Brothers & Sisters

Tonight’s the night to watch the Emmys (on Fox at 8 p.m.) and cheer two of Brothers & Sisters’ finest: Sally Field, up for Best Actress as Nora Walker, and Rachel Griffiths, up for Best Supporting Actress as Sarah Whedon. I’ve been reading lots of Emmy round-ups, and Field seems to be taking an awful lot of “should wins,” although everybody seems to have a different idea of who will beat her. From sources around the Web, here are some encouraging words leading up to the big night.

• Entertainment Weekly names Field as its “should win” pick in the actress race: “Her tremulous iron will reinvents her acting.”
• Los Angeles Times columnist Tom O’Neil calls the actress contest a “tossup,” but mentions that “Like Oscar voters, Emmy judges really, really like Sally Field.”
• Rick Kushman of The Sacramento Bee picks Field, “whose mix of force and vulnerability helped change her series from lightweight soap to seriously good drama,” in the actress competition, and Griffiths for supporting actress, because she “made every scene better when she was in them, and she was always so interesting to watch.”
• Kristin at E! also gives Field the “should win,” saying, “We can’t help but root for Sally Field’s mesmerizing performance as Nora Walker. What can I say? We like her, we really like her!”
• USA Today columnist William Keck opines that tears and tragedy are what win awards for actresses in a drama, and outlines Field’s character’s qualifications: “Husband William died. Discovered husband had a mistress and child. Granddaughter diagnosed with diabetes. Another grandchild died at birth. Son Justin was sent off to war. Arrested for drug use when toking up in car with a pal. Discovered daughter’s husband was cheating.”

Meanwhile, from “the Fourth Floor at Stage 6,” Field and Griffiths are the overwhelming favorites. According to the writers’ blog Bloggers & Sisters, “The writers couldn’t be happier with the life these fine actresses have breathed into Nora Walker and Sarah Whedon.”

Blogger Dan also holds out as a good omen the fact that the Brothers & Sisters softball team beat the team from Grey’s Anatomy on Saturday, 8-5. May Griffiths have as much luck fending off the trio of Grey’s supporting actresses she’s pitted against.

I popped by ABC’s Brothers & Sisters site this morning, as I often do, and … wow! The place has been redecorated! Just in time for the new season, too.

I’m not sure I like the look any better, but there are some nifty new features that are definitely keepers. Like:

• Bios of the characters as well as the actors
• An episode index that includes photos, titles and dates, instead of just numbers
• A “next episode” countdown clock
• A message board widget
• A blog widget with links to articles about the show, including, as of this writing, an entry from this blog (the big time!)
• A link to the B&S logo store, instead of the pricey “as seen on” emporium

One thing that’s still there that I wish wasn’t is the automatic start on the videos. If I want to watch a video, I’m real capable of clicking on a “play” button. If I’ve come to the site to read and am listening to music on my computer, I’d rather not have to click a “stop” one all the darn time.

By the way, for those keeping track of this: The link on the site now calls the September 23 special “Family Album,” so apparently we have a winner in the naming contest.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC

Since last night’s showing was the second time around for “Matriarchy,” there’s a recap already in place to help you relive the wonderfulness that is Party Time at the Walkers:

• Recap: 1-23 “Matriarchy”
• “Matriarchy”: Memorable lines
• Five Questions: “Matriarchy”

Follow this contemplation of the Season 1 finale by watching the above YouTube video of the Season 2 preview, and reflecting on the Season 2 challenges ahead for “America’s favorite family.” Like picking a wedding dress. Man! If my experience was any indication, that could be a whole season’s worth of drama right there. Although I bet Kitty fits into a lot more dresses than I did.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Matriarchy, recap, memorable lines

I haven’t seen this ABC fall season preview on TV yet (maybe because what little I’m watching in these waning summer months is on cable), but here it is in its YouTube glory, and it’s nice to see Brothers & Sisters noticeably, if not generously, featured.

They’re sure giving Desperate Housewives the big push, though, aren’t they? A little … desperate, maybe?

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, fall season promo

Tomorrow night, we’ll enjoy raucous fun with the Walker and Jones families as they meet for vicious warfare on the field of party games in the re-run of episode 19, “Game Night.” But today, let’s take a moment to remember the episode that should go there, if we were doing anything as silly as watching the re-runs in order. That one had three parties instead of just the one.

