Brothers & Sisters

Another Brothers & Sisters spoiler from EW’s Ausiello Files, this time addressing a fear I’ve personally had, and will be happy to relax about a little:

Question: Does Balthazar Getty being on “recurring guest star” status next season on Brothers & Sisters mean that his plan to take over Ojai will fail, thus leaving it entirely under Holly’s control? Please, say it ain’t so. — Leila

Ausiello: She should be so lucky. No, another Walker will step in to replace Tommy by the end of the season, much to Holly’s horror.

I’m delighted to know that Balthazar Getty’s bad work habits won’t force a victory for Holly, but who do we suppose his horrifying replacement is?

I guess Sarah is the most obvious choice, since she’s been in charge before and certainly has an unpleasant history with Holly. While it would be nice to see her return in some sort of triumph, I can’t help but feel it would be a step backward for the character. She needed to get out of Ojai, Holly or no, and getting Greenatopia off the ground has been a positive new direction for her. If that gets ditched now for a return to the family business, it would feel like we’ve wasted a season caring about it. Plus, I’d miss Ethan and Kyle. I thought they were pretty ridiculous at first, but they’ve really grown on me recently, with their attempts to snatch Kitty’s check and Ethan’s sweet pursuit of Sarah. I suppose Greenatopia could be brought in as some sort of Ojai affiliate, since they’re both produce-related, but I kind of hate to see that weight lowered back onto Sarah’s shoulders.

Working with or under Nora would definitely be horrifying to Holly, especially as bad as the blood has been between them this season. But as with Sarah, Nora has been spending this whole season creating something of her own — is she going sacrifice her dream to William’s again? Not that I don’t think her Ronald McDonald house is sort of a silly plotline; just that it’s not silly to her, and we’ve invested too much time in it to blow it off.

Saul’s someone who appears to have a lot of time on his hands, and hasn’t found anything to replace his all-consuming interest in Ojai. He’s complicit in Tommy’s desire for a takeover, if not the specific method Tommy chose to do it. Would his return be to Holly’s horror? Their history’s a lot more complex than her animosity-filled relationships with Sarah and Nora.

Kevin has an interest in the business and a history there, and now experience in doing a job he has no apparent qualifications for. I wouldn’t mind seeing him leave the senator’s employ, and Ojai’s likely to need a good legal mind after Tommy’s shenanigans. I’m not sure he would particularly horrify Holly, though. Nor would Justin, who certainly needs a job, but is far too malleable to be a threat to his girlfriend’s mother.

So who does that leave? Hey, do you suppose Ryan’s ever been to business school?

Share your guesses on this prospective plot development in the comments.

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Holly hasn’t had a lot to do in the love-interest department — maybe because, as Scott suggested in a comment earlier, her story is only of interest as it intersects the Walkers’, or maybe because producer/director Ken Olin doesn’t want actors making out with his wife. Still, I’ll try to carve out a last little check-up here.

Saul
I suggested in Saul’s love-interest check-up that maybe his relationship with Holly was nothing but a ruse to get information from her; and now, from the other side, maybe Holly was just dating him as a way to tweak Nora and create a connection with the family. Regardless, all concerned — viewers included, most certainly — are probably just as glad that it ended when it did. Prognosis: It’s doubtful that Holly’s ever going to have a genuine friendship with any of her dead lover’s clan, but if she was, Saul would be the most likely.

David
I guess if the script calls for your wife’s character to have an old love interest, one way to handle it is to cast yourself. It was nice to see Ken Olin in front of the camera again, even the scruffy current version. But the relationship still went nowhere. Holly was ambivalent about David when she wasn’t pleasantly hostile, and he seemed to be up to something other than a love re-match. Prognosis: I think David’s only supposed to be around for another episode or so, which should be more to the point of Rebecca’s paternity than Holly’s dating status. Still, this is an actor who should be pretty available to the producers if David needs to pop up again in the future. (But not as a Pop, let’s hope.)

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Holly, Patricia Wettig, Ron Rifkin, Ken Olin

The series of posts on the characters of Brothers & Sisters — where they’ve been, where they’re at, and where we’d like them to go — comes to the final series regular today, the dirty mistress, Holly Harper.

Origins: Holly was a mystery woman in William’s office and at his funeral, but the secret of her longtime affair with the Upright Family Man gradually got out to William’s kids, and was finally definitively revealed by William’s wife at a typically disastrous dinner party.

Progress: Holly was a force of eee-vil throughout the first season, lying about her daughter not being William’s child, demanding a role for herself at Ojai Foods, stealing Tommy away to start a wine business, even stealing Nora’s boyfriend at the winery opening. A food fight between her and Nora broke the tension that had been building, and Rebecca’s acceptance into the Walker clan plus Holly’s partnership with Tommy brought her into the family orbit in a more peaceable way.

Current Status: Maybe too peaceable, because this character has gone from spiciest to most bland in the space of a season. The return of her old boyfriend David may put her in the wrong again, if it turns out that he really is Rebecca’s dad and she lied about it.

