Brothers & Sisters

A month ago — a month! — when I started these character check-ups with a close-up on Nora, I failed to account for her many past love interests. Let’s correct that now with a look at the gentlemen and jerks with whom the widow Walker has been keeping company.

David
Nora’s contractor was sweet and on the spot to provide Nora’s first post-William romance. After a few dates, though, they ended things because Treat Williams went off to do another series Nora wasn’t ready to get involved. Prognosis: Seems like she might be ready now, and if she doesn’t move away with Isaac (as if), perhaps it’s time to bring David ’round again. I thought they were cute together, and unlike many of her other beaux, he’s not a complete jerk.

Marc
Speaking of complete jerks, Nora’s writing professor was a book you could judge by its cover — a sleazy older guy with a taste for coeds. Why Nora bought his bull for as long as she did is beyond me. Prognosis: It’s hard to think of anything at all redeeming about this professor storyline, unless it’s the fact that it precipitated a fairly hilarious food fight between Nora and Holly. Hope he’s off for a permanent sabbatical in the Land of Lost Love Interests. Or maybe Malaysia.

Stan
Despite the fact that he was played by Chevy Chase, Stan started out as a surprisingly promising character — Nora’s old high school boyfriend and official First Time, with whom she reunited on a whim. Inviting him to Kitty’s wedding turned out to be a mistake, though; he had an allergic reaction to Republicans that turned him into the sort of inconsiderate airhead you’d expect from a Chevy Chase character. Prognosis: It might have been fun to see Ida put Stan back in his place, but not fun enough to ever, ever bring him back. Ever.

Isaac
Nora’s current main squeeze is another smooth sweet-talking Republican who may be insufficiently concerned with ethics, just like the man she married. We’ve not seen much of their romance, but from all reports, they’ve been getting serious over the strike break. Though some disillusionment on Nora’s part was originally scheduled for the last aired episode, it never showed up. Prognosis: I don’t mind Isaac, though the whispery thing Danny Glover’s got going is a little disconcerting. But unless he’s going to pull up stakes and move to Pasadena, I don’t see much future for the two of them. Like Kitty and Robert moving to the White House, we know that the prospect of any Walker moving far from the family is gonna be a tease.

Justin’s Father
Oh, of course, it’s William, it’s got to be William, right? For it to be anybody other than William would just be too too soapy. But … with all the speculation in the air, we at least have to consider the possibility that there might be a long-ago love interest in Nora’s life with whom we have not yet reckoned. Prognosis: If Justin really was conceived in the Ojai house as Nora said, here’s what I’m wondering: Exactly how old was Tucker Booth at that time, and what was he up to?

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Nora, Sally Field, Treat Williams, Chevy Chase, Peter Coyote, Danny Glove

This is the first in a 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. First up: the Walker matriarch.

Origins: When first we met Nora, she was a well-to-do housewife, estranged from daughter Kitty, overinvolved in the lives of her other children, and adoring of her husband, William, if not always agreeing with him. Then, William died suddenly, leaving behind a secret mistress and some shady business dealings.

Progress: Over the course of a season and a half, Nora reconciled with Kitty; threw food at but finally made peace with William’s mistress, Holly; welcomed William and Holly’s daughter, Rebecca, into the family; dated her contractor, her writing professor, her old high-school boyfriend, and her son-in-law’s campaign advisor; survived a visit from her awful mother; saw her son Justin go back to war once and kick drugs twice; and gave a lot of really disastrous dinner parties.

Current Status: Twelve episodes into Season Two, Nora seems to be on the verge of a serious romance with that campaign advisor, Isaac, but revelations about his dirty political dealings may derail that.

Concerns: When Jon Robin Baitz left the show, he made some comments that suggested ABC wasn’t wild about pursuing storylines involving the older characters, including Nora. She’s been reduced to meddling mom more this season than last, and seems caught in repeated storylines of find-a-boyfriend lose-a-boyfriend that never really establish any depth.

