of “Something Ida This Way Comes” that was scheduled for this Sunday? It’s gone, banished like a bad memory. If you’ve been trying to think of drinking games involving siblings guzzling wine in closets? Your work is all for naught. Save it for the DVD.

No, according to ABC press releases, this Sunday’s showing will now be the perfectly wonderful “Valentine’s Day Massacre,” which had originally been scheduled for August 5. Taking its place on that first Sunday in August will be “The Other Walker,” leapfrogging “Love Is Difficult.”

It will be nice if this schedule-shifting indicates a commitment by ABC to then run a re-run every single Sunday until the second-season debut. They’ve got just enough now, and “Matriarchy” will be a nice springboard into whatever’s planned for the Walkers going forward. Do we dare trust a network? Naaaah.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, scheduling, re-runs

In “Sexual Politics,” tonight’s Brothers & Sisters repeat, Kevin takes a ride with Chad, Kitty gets matchmade with the senator, and Joe gets cozy with a lady over a guitar. Watch this preview to get you in the mood.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Sexual Politics, Jason Lewis

You saw it in January, you saw it in March, and tonight you’ll see “Family Day” again, ’cause you can never get enough of Justin’s family walking all over him like he’s one adorable doormat. And if you’re on the Holly hate train? Hop onboard and get your ticket punched, because this is also the episode in which she starts working at Ojai Foods and brings up her close personal relationship with William Walker at a board meeting, with Nora right there. Boo! Hiss!

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Family Day, Justin, Holly