Concerns: I’m very relieved that Holly’s no longer hated and hissable, but surely there has to be a role for an actress of Patricia Wettig’s talents that goes beyond Wise Advisor to Young Women. This is a big cast, and it seems impossible for everybody to be well-used. Holly’s been marginalized this year, and maybe that needed to happen, considering how many fans were calling for her ouster in Season One. Still, it doesn’t seem quite right for her to be The Benign Voice of Reason and Experience, either.

Prognosis: As with her daughter, I’d like to see a third-season storyline for Holly that gives her her wily spirit back without making her Cruella de Vil. Not one involving her having lied about Rebecca’s paternity again, let’s hope. And not one involving her protesting a Rebecca-Justin romance. Oh, writers, let’s just not go there. But if Rebecca wants to get a Bad Boyfriend that Holly needs to take apart, that might be fun. Or if Holly wanted to get a Bad Boyfriend herself, that would be okay, too. Seems odd that the mistress has had less romantic action since William’s death than the widow, doesn’t it?

Second Opinion: What would you like to see from Holly, or would you just like not to see Holly at all? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Holly, Patricia Wettig

Some Brothers & Sisters news to occupy us while we cross our fingers that a last-minute bargaining session might avert the writer’s strike now scheduled to begin a minute after midnight on Monday morning.

On a cheery note, AfterElton is reporting that Eric Winter is indeed skedaddling right back to B&S after the wreck of Viva Laughlin, and will be appearing as soon as Episode 11 (for reference, tomorrow night is Episode 6). There’s kind of a melancholy interview with Winter on Hollywood Joe in which he shares how much he loved Laughlin and how, while he understands B&S fans wishing it poorly, he would have liked it to last. It makes me feel a little guilty … but not that much, ’cause I’m busy doing a little yes! dance that Jason is coming back. (Thanks to Scott for e-mailing me about the AfterElton item, and assuring me that the strike will probably not derail his comeback episode.)

Greg Berlanti, who left as B&S show-runner to start Dirty Sexy Money, will be splitting his creative self up some more by taking on directing duties for a Green Lantern movie (one of his co-writers will be Marc Guggenheim, who according to IMDb co-wrote the “Three Parties” and “Mistakes Were Made Part 2″ episodes of B&S.) Sure hope this doesn’t mean Berlanti will be even less involved in B&S’s creative direction. Of course, if the “S” word happens, nobody may be doing much of anything. Berlanti is quoted in an L.A. Times blog item as expressing concern for his many employees during the potential walk-out. “I want to keep our crew and our actors and everybody working as long as possible to make these shows great. If a strike happens, no one ever wants it to happen, I want the people that work for me to survive it.” I’m not that familiar with the Green Lantern, but doesn’t he have some powers that could be used to, like, overpower evil producers and networks and make them cough up some dough?

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If you live in the Los Angeles area, or will be there roundabout February 2008, you can see Holly and Saul themselves, Patricia Wettig and Ron Rifkin, performing in a play by Brothers & Sisters creator Jon Robin Baitz.

The production is The Paris Letter, and it’s running from February 20-24 as part of the “The Play’s the Thing!” series at L.A. Theatre Works. The play will be performed at The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles and recorded for later broadcast on satellite radio.

Here’s the write-up on the Theatre Works site:

“The latest work from one of America’s most important young playwrights and creator of the current hit TV series, Brothers and Sisters. Financial powerhouse Sandy Sonnenberg finds his personal and professional life threatened by unraveling secrets from his past. A tragic game of financial and moral betrayal plays out over four decades, with an exacting price — family, friends, love and marriage. Variety calls it ‘head and shoulders above most current dramatic offerings … THE PARIS LETTER has potential to rank beside works of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Baitz writes vibrant, stingingly literate dialogue.’”

Boy, from the description, it sure sounds like another Baitz work we’ve been following frequently.

Brothers and Sisters, Jon Robin Baitz, The Paris Letter, Ron Rifkin, Patricia Wettig

What did you think about the food fight between Nora and Holly in the “Grapes of Wrath” episode a couple of weeks ago? TV Guide gives it a thumbs-down in the current issue’s “Cheers & Jeers” section:

“Jeers to Brothers & Sisters for subjecting Sally Field and Patricia Wettig to a silly food-fight sequence. The ABC drama atypically stooped to soap-operatic stereotypes by having the award-winning actresses throw strawberry cake and lettuce at each other. To paraphrase Field, we didn’t like it. We really didn’t like it.”

Well, I really don’t like writers who have to keep falling back on that old Oscar speech to make a cheap joke. And I really don’t like the perception that once an actress has won an award, she has to do only stiff respectable work. The food fight was silly, sure, but I thought it worked as just a cathartic outburst of emotion between two women caught in an impossible rivalry. I thought it went on just long enough, and ended in the only way appropriate — laughter. And I thought it was entirely worth it for the way the guys kept creeping in and creeping out, mom-whipped.

Maybe it’s soapy, but there’s been plenty of suds about this show. One soap-opera situation after the other, really. What’s set the show apart, I think, is the wit and emotion it brings to those situations, and that held true here. And even if not, can’t we have a little fun? My favorite episodes have all had a silly side to them, and I think last Sunday’s episode, Favorite Son, suffered from a lack of that lightness.

