Brothers & Sisters

Well, the agony was over early last night for Sally Field (pictured at right with Jane Krakowski and a dress that was possibly beaded by a kindergarten class) and those who hoped she might take the SAG award for best actress in a drama series. Hers was the second trophy of the night, and the second in a Sopranos sweep of the drama awards — Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cast. It’s the last year that mob will be around to dominate, so I suppose we can’t really begrudge them. Bye, bye, be gone.

I don’t know what they use to decide these things, what episodes get submitted, but … can I just say, that teensy clip they showed when Field’s name was read, who picked that thing? Boy, it was a harsh flashback, wasn’t it? It was from “An Act of Will,” and featured Nora and Justin screaming at each other — checking my Memorable Lines round-up, I think it was this exchange, or one like it:

Nora: Your father loved you more than anything on earth, you little spoiled brat.
Justin: You know what love means in this family? It means you suck. It means nothing you do will be good enough.

Ouch! It seems to me that episode came before the role of Nora was sort of Sally-fied, to become a little softer, feisty but not mean, opinionated but not brutal. Odd for those few bitchy seconds to represent the actress in an award intro.

Odd, too, to have it juxtaposed with the re-run that showed last night, “History Repeating.” From Nora yelling at Justin for being an ungrateful druggie, to Nora yelling at Justin to be a druggie again. I’m mostly glad to have angry old Nora gone, but oh boy, would I have loved to see her let loose on Julia’s SOB dad. Or, at least, food-fight Nora. That guy needs a big old strawberry shortcake in the puss, immediately.

Actually, maybe a food fight could have livened up the SAGs a little, too, as long as they’re giving trophies at a dinner. Looking at some of the losers, it kinda seems like they wouldn’t mind unloading some pasta salad on the person trotting up to the stage. But no, all was well-behaved, with no drunk speeches like you can usually count on at the Golden Globes.

There were a few plugs for a fair resolution to the writer’s strike in acceptance speeches, and in quotes from nominees backstage. Associated Press quotes Sally Field as saying: “It needs to be resolved. I worry about the crews, the writers, the actors. Our country is in a very precarious time right now and we need entertainment.” Well, we sure do, and shouldn’t she worry about us, the poor innocent fans, as well?

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, SAG Awards, History Repeating

Can you bear to watch those Walkers make their mistakes a second time? Will you tune in once again to see Julia ditch her marriage, Justin go back on drugs, Tommy go golfing with his father-in-law and not run him over with a golf cart? Are you eager to revisit Robert’s ex, or return to Kevin and Scotty’s reunion? Can you stand to once again view an episode with almost no Sarah?

“History Repeating” is repeating tonight, and since it was a pretty painful outing for our embattled brothers and sisters, I’m not feeling great eagerness to repeat my history of watching it. On the other hand, a review of the episode’s memorable lines reminds me of this pronouncement by Saul:

I don’t hate golf. I loathe it, I despise it. I would rather spend all eternity at a dinner party seated next to Britney Spears than waste an afternoon lugging clubs around with a bunch of overfed, overprivileged Arnold Palmer wannabes.

and rewatching may be worth it just for that. Ha!

Of course, there’s another big show on tonight, at least for award-show lovers, and that’s the SAG Awards on TBS and TNT from 8-10 p.m. (and again from 11 p.m.-1 a.m.) It’s as close as we may get to the Oscars this year, since the Writer’s Guild has given the SAGs permission to proceed but may picket and shut down the Oscar ceremony (or at least, the glamorous red-carpet celebrities in silly dresses portion of it, which is so much of the fun). I’ve watched the SAGs before, and don’t remember if there have always been red-carpet pre-shows for it, but there certainly are tonight — on E!, the TV Guide Channel, TBS.com, and TNT.tv.

You’ll want to watch the ceremony, of course, to see if Sally Field emerges triumphant in her race for best actress in a drama series. You’ll also want to watch to boo with me when the names are read for the best cast in a drama series award, and our wonderful Walkers are not included. I don’t know about you, but I think I feel the same way about Boston Legal as Saul does about golf.

Then, when the awards are all distributed and the speeches made, you can still switch right over and catch that Brothers & Sisters repeat. If you can handle the pain.

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, History Repeating, SAG awards

No matter how much Brothers & Sisters may get dissed for Best Show or Best Cast recognition by major award outlets, one place the show usually finds some appreciation is at the GLAAD Media Awards.

