Brothers & Sisters (2006 TV series)

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For the 1979 television series of Brothers and Sisters, see Brothers and Sisters (1979 TV series).
Brothers & Sisters
Format Family Drama -
Dramedy
Created by Jon Robin Baitz
Starring Season 2 cast:
Dave Annable
Sally Field
Calista Flockhart
Balthazar Getty
Rachel Griffiths
Rob Lowe
Sarah Jane Morris
Matthew Rhys
Ron Rifkin
Emily VanCamp
Patricia Wettig
Maxwell Perry Cotton
Kerris Lilla Dorsey
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 39 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive
producer(s)		 Jon Robin Baitz, Greg Berlanti, Ken Olin, Mark Perry (s2)
Running time 41 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Picture format 480i (SDTV),
720p (HDTV)
Original run September 24, 2006 – present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Brothers & Sisters is an Emmy Award-winning American dramatic television series which centers around the upper class Walker family and their lives in Los Angeles, California.

It premiered on ABC on September 24, 2006 after Desperate Housewives and airs Sundays. The acting ensemble includes Sally Field, Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths. Sally Field won the 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Nora Walker in the series. Rachel Griffiths was also nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series category.

On February 11, 2008, ABC picked up Brothers & Sisters for the 2008-09 television season. [1]

Contents

[edit] Overview

[edit] Premise

The show is centered around the Walker family, an American family of Irish and Jewish heritages. Some of the family members are involved in the family-owned business running Ojai Food Co., a produce distributor. Most of the action is set in the Greater Los Angeles area. The family home is located in Pasadena, California. The main branches of the Walker family tree included father William (who is deceased) (guest star Tom Skerritt), mother Nora (Sally Field), and their five children. Nora's brother, Saul Holden (Ron Rifkin) helps run the Walker family business and is involved in most of the family's affairs.

The Walker siblings are, in birth order:

[edit] Plot points

The show's narrative launched with the death of William Walker at Kitty's birthday party. His death causes a number of secrets from his life to be revealed - secrets that impact the remainder of his family.

On the business side, Sarah, Tommy, and Saul, who are the most involved people with the family business, learn that William embezzled the company funds. The business revelation pales, however, to two major revelations on the personal front: William had a mistress, actress Holly Harper (Patricia Wettig) that he kept for decades, and the couple had a child, Rebecca (Emily VanCamp). After Tommy finds out that his dad was going to open a winery for Tommy to run, he joins Holly in opening Walker Landing Winery. After that, Tommy no longer worked at Ojai Foods Co. War veteran Justin struggled with drug addiction but eventually recovered and was deployed to Iraq.

The second season focused on relationships with the breakdown of Sarah and Joe's marriage, as Tommy and Julia tried to save theirs, the marriage of Kitty and Robert and the domestic partnership of Kevin and Scotty. Justin returned injured from Iraq and suffered a small relapse into drug use.

Uncle Saul came out and caused the collapse of Ojai Foods after he went ahead with a deal Sarah had vetoed, and the company was rescued by Holly, who now had the most prominent role in her ex-lover's family business. In addition, Rebecca discovered that Holly had lied about her paternity and that she was not a Walker, opening the way to a possible romance with Justin.

[edit] Production notes

The series is from producer Ken Olin (thirtysomething and Alias) and Jon Robin Baitz, one of Broadway's most prominent playwrights (The Substance of Fire). Noted producer Greg Berlanti was also an executive producer and "show-runner" during season one. Berlanti continues to serve on the series as executive producer. Mark B. Perry, (The Wonder Years and One Tree Hill) served as the showrunner for twelve episodes before departing the show in the aftermath of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. The current showrunners are Monica Owusu-Breen and Alison Schapker.

After the series pilot was shot, and the show was picked up by ABC, the series underwent some moderate changes. Most notably, three of the roles were recast:

  • The Walker family had originally been the March family, and the original matriarch of the show was Iva March, who'd been cast with veteran theater actress Betty Buckley. The role was ultimately renamed Nora and cast with Sally Field.
  • The character of Kevin had originally been named Bryan, and had been cast with actor Jonathan LaPaglia. Like the current Kevin character, the Bryan version of the character was also gay, but had been married, and was going through a divorce. The Bryan incarnation of the character also had a child, and he and his ex-wife were going through a custody battle. Bryan's child later reappeared during the first season as the show, where he was recast as "Gabe," Joe's child from his first marriage.
  • The character of Jonathan, the man with whom Kitty was involved as the show began had originally been cast with writer and actor Dan Futterman. They had previously acted alongside each other as lovers in the film The Birdcage. The role was ultimately recast with actor Matthew Settle.

As a result of the changes, the show received some negative press, with some critics associating the retooling efforts with creative trouble. This press attention intensified when Marti Noxon, one of the producers working with Olin and Baitz, was let go. [1]

The show has subsequently received some positive press attention for the depiction of the character of Kevin Walker, and the realistic portrayal of a single gay man on television. The Kevin character has had several love interests, and has kissed his boyfriends on-screen.

  • Cooper's role was recast after the pilot episode.
  • Robert McCallister was the name of a character on a previous Greg Berlanti production, Jack & Bobby, about a boy who grew up to be the President of the United States. As with Brothers & Sisters, he had a wife named Courtney and a son named Jack.