In order to bridge the gap left by the skip over episode 18, “Three Parties,” refresh your memory of those ill-fated soirées by reading the recap, memorable lines and five questions written when it showed the first (and apparently only) time:

• Recap: 1-18 “Three Parties”
• “Three Parties”: Memorable lines
• Five questions: “Three Parties”

Then view the YouTube video above to enjoy what, to me, was far and away the highlight of the episode: That great scene at the end, when Justin and Kevin nurse their injured eye and heart, respectively, then tease Mom when she comes home from her party with the professor wearing the dress Emily Craft “customized” for her. Scrambled eggs and toasted English muffins for all!

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Three Parties

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

Since “Mistakes Were Made Part 2″ has had two showings already this season, you don’t have to wait for a recap here the day after the re-run. The following are already written and available for your recalling enjoyment:

• Recap: 1-09 “Mistakes Were Made Part 2″
• “Mistakes Were Made Part 2″: Memorable Lines
• Five Questions: “Mistakes Were Made Part 2″

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Mistakes Were Made Part 2, recap, quotes

It’s the Fourth of July, Independence Day for those of us in the U.S., and Family Get-Together Day, too. Chances are your family parties aren’t as fun as the ones on Brothers & Sisters, so live your fandom a bit and party like a Walker:

• Drink wine in a closet
• Throw some snark at a sibling
• Kiss someone inappropriate
• Discuss sperm at the dinner table
• Play a cutthroat game of Charades
• Reveal family secrets, loudly
• Accidentally show a sex tape
• Have a food fight

And of course …

• Jump in the pool fully clothed!

How would you party like a Walker?

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Fourth of July, parties

If you’ve accidentally erased old episodes from your DVR, are getting tired of watching the ads in the ABC.com videos, or just can’t wait to get those wacky Walkers under your own modest roof, here’s great news: A DVD set is coming! The not-so-great news is, we have to wait all blasted summer for it. According to an item on the TV Guide site, the Brothers & Sisters Season One set is set to descend on September 18, a week after Grey’s Anatomy Season Three and a week before What About Brian? Seasons One and Two.

The TV Guide item mentions lots of keen special additions for other ABC show sets, but adds B&S as an afterthought. Are we not special? What goodies would you like to see on this Season One set? The original pilot, perhaps? A profile of the Olin family? Digital scans of the Walkers’ cell-phone bills? Share your thoughts in the comments.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

As a follow-up to the recap, here are some memorable lines from the episode “Grapes of Wrath.” Did I miss your favorites? Add them in the comments.

Tommy: They’re not teenagers at a kegger. This is our opening. They’ll behave.

Tommy: There’s a lot of things you can say about my family. Bottom line, when it counts, they show up.

Kitty: You’re sending a strawberry shortcake as your proxy?

Sarah: Between work and the disaster that is my marriage, things couldn’t get any worse, except of course if Joe and I were to spend a cozy weekend at a vineyard where everybody knows that he tongued my 20-year-old half-sister.

Kitty: How are you?
Sarah: I’ve been baking, and I never bake, so you tell me.

Sarah: He keeps wanting to talk about it and I just can’t hear it. And it’s not even about the kiss anymore. Things have been said, I don’t know how to go back, I’m too scared to move forward, it’s like we’re stuck in relationship purgatory, which feels more like relationship hell.

Kitty: I am your bearer of all things pastry.

Kitty: I can’t go to D.C. I have a family obligation.
Robert: To deliver a cake. … Okay, maybe I need to be more obvious than lingerie. I am going back to vote in favor of school vouchers, and I will have plenty of time to discuss the other issues of the day, like the little question you popped.

Kitty: My sister’s marriage is falling apart, and I just don’t think this is the time to be flashing some big rock in her face.
Robert: Flashing some big rock in her face!
Kitty: It’s a figure of speech.
Robert: That’s a little presumptuous, don’t you think? Especially considering you’re the one who asked me.
Kitty: Yes I did.
Robert: You asked me to marry you and now you are completely taking it back.

Kitty: I need you to take the cake.
Kevin: Why, because you have a business trip with your boyfriend?
Kitty: Well, yeah, we’ve got some very important issues to deal with, like work issues.
Kevin: Really, is it about global warming? That’s fantas … oh, no, wrong political party. Are you going to resolve the war in Iraq? That’s fan … oh, again, wrong political party. So, honestly, anything short of that isn’t as important as the opening of our brother’s new business.

Justin: I just got out of rehab, I’m not going to a vineyard alone.

Kevin: What’s mom going to do, call a family meeting and force us all to go?

Nora: It’s going to be hard on Tommy, but he’s dealt with disappointment before.
Sarah: Mom, what am I supposed to do with that?