The awards, given by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, “recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their lives.”

Brothers & Sisters won the Best Drama Series trophy last year in its first season (that’s Matthew Rhys accepting for the show above), and is nominated again this year, along with Degrassi: The Next Generation, Dirty Sexy Money, Greek, and The L Word.

ABC, the network of Brothers & Sisters and Dirty Sexy Money, and also of Best Comedy Series nominees Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty, led all networks in nominations, with nine.

There are 40 Media Awards categories in all, including movies, plays, TV news, and print media. The four criteria used in selecting the nominees are: Fair, Accurate, and Inclusive Representation; Boldness and Originality; Impact; and Overall Quality.

I’d say B&S excels in those areas, for sure. Congratulations to all those involved with the show for finally getting nominated for something other than actress and supporting actress.

On the GLAAD site, you can view video from this year’s nominations and last year’s award ceremony, look at photos from past events, read some facts and figures about the current nominees, and find out about the distribution of this year’s awards, which will take place in four cities over three months.

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, GLAAD, awards

The big awards news this week has been the Golden Globes, or the lack thereof. But two other awards have seen some action, too, with the People’s Choice Award winners being named on Tuesday, and the Writer’s Guild of America award nominations announced today.

So how did Brothers & Sisters fare in this latest round of trophying?

Remember last year, when the series got no awards love?

Kinda like that.

The People’s Choice Awards ceremony got cancelled for the same reason the Golden Globes did, but the winners were announced in a pre-taped special hosted by Queen Latifah which, apparently, nobody watched. Brothers & Sisters was nominated for exactly one award: Favorite Female TV Star, for which the ever-popular Sally Field vied against Jennifer Love Hewitt and the apparently more ever-popular Katherine Heigl, who won and got to use her pre-recorded speech.

At least Brothers & Sisters was represented with a nomination there, though. At the WGA Awards? Not even that. No nomination for Drama Series — those went to Dexter, Friday Night Lights, Mad Men, The Sopranos, and The Wire — and no nomination for Episodic Drama, which honors single episodes from drama shows — the chosen for that honor are “Final Grades” from The Wire, “The Second Coming” from The Sopranos, “The Round File” from The Closer, “Flashes Before Your Eyes” from Lost, “The Hobo Code” from Mad Men, and “The Dark Defender” from Dexter.

Too bad the Writer’s Guild doesn’t have any sort of category that Sally Field could fit in. The show might have at least scored a nomination.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, awards, People’s Choice, Writer’s Guild

The scaled-down Golden Globes that I mentioned on Monday have been scaled down even further, to a mere 9 p.m. press conference. One of the ideas NBC and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association proposed doing but have apparently decided against is a news program on the history of the ceremony and memorable moments.

That doesn’t mean we can’t take our own walk down Golden Globe memory lane, stopping at those years in which the Walkers and their extended circle of family and friends have been nominated for or taken home the treasured statues. It’s a pretty impressive legacy, don’t you think?

1978

• Sally Field nominated as Best Actress, Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, for Smokey and the Bandit

1979

• Chevy Chase nominated as Best Motion Picture Acting Debut, Male, and Best Actor, Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, both for Foul Play

1980

• Sally Field won as Best Actress, Motion Picture Drama, for Norma Rae
• Treat Williams nominated as New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture, Male, for Hair

1982

• Sally Field nominated as Best Actress, Motion Picture Drama, for Absence of Malice
• Treat Williams nominated as Best Actor, Motion Picture Drama, for Prince of the City

1983

• Sally Field nominated as Best Actress, Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, for Kiss Me Goodbye

1984

• Rob Lowe nominated as Best Supporting Actor, TV Series, Miniseries or Movie, for Thursday’s Child

(more…)

I have nothing against Sally Field. I think she does a terrific job as Nora, and has taken that character from one who scared me a little to one I generally enjoy. Nora’s an integral part of the cast and the storylines, and the actress who brings her to life deserves every trophy she can get her hands on.

But it’s not The Nora Walker Show, you know? It’s not Mother of Brothers and Sisters. And so as happy as I am to see Field get award-show recognition, I’m kinda disappointed when she’s the Designated Nominee for the whole darn show. I guess one is better than none, which was the total on most of these tallies last year.