[edit] Current Cast

[edit] Starring

Actor Role Information
Dave Annable Justin Walker Season 1 -
Maxwell Perry Cotton Cooper Whedon Season 2 - (Season 1; recurring)
Kerris Lilla Dorsey Paige Whedon Season 1 -
Sally Field Nora Walker Season 1 -
Calista Flockhart Katherine "Kitty" Walker McCallister Season 1 -
Balthazar Getty Thomas "Tommy" Walker Season 1 -
Rachel Griffiths Sarah Walker Season 1 -
Rob Lowe Robert McCallister Season 2 - (Season 1; recurring)
Luke Macfarlane Scotty Wandell Season 3 - (Season 1-2; recurring)
Sarah Jane Morris Julia Walker Season 1 -
Ron Rifkin Saul Holden Season 1 -
Matthew Rhys Kevin Walker Season 1 -
Emily VanCamp Rebecca Harper Season 1 -
Patricia Wettig Holly Harper Season 1 -

[edit] Recurring

Actor Role Information
Chevy Chase Stan Harris Season 2 -
John Pyper-Ferguson Joseph "Joe" Whedon Season 2 - (Season 1; starring)
Danny Glover Isaac Marshall Season 2 -
Michael Nouri Milo Peterman Season 1 -
Tom Skerritt William Walker Season 1 -
Eric Winter Jason McCallister Season 1 -

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Brothers & Sisters episodes

[edit] DVD releases

Brothers & Sisters - The Complete First Season was released in the United States on September 18, 2007. Special features include an unaired episode, three behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentaries, outtakes and deleted scenes. The DVD was released in Spain on November 20, 2007 (under the name it received on the Spanish Fox channel: Cinco Hermanos - "Five siblings") and in Norway on December 5, 2007. It's scheduled for release in Germany on March 6, 2008 and in the United Kingdom on February 25, 2008.

On April 25, 2008, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment announced a Second Season DVD release. Brothers & Sisters: The Complete Second Season — a five-disc set including all 16 original episodes and exclusive bonus features including bloopers, audio commentaries and deleted scenes — is scheduled for release September 23, 2008.[2]

[edit] Ratings

[edit] USA TV Ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Brothers & Sisters on ABC:

Season Timeslot (EDT) Season Premiere Season Finale TV Season Rank Viewers
(in millions)
1 Sunday 10:00 p.m. September 24, 2006 May 20, 2007 2006-2007 #37 12.2[2]
2 Sunday 10:00 p.m. September 30, 2007 May 11, 2008 2007-2008 #38 11.5

[edit] UK TV Ratings

In the UK, the show fared well at the start for Channel 4 and started on the same viewing figures that Desperate Housewives's third season was for the channel, with around 2.4 million[3]. The show aired in the timeslot previously occupied by Desperate Housewives and was promoted heavily on magazine covers. The series debuted on Channel 4 on June 20, 2007 at 20:30 with an audience of 2.221m, the second episode was screened the same evening at 22:00 with an audience of 1.443m[4] The series then settled down to a regular audience of around 600,000, quite low for a primetime show, and Channel 4 started airing the remainder of the series in double bills from September 2007.[5]

The show will be on E4 for its second season starting on March 30th at 11pm. E4 originally fronted all episodes apart from the first (pilot-Anarchy) usually 3 days later on in the season because of double bills to a week in advance (prior to September 2007 when the show was airing 1 episode per week))

[edit] NZ TV Ratings

The first series debuted in New Zealand on TVNZ's TV2 and received particularly low viewers. This led to TVNZ advertising and promoting the show rather extensively. After the fourth episode, the show gained an average of around 490,000 viewers. The increase in popularity was shown with Brothers and Sisters being TVNZ's first international show to be broadcast free from the tvnz.co.nz/ondemand website, where viewers can stream or download past episodes at any time for free.

[edit] International Broadcasts

[edit] Awards

Australian Film Institute

  • 2007
    1. Nominated - Best international Actress (Rachel Griffiths)

Casting Society of America

  • 2007
    1. Nominated - Best Dramatic Episodic Casting (Gillian O'Neill & Jeanie Bacharach)

BANFF World Television Award

  • 2007
    1. Nominated - Continuing Series (Mistakes Were Made Part 2)

Emmy Awards

  • 2007
    1. Won - Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Sally Field)
    2. Nominated - Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series (Jeanie Bacharach & Gillian O'Neill (casting directors))
    3. Nominated - Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Rachel Griffiths)

GLAAD Media Awards

  • 2007
    1. Won - Outstanding Drama Series

Golden Globe

  • 2008
    1. Nominated - Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series Drama (Sally Field)
    2. Nominated - Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Rachel Griffiths)

People's Choice Awards

  • 2007
    1. Nominated - Favorite New TV Drama

SAG award

  • 2008
    1. Nominated - Best Actress in a Drama Series (Sally Field)

Satellite Awards

  • 2007
    1. Nominated - Best Actress in a Series, Drama (Sally Field)
    2. Nominated - Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Rachel Griffiths)
    3. Nominated - Best Television Series, Drama

Young Artist Awards

  • 2007
    1. Nominated - Best Family Television Series (Drama)

[edit] References

[6]

  1. ^ http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003709560
  2. ^ "Hollywood Reporter: 2006-07 primetime wrap", May 25, 2007. 
  3. ^ BARB
  4. ^ CHANNEL4SALES : AUDIENCE DATA : OVERNIGHTS
  5. ^ CHANNEL4SALES : AUDIENCE DATA : OVERNIGHTS
  6. ^ Joint Press Release for 2nd Seasons of Ugly Betty & Brothers & Sisters, 4th Season of Desperate Housewives TVOnMedia.com - Jeff Hodges (04/28/2008)

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
Brothers & Sisters
Characters:
Nora Walker • Sarah Walker • Kitty Walker • Tommy Walker • Kevin Walker • Justin Walker • Rebecca Harper • Julia Walker • Robert McCallister • Saul Holden • Scotty Wandell • Holly Harper • Joe Whedon • Ryan Walker • Paige Whedon • Cooper Whedon
Episodes · Official Website · Quotes