Justin: Alright, look, I’ll go if you guys go, but I’m not showing up alone with mom and a strawberry shortcake. It seems very …
Kevin: You were just about to say gay.
Justin: No, I wasn’t.
Kevin: Yes, you were.
Justin: No, I wasn’t.
Kevin: You’re such a child.

Sarah: I brought you a cake to deliver, Kitty, I didn’t ask you to start a national movement.

Kitty: I have to go to Washington with the senator. It’s really important.
Nora: Kitty, he’s your boyfriend, his name is Bob, and you see him every day.
Kitty: What happened to following our hearts, mother?
Nora: I was referring to Sarah’s heart, not your heart.

Sarah: I can’t sit around watching you run a bed and breakfast for the girl who ruined my marriage.

(more…)

When I heard rumors of a marriage proposal in Kitty and Robert’s future, I assumed it would be Robert, Senator Take-Charge, the guy who buys shoes through the mail and always knows what fits, who did the proposing and Kitty who did the thinking about it. So last Sunday’s scene in which the dithery one did the decisive thing was a nice twist, though somewhat drowned out by the dramatic implosion going on in the marriage of Kitty’s sister Sarah. Watch the clip again below, and enjoy Calista Flockhart’s relative lack of verbal tic-iness, and the number of different emotions Rob Lowe goes through with only facial expressions and a few brief lines. Very nice. But not so neat, if this clip from next week’s episode is any indication.

More and more people seem to be appreciating Brothers & Sisters, and now People is, too. The celeb magazine has a short item on B&S in its “Picks & Pans” section, and while admitting he initially panned the show due to disdain for the acting styles of Sally Field and Calista Flockhart — “two fusspot actresses who might be expected to flutter at each other like moths in a mirror” — writer Tom Gliatto now admits it’s a pick.

“The show has developed into a solid soap that really catches fire,” he writes. “Special credit goes to two actors who surprise us by mining mature, wry humor from the show’s melodrama. Their names are, yes, Sally Field, facing the messiness of widowhood with sweetness and steel, and Calista Flockhart as her prominent conservative daughter.” Hey, Tom, thanks for noticing!

In a box below that mini-re-review is an even shorter item on Emily VanCamp, who is quoted as saying Rebecca is “turning me into a little bit more of a woman. … I never behave the way she does, and I don’t lead with my sexuality. I’m still that clumsy little girl at heart, and it’s helping me launch into my womanhood. Though I won’t be behaving like her anytime soon.”

Like how? Like kissing your half-brother-in-law and lying about it? Like making the whole thing up? Like being a little too flirty while practicing guitar, but never expecting a smooch? Like what, Rebecca, er, Emily? Sunday’s still days away, and we’re dying to know.

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Brothers & Sisters, ABC, People Magazine, Calista Flockhart, Sally Field, Emily VanCamp

An article in USA Today yesterday looked at ratings dips for erstwhile hits like Lost and ER and Desperate Housewives and wondered if the cause might be long breaks with no new episodes, or whether there was really no dip at all, just time-shifting facilitated by DVRs.

Nielsen is making plans to start recording recording stats, but advertisers may not care — they’re interested in live eyeballs, not ones who blink as the commercials fast-forward by. Still, it made me wonder: Would factoring in record-and-watch-whenever viewers boost the ratings of Brothers & Sisters, which aren’t bad but could be better?

Personally, I watch B&S “live” whenever possible, ’cause I couldn’t stand the suspense of knowing the Walkers were getting in trouble without me. I then generally watch it again on ABC.com to get down dialog highlights.

When do you watch it? Are you sitting with me at 10 p.m. Sunday nights, taking those commercials for the team? Or are you watching on your own schedule, and suspending your suspense? Share your viewing schedule in the comments.

There’s a new post up on the writer’s blog “Bloggers and Sisters,” but since there’s no new episode to dish about, there’s not much scoop to share. Instead, it mentions that shooting is almost over for the year, and with it blog posts on “Bloggers and Sisters.” Not that there’ve been all that many posts anyway, but the commenters won’t have those poor bloggers to kick around much longer.

On the upside, there are backstage photos promised for Thursdays to come, so that’s something to look forward to.

In other news, TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello offers this tiny spoiler for this Sunday’s episode, regarding Rebecca and Joe and what’s up with that: “We’ll find out what really went on between those two on April 29. (Spoilery hint: They’re both guilty, but one of them is guiltier.)” Which one do you think it is? I’m tilting toward Joe.