Looking at the newly announced SAG Award nominations, though, it’s hard to understand how actors could single out Field and neglect the rest of the ensemble. That’s what there is for TV shows in SAG-land: Best Actor and Actress awards, and Best Ensemble awards. How is it possible that this cast doesn’t get a nod for ensemble? (For that matter, how is it possible that Boston Legal does? That cheese-fest is nominated in the ensemble category, along with The Sopranos, The Closer, Mad Men, and Grey’s Anatomy.)

If it were Sally Field and a cast of unknowns, maybe I could see it. But Rob Lowe, Calista Flockhart, and Rachel Griffiths aren’t exactly below-the-radar actors. And as much as the individual storylines have created some compelling moments, hands-down the best parts of this show have been the ones where all those siblings are together battling and bickering and snarking and drinking and generally making a family of themselves. What is ensemble work if not that?

I’m partial, it’s true. And I guess not everybody believes that this ensemble is tops; I read an article yesterday about what the writer calls “The Great Brothers & Sisters Casting Botch,” being that none of the cast have chemistry together or are believable as family members. I have to wonder if this guy has really watched the show beyond the first couple of episodes, because I think the actors have done a fabulous job of acting family-like. I buy them completely as siblings. But then, some folks think Boston Legal is the height of acting, so there’s no accounting for taste.

Anyway, best of luck to Sally as she goes up against Glenn Close (Damages), Edie Falco (The Sopranos), Holly Hunter (Saving Grace) and Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) as the Brothers & Sisters standard bearer. One cast member at a time — by Season 10 or 11 we’ll be dominating all these awards, right?

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, awards, Sally Field

Rachel Griffiths didn’t get an Emmy award for Brothers & Sisters this year, just the honor of being nominated. But she’s got another chance to take home a trophy for her portrayal of Sarah now with the Australian Film Institute Awards … excuse me, that would be the L’Oreal Paris Australian Film Awards. A little strange to have a product that mentions the capital of another country naming your country’s awards, but hey, sponsorship money is sponsorship money.

That’s not the only odd thing about these awards, actually. The “International Award for Best Actor” and “International Award for Best Actress” group together performances in both movies and TV shows, with the apparent only criteria being that the product is not native to Australia but the performer is.

So, in the Best Actor category, the nominees are Eric Bana in the movie Lucky You; Julian McMahon in the TV series Nip/Tuck; Hugh Jackman in the movie The Prestige; and Dominic Purcell in the TV series Prison Break. And Griffiths, nominated in the Best Actress category for Brothers & Sisters, competes against Rose Byrne in the TV series Damages; Jacinda Barrett in the movie The Last Kiss; and Toni Collette in the movie Little Miss Sunshine.

Those International awards seem largely intended to garner a little international press, because the rest of the nominees for AFI awards are for movies and TV shows, and performances therein, that you’ve probably never heard of if you don’t life Down Under. But hey, an award’s an award, and an award from your home country sweeter still. Best of luck to Griffiths in bringing this one home.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Rachel Griffiths, Sarah Whedon, Australian Film Institute

All the attention this week has been on Sally Field and her Best Actress Emmy, but the ensemble of Walker Family actors did actually receive a group award as well: A Tubey Award of Questionable Cachet for “Best Ensemble Drunkenness” from Television Without Pity. As Coach Baron writes tribute:

“You’d think that after the perpetually besodden Justin went into rehab, the amount of alcohol consumed on Brothers And Sisters by his family, the Walkers, would have significantly diminished. Not so, as siblings Sarah, Tommy, Kitty, and Kevin, along with Uncle Saul and mom Nora, combined to pick up the slack, thereby ensuring that the vineyards of California wouldn’t have to cut their employees’ pension plans. All these drunken scenes might have tested the actors’ ability to act half-to-full in the bag, but they rose to the challenge, to which we at TWoP answer: Kudosszzzhh!”

Forget the vineyards of California — there’s a vineyard in the family this season! From what I hear of the Season One DVD set, which was released on Monday but hasn’t yet reached my mailbox, there’s an alcohol-swilling montage among the extras. How did they find room for anything else?

_{Photo: ABC.com}

I still owe you all five questions about “Family Portrait,” and we’ll get to that tomorrow. For today, one more post about the Emmys, because it was an exciting night for Brothers & Sisters, you know?