Prognosis: It’s time for Nora to have a real, substantial relationship. We’ve exhausted the usefulness of dating-around storylines, and it’s time to examine the dire discomfort that having a re-mated parent can bring for adult children. They’ll be happy to have Mom distracted, sure, but are they really ready for her to bring a new beau to live in their father’s house? To remarry? To bring a bunch of step-siblings into the mix? After my father’s death, my mother married a widower with three daughters, and they did not exactly welcome her; that’s a decent story complication for Nora, too. I don’t care if it’s Isaac, or another character played by a well-known actor, or some guy who’s completely unknown, but he’s gotta come quick and stick around. A younger man might be a nice twist, come to think of it.

Second Opinions: Colleen’s proposing Tom Everett Scott as Nora’s next boyfriend. Who would you set the Widow Walker up with? Share your Nora thoughts in the comments.

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Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Nora, Sally Field

I know, this sounds like crazy talk. But I’ll tell you, there was a moment there in the “36 Hours” episode, when Nora and Justin were dangling their feet in the pool, where I almost expected that Nora was going to tell her son that William Walker is not his father. The moment passed without revelation, maybe because Nora decided the time wasn’t right, maybe because I’m off my rocker with this. But for the first time, the idea didn’t make me see sharks.

When the notion of Justin’s paternity being other than advertised was first floated as a way to let Justin and Rebecca be a couple, I thought it was unbearably soapy. We’d had no indication that Nora had an affair, and any flip-flopping of fathers would seem to be ditching character in service of plot. But now, I don’t know. I think there may have been enough dots that, if this is where the writers want to go, we could go back and connect them. Rather like Saul’s sexuality storyline, just because something wasn’t intended from the beginning doesn’t mean there couldn’t be some subtext to support it.

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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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Well, isn’t this just the kind of thing Luther Reeves would have a field day with. Turns out Senator McCallister’s communications director and fiancee referred to her mother as a “Gold Star Mother” when in fact she is nothing of the sort.

As it turns out, though, this won’t be the goof that finally gets Kitty fired. In a post on the writers’ blog Bloggers & Sisters, the Brothers & Sisters writers have apologized for writing that line in the episode “An American Family,” and not realizing that a Gold Star Mother is someone whose child “served and died in the line of duty.” So the woman in the fake-out funeral at the beginning might be a Gold Star Mother, but Nora is not.

Writes the writing staff, “We are truly sorry for our gross oversight during the writing of this episode. As ever, the writers and producers of this show are in awe and indebted to those serving our country as well as the people that love them.”

In other writerly news, the second edition of the “Writer’s Room” video interview features Molly Newman and David Marshall Grant talking about their collaboration on “An American Family.” There’s also a new installment of TV Guide’s version of the writers’ blog, although since it came out before Sunday’s episode it’s the sort of lengthy exposition about nothing you’d usually find on “Bloggers & Sisters.”

Maybe the writers should spend a little more time doing research and a little less time in blog activity, hmm?

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Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Gold Star Mothers, An American Family

Some news and notes from all around:

Sally Field took part in an Emmy roundtable for Newsweek, along with fellow nominees America Ferrara, Masi Oka, Julia Louis Dreyfuss, and Jeremy Piven. Not a lot of Brothers & Sisters content, but it is an interesting look at actors at various stages in their careers, and Field manages to hold her own around a chatty table (and make a date with Piven for Emmy night).

Greg Berlanti is the focus of an admiring article in USA Today that focuses on his expertise as a show-runner. The article, by Gary Levin, offers some insight into the shaping of B&S, including this observation from Berlanti: “‘You don’t have obvious stakes. You’re not a cop show, you’re not a lawyer show, you’re not a medical show. There are no turning points in people’s lives, so the season and the arc of the characters has to be designed as setups and payoffs’ based on ‘emotional journeys.’” On the page online with the article is a neat photo of Berlanti surrounded by actors from his various series, including Sally Field and Emily VanCamp, that’s worth checking out for its own self.