What did you think about the food fight? Share in the comments.

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Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Patricia Wettig, Sally Field, food fight

Philly.com’s Gail Shister has a nice little interview with Brothers & Sisters co-executive producer Ken Olin and his wife of 25 years, Patricia Wettig, who plays Holly. They talk about the fact that their children are also in the B&S family business — son Cliff is a staff writer, and daughter Roxy played Chad’s clueless girlfriend. My favorite part of the article is when Shister refers to B&S as “a lock” for renewal, but there are some good quotes from the creative twosome as well:

Wettig, on working with her husband: “We’ve always worked together. It’s so much a part of how we do things, we don’t see it as peculiar. I would expect some whispers [from jealous actors], but I don’t know that I care that much.”

Olin, on the show’s early troubles: “There’s nothing about making a pilot that’s relaxing. Everything is so pressured, so intense. You’re spending an enormous amount of money on a flier, basically. All pilots are troubled, to some extent. Because we have such a high-profile cast, we were under the bell jar in a way I think was probably unfair.”

Wettig, on Holly: “I’m seen as Sally Field’s nemesis. There’s an absolute prejudice against ‘the other woman.’ What I’ve gotten from a lot of people is that they’re starting to have sympathy for the character in spite of themselves.” (Not on the message boards I’m reading, sister.)

Olin, on the challenges of family drama: “You have so many places to go. You can’t cut to a car chase or courtroom or E.R.”

Wettig, on nepotism: “We have no more children. Eventually, we’ll hit bottom.”

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, Ken Olin, Patricia Wettig

For those just joining Brothers & Sisters because you’re Rob Lowe fans, or live in Australia, or are finally willing to believe the show’s not as bad as it was made out to be and may be sticking around for a while, here’s a brief guide to who all those brothers and sisters are. Use the episode suggestions to catch up on key episodes in ABC’s Full Episode Player.

Name: Nora Walker
Age: Turned 60 in episode 13, “Something Ida This Way Comes.”
Occupation: Meddlesome mother; worked briefly at family company after husband’s death, but quit after her son Tommy didn’t appreciate “Bring Your Pet to Work Day” or her rules about callers to the company needing to be polite.
Spouse: William, who died in the series’ first episode, leaving his family to painfully find out about his embezzlement from the family company and his longtime affair with Holly Harper, with whom he has a yet-unseen child, Rebecca.
Children: Sarah, Kitty, Tommy, Kevin, Justin
Siblings: Saul
Likes: Liberal causes, cooking, manipulating her offspring
Dislikes: Conservatives, Holly, Kitty’s boyfriends; had tense times with Kitty, who she blamed for pushing Justin to go to war after 9/11, but they’ve mostly made up. Also has mother issues of her own.
Key Episode: In episode 3, “Affairs of State,” she revealed that she wasn’t as in the dark about William’s indiscretions as everybody thought, “innocently” inviting the woman who was her husband’s mistress to a party and then coolly outing her at the dinner table.

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TV Guide has an interview online with Patricia Wettig, who plays Holly on Brothers & Sisters and is also the wife of series producer Ken Olin, and mother of Cliff Olin, who writes many of the episodes, and Roxy Olin, who plays Chad’s alleged girlfriend. Here’s a little of what she has to say:

On working with family: “I’ve been around family and friends in so many professional settings. Afterward, I say to myself, “Do you know how unusual it is that Roxy is doing a part that Cliff wrote, and that Ken and I are there, too?” I guess so much of thirtysomething was about family and friends. We knew [thirtysomething creator/executive producer] Marshall Herskovitz and [his wife, writer] Susan Shilliday…. Everybody was all entwined. It all seemed perfectly normal.

On friendship between Holly and Nora: “I don’t think we’ve quite met on common ground. It’s always tense. And I don’t think we’ve ever actually been friends or that we ever will be, but circumstances keep putting us together. I think what’s particular about [our relationship] is that each of us has a prejudice about how the other should be. But there have been some surprises. I’m not sure where it’s ultimately going, but I do enjoy it.”

On Holly’s daughter, Rebecca: “I just read the episode! The character is, like, 21, and she’s a college girl. She’s potentially the next sibling [to join the Walker clan]. She shows up in the very last scene of this last episode that I just read.”

On Prison Break: “I’m doing a couple of voice-overs off camera for a couple [of shows]. Then I’m doing an episode [where I'll be on screen], and I believe it’s a scene with Wentworth [Miller, who plays Michael]. I have not seen the script.”

Check out the full interview for more scoop.

Happy 55th birthday today to Patricia Wettig, who plays Holly on Brothers & Sisters and is married to series executive producer Ken Olin. To most fiftysomethings and fortysomethings, she’s best-known for playing Nancy Weston on thirtysomething. But she’s also had memorable roles as Vice President Caroline Reynolds on Prison Break and as psychologist Dr. Judy Barnett on Alias, also executive produced by Olin. Trivia question: Wettig’s thirtysomething spouse is on another show making its debut this season. Name the actor and the show; the answer is in the comments.