1. Did Sally Field know Fox censored her? Not until she got backstage, according to reports. At which point she said, basically, oh well. Then admitted she probably shouldn’t have said quite the word she did. Then lamented not saying more bad words. Sounding more and more like Nora every minute.

2. Did Sally censor Fox, too? When she was onstage presenting with Patrick Dempsey, it looked like there was supposed to be some cutesy banter between the two of them, and she cut it short. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention, granted, so distracted was I by their mutual adorableness. But it seemed that maybe she just dispensed with the scripted prattle and moved on. To which I say, “Yay!”

3. Am I the only one who wondered, “Who is Sarah Caplan?” I’m clearly displaying an area of Brothers & Sisters ignorance here, and am duly ashamed. But when Sally Field thanked “the mother of the show, the real mother of the show, Sarah Caplan,” I had no idea who she was talking about. According to IMDb, she’s the co-executive producer of the show, and according to Barnes & Noble, she does the DVD audio commentary for the “Matriarchy” episode along with Ken Olin and Balthazar Getty. So I guess I’ll be getting to know her better.

4. Why do people get so outraged about what celebrities say? Personally, I’m not a fan of stars using acceptance speeches as political platforms, although at least Sally Field’s speech was consistent with the character she plays and against wars general and not specific. I also think she could have well made that point without the expletive. But the heat of the complaints I’m seeing in comments around the Web seems all out of proportion to what she actually said, and way more offensive. Why, for example, would a bunch of people who have likely never read this blog before stop by to say hateful things about Sally Field in my comments? Folks, I hate to tell you, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read this blog, either.

5. So, if mothers ruled the world, would there really be no more wars? If those mothers were like Nora Walker, I guess mankind would be too busy getting drunk and squabbling to wage formal warfare. But I don’t know. Mothers can be loving and nurturing, but we can also be fierce. It’ll be peaceful enough until your kid says something that hurts my kid’s feelings, and then, I am bringing my army down on you, sister.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Sally Field, Emmy speech

With all the buzz around Sally Field’s Emmy win and controversial speech, let it also be noted that Rachel Griffiths was at the ceremony, too, and looking fabulous.

At least she was during Fox’s red-carpet show, which is about the only time I saw her. She didn’t present an award (as Sally did, with Patrick Dempsey) or get singled out by Ryan Seacrest (as Sally did, as he awkwardly summed up her career with “from Gidget to the Flying Nun to Brothers & Sisters.“)

And sadly, she didn’t win either. The victor in the Supporting Actress in a Drama Series was Katherine Heigl (that’s hie-gull, and don’t forget it), who would not even have been my choice from nominees for that show.

But on the red carpet, with the evening ahead, she took the interviewer’s questions in stride and seemed ready to have a pretty good time. She didn’t give much for her own prospects of winning, but thought that “Sally’s got a really good chance.” She talked about how excited she was about the show going back on the air, and that there’s growing support for Brothers & Sisters, judging by the Gelson’s scale — “how many women at Gelson’s stop me and say they like the show.” She said that her dress that makes her feel “naughty,” and her huge diamond-crusted bracelet (left) made her feel that she needed her own SWAT team. And she remarked that both she and Sally felt their nominations represent the hard work of the whole ensemble. “A year ago, naysayers said our show would be the first big expensive flop, but we’re still here and our audience is still growing.”

With luck, next year that whole ensemble will be at the Emmys, for acting awards and a Best Drama nod.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Rachel Griffiths, Sally Field, Emmy awards

Here’s the complete text of the speech Sally Field made when accepting the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama Series, as best as my little ears can make it out from that YouTube clip.

How can that be? These wonderful actors!

Okay, I got to really really quick, really really quick. Okay, this is Brothers & Sisters, it’s a big old team, a big old family, and that’s who it belongs to. It belongs to our three fathers of the show, that’s the incredible Ken Olin, the poet and creator Jon Robin Baitz, and our leader and our engine, Greg Berlanti. It belongs to the mother of the show, the real mother of the show, Sarah Caplan. It belongs to our incredible, eclectic, ingenious writers, all of them, our endlessly energetic and supportive crew. To these actors that I get to stand across from, Rachel Griffiths and Calista Flockhart. To my family, that I would be nothing without them.

But it’s the heart of Nora Walker she is a mother, so surely this belongs to all the mothers of the world, may they be seen, may their work be valued and raised. And to, especially the mothers who stand with an open heart and wait, wait for their children to come home from danger, from harm’s way, and from war.