As Maryann mentioned in the comments a few days ago, the name of the hourlong Brothers & Sisters special airing September 23 may in fact be “Family Album,” not “Family Portrait,” which would make more sense, since the latter is also the name of an episode (hey, I’m working on that recap). “Family Portrait” is still the title on the B&S site as of this writing, but an ABC press release calls it “Family Album,” and offers this description: “‘Brothers & Sisters: Family Album’ recaps the exposed secrets, hilarious adventures and dramatic stories that made the series a breakout hit last season. Exclusive one-on-one interviews with the star-studded cast, including Sally Field, Rob Lowe and Calista Flockhart, as well as with the series executive producers, reveal the casts’ favorite moments, hilarious outtakes and sneak peeks at what’s in store for America’s most loved TV family in Season Two.”

As commenter Emma pointed out, there are now promotional photos from Season 2 on ABC’s website. Click on the “View Full Caption” to read more about them. I’m not sure what you can click on to make them big enough to actually see, though. Does anybody have a tip for that?

Finally, about that cute photo up there: Terry reported in the comments that Rob Lowe “was once again part of the Best Buddies Bicycling event on Saturday. A Maria Shriver charity event I believe and a good cause. His famiy was with him.” You can read more about the event and Rob’s participation in this press release, and more about Best Buddies on the organization’s site.

Where have you been seeing the Walkers? Share your tips in the comments.

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, media, Sally Field, Rob Lowe

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.

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

Yesterday, I plugged Sally Field’s presence on a list of Entertainment Weekly’s favorite actors. Today, I found her on another list: TV Guide’s roster of who’s getting paid what in TV.

Judging from the list, Sally’s getting robbed: Her $100,000/episode take, while presumably the highest of her castmates, puts her $25,000 below Grey’s Anatomy ensemblers Chandra Wilson and T.R. Knight; at half the take of Grey’s’ Ellen Pompeo and Desperate Housewives’ Eva Longoria; at a third of what Hugh Laurie makes for House; and at merely a fifth of what William Peterson rakes in for CSI.

A few other prime-timers who are making more than Mama Walker, according to the TV Guide article (all amounts per episode): Charlie Sheen, Zach Braff, Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni ($350,000); Kyra Sedgwick ($250,000); Patrick Dempsey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus ($225,000); Jeff Foxworthy ($150,000); and Julian McMahon and Dylan Walsh ($125,000).

On the other hand, to put things into perspective, the article also discloses the pay for the folks that make those actors look good: $30,823/week for a writer, $2,271 for the head makeup artist, $1,804 for the head hairstylist, $2,009 for a costume designer, $1,840 for a scenic artist. Forget all those star salaries and egos — whoever puts together the thing of beauty that is the Walker kitchen deserves a raise.

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Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Sally Field, TV Guide, star salaries

I’ve fallen way behind in reading my issues of Entertainment Weekly, and so only this weekend caught up with the June issue that listed “The EW 100 - The Stars We Love Right Now.”

Coming in at #58? Nora Walker herself, Sally Field.

Here’s what the magazine had to say about the Brothers & Sisters mother, under the title “Modern Matriarch”:

AGE 60 WHY HER She’s the undisputed star of ABC’s Brothers & Sisters and a slam dunk (we hope) for an Emmy nomination next month. Field plays the widowed mother of five who still wrestles with the legacy of her lying, cheating man. GIDGET U. Having started her 40-year-plus career right out of high school, Field never studied acting. ”Part of me looks back now and wishes I could have done theater in college and then lived in New York as an actor. But that was not my row to hoe.” YOU’VE GOT MALES ”The minute I would have a man in my life, I would lose any thought of anything else,” says Field, who is twice divorced and was once romantically linked with Smokey and the Bandit costar Burt Reynolds. ”Luckily, I never lost the burning desire to be a good actor. It always saved my life.” RETURNING TO THE FRAY The two-time Oscar winner had to think about taking the B&S role after her 2002 series The Court was yanked by ABC after three weeks. ”Failure is failure. But to be handled in such an unprofessional way — that burned my boat. But I’m a fan of [B&S creator] Robby Baitz’s playwriting, and I loved what he had to say.”

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Sally Field, Nora Walker, Entertainment Weekly

From TV Guide, Sally Field’s reaction to her Emmy nomination:

“I found out because my 19-year-old son, who is just home from NYU for the summer, came running into my room at 5:40 this morning and said, ‘You were nominated!’ It’s usually the opposite; I’m usually the one waking him up saying, ‘It’s 2 o’clock in the afternoon.’ I was thrilled because I think Rachel Griffiths, who was also nominated [in the supporting category], and I are really representing the show and the writers and the other actors. I came on board because of the writing, because of [executive producer] Robbie [Baitz] and Ken Olin, because of the actors who were on board, like Calista [Flockhart] and Rachel and Ron [Rifkin] and Patty [Wettig] and all of our fabulous boys…. I’m really lucky to be a part of this.”

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Sally Field, Emmy nominations

Kind words about the sisters and their mom, from around the Web:

Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, in an article on “women who make TV worth watching,” sites Sally Field’s performance on Brothers & Sisters: “This enjoyable family drama was supposed to be a comeback vehicle for Calista Flockhart, but Field is one of the main reasons to tune in — she is the most magnetic performer in this sprawling cast. As the head of the Walker family, Field has given a brave, deeply appealing heart to widow Nora Walker, whose journey from doting mom and worried widow to independent woman has been poignant and even hilarious at times.”

Flockhart gets more attention on the Yale set of the new Indiana Jones movie, where she’s hanging out with boyfriend Harrison Ford. According to a report in the New Haven Register, “Ford and girlfriend Calista Flockhart … received positive reviews Wednesday evening as they ventured downtown. Accompanied by a boy, likely Flockhart’s son, they had dinner at Barcelona on Temple Street and then stopped for ice cream at Tasti D-Lite on High Street. ‘He walks into the restaurant, and you watch his movies your whole life and there he was, standing in front of you,’ said Matt Davies, Barcelona’s general manager. ‘They were extremely nice people. They came in, they had a nice, little tapas experience. It was almost just like a normal family came in,’ he said.”

Apparently, we’re lucky we get to pay attention to Rachel Griffiths at all, because according to an item on the Starpulse News Blog, she had vowed never to do TV again after Six Feet Under, and was drawn back in only by the wonderfulness of Brothers & Sisters. She’s quoted as saying: “I really wasn’t going to do anything - you know, the reality of having two young kids…And then I read this script. I really had a strong reaction to how it would feel to be (Sarah), where I was at in my life, where she was. That felt good. Then I went off to the interview, hoping the producers were bastards so that I’d have a valid reason not to do the show. And, of course, they utterly charmed me.”

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths, Calista Flockhart

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.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

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

Her romance with Treat Williams’ contractor character over, Walker matriarch Nora will next be wooed by a writing teacher. And who’s the lucky old pro to nab the part? According to an ABC press release, “Veteran actor Peter Coyote will be a special guest star in several episodes of ABC’s hit freshman drama series, Brothers & Sisters. Coyote will play Mark August, a professor and potential romantic interest to the very recently widowed Nora Walker. He makes his debut in an upcoming episode entitled ‘All in the Family.’” Maybe he can help her write better short stories than the ones she was working on last episode. Or at least, teach her to make a bigger name-change than “Dora.” ‘Cause her kids are totally going to see through it if she writes about her canoodling with a guy named Lark September.

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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I’ve done two celebrity interviews in my life. The first was with Shari Belafonte Harper back during her 15 minutes of fame in the ’80s. The other was with Billy Ray Cyrus during the heyday of “Achy Breaky Heart.” (Yes, I can tell my children now, I met Hannah Montana’s dad!) Neither of those experiences left me feeling particularly confident of my journalistic abilities, or even my powers of speech, and a post on the blog TV Squad today is giving me bad star encounter flashbacks. Joel Keller writes of an interview he did with Sally Field at an ABC party, during which — maybe because of the noise, maybe because she was tired of talking to reporters, maybe because she’s been doing interviews since she was a teenager and has already heard every possible question 100 times — she made it pretty clear that she wished he would shut up and go away. Ah, yes, I remember that feeling. Which is why I now happily blog and try not to have to talk to anybody about anything ever.