(Audience applauds) Hurry up! Quiet! I have to finish talking! I those of you and to war … oh God, I forgot what I was going to say … um um um um … (unintelligible flusterings) and to war …

I am proud, I am proud to be one of those women and let’s face it, if the mothers ruled the world, there would be no g–d— wars in the first place.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Sally Field, Emmy speech

Woo-hoo! Sally Field won the Lead Actress in a Drama Series Emmy for her performance as Nora Walker on Brothers & Sisters. And she gave one of the more dramatic speeches of the night, which you can view in the YouTube clip above. The point at which Fox cut away from her speech is the point at which she said, “If mothers ruled the world, there would be no g–d— wars in the first place.”

Did Fox censor her for language or politics? Given some of the smarmy jokes they let slip through, it’s pretty awkward that they deleted this. It’s a speech that people will be talking about, though, at a very good time for Brothers & Sisters to be in the news. And Nora would be so proud.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Emmys, Sally Field

It’s hard to imagine a cooler cast than the one on Brothers & Sisters. But though the show was up for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series at last night’s Creative Arts Emmys, it lost to Friday Night Lights.

Next Sunday’s Primetime Emmy ceremony gives the show two more chances to shine, with acting nominations for Sally Field and Rachel Griffiths, as Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in a Drama, respectively. The two are interviewed in this week’s Entertainment Weekly (the one with Dave Annable’s ex-girlfriend on the cover); Brothers & Sisters kicks off the section of the Fall TV Preview devoted to Sundays with a two-page photo and a two-page article.

Asked whether there was any guilt attached to being the only two acting nominees out of a large cast, Griffiths said, “We wish there was an ensemble award, because the show is really in the spirit of that. This is part of a new breed of shows where it’s a bunch of stars. It’s kind of an embarrassment in a way to be singled out. But we just think it’s because we cried the most. Didn’t we agree that was why? I’m not going to cry as much this season. Give someone else the bucket!”

Let’s hope the only tears next week will be happy ones as these two take the trophies.

Photos: ABC.com

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, Rachel Griffiths, Sally Field, Entertainment Weekly

You forgot to go and vote for those Tater Tops Awards on E!, didn’t you? Didn’t you? Well, whether you did or not, Brothers & Sisters got pounded in the voting, limping in at last place or near it in all nominated categories. The sad percentages:

• Breakaway Star: Masi Oka of Heroes won with 46%; Dave Annable got 5%, tied with Becki Newton of Ugly Betty and slightly above Michael Urie of the same show.
• Best Tearjerker: Charlie’s “Greatest Hits” and death on Lost won with 54%; Justin going off to war came in last with 4%.
• Best New Show: Heroes won with 55%; B&S was last with 7%.
• Drama Mama: Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars won with 46%; Sally Field managed 12% for third place, tied with Mary McDonnell of Battlestar Galactica.
• Best Drama Ensemble: Lost was tops with 46%; B&S bottoms with 6%.

Alright, so that’s another awards opportunity under the bridge. Here’s the next one up that we can do something about: The Tubey Awards on the Television Without Pity site. The show is only up in two categories, and you’ll have to register to vote — but you should totally be registered at TWoP anyway, because it’s great resource for information, analysis, and humor. So sign up, sign in, and show some love for your Brothers & Sisters. The categories to look for are Best New Show and Best Cast.

Best of luck to the show this time around.

Brothers and Sisters, ABC, awards, Television Without Pity, E!

_{Photo: ABC.com}

Another set diary has made its appearance on the writers’ blog Bloggers & Sisters, this one featuring photos of Nora’s yard, kitchen and office, plus the interior of Tommy’s house with no furniture, so either the set wasn’t set yet or business at the winery is not going so well.

The blog entry also invites fans to vote in the Tater Tops Awards by Kristen at E! I’ve been ignoring those awards because they just sound silly, but indeed, Brothers & Sisters is up for bushel of ‘em: Breakaway Star (Dave Annable), Best Tearjerker (Justin goes to Iraq), Best New Show, Drama Mama (Sally Field), and Best Drama Ensemble. It’s nice to see so much recognition for the show, but really? Patricia Wettig and Holly were totally stiffed in the “Best Bitch” category. What’s up with that?

Brothers & Sisters, ABC, Bloggers & Sisters, E!, Tater Tops Awards