Brothers & Sisters

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Brothers & Sisters
The cast of "Brothers & Sisters"
Genre	Family Drama
Creator(s)	Jon Robin Baitz
Starring	Dave Annable Sally Field Calista Flockhart Balthazar Getty Rachel Griffiths Matthew Rhys Ron Rifkin Patricia Wettig Emily VanCamp Kerris Lilla Dorsey Sarah Jane Morris John Pyper-Ferguson
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	18 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jon Robin Baitz, Greg Berlanti, Ken Olin, Touchstone
Running time	41 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 720p (HDTV)
Original run	September 24, 2006 – present
Links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Brothers & Sisters is an hour-long American TV drama series about a large mature family and the events that befall them. It premiered on ABC on September 24, 2006 after Desperate Housewives and airs Sundays at 10 P.M. It stars Emmy and Oscar-winning actress Sally Field and Golden Globe-winning and Emmy Award-nominated actresses Calista Flockhart and Rachel Griffiths. The show has also been picked up by Global in Canada, Seven Network in Australia, Channel 4 in the UK and Ireland, TV ONE in New Zealand, RTP2 in Portugal, Fox Channel in Italy and RTL4 in The Netherlands.

On March 21, 2007 it was announced that ABC has renewed Brothers & Sisters for a second season.^[1]

1 Series outline
2 Cast
- 2.1 Main
- 2.2 Recurring
3 Episodes
4 International broadcasts
5 Trivia
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Series outline

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

William Walker (guest star Tom Skerritt) dies unexpectedly at a family birthday celebration. Now his family will be forced to face some new life realities. Kitty's (Calista Flockhart) radio success has led to a TV job offer in Los Angeles, but her New York boyfriend has just proposed. Down to earth Thomas (aka Tommy) (Balthazar Getty) has joined forces with his sister, Sarah (Rachel Griffiths), in an effort to fix the family business, which is in deep financial trouble. Sarah also struggles to balance her business responsibilities with meeting the needs of her husband and children. Attorney Kevin (Matthew Rhys) is gay and would like to find a romantic partner. Justin (Dave Annable), an Afghanistan War veteran, suffers from addictions which keep him from moving forward in his career and love life. These siblings are about to find out that, underneath the idyllic family facade, lie many secrets that threaten to either tear the family apart or bring them closer together.

Set in Los Angeles, this multi-generational American family of Irish-Jewish heritage works to balance their personal lives with the family business and their siblings, while supporting their grieving mother, Nora Walker (Sally Field), an open-minded widow who balances her five grown-up kids while supporting her late husband's business with them. Her brother, Saul Holden (Ron Rifkin) is second-in-command to Nora while running the same business with his sister's family.

It was later revealed that William Walker had an affair with Holly Harper (Patricia Wettig), which produced Rebecca Harper (Emily VanCamp). Holly now has a stake in the company business. Rebecca was introduced into the series soon after this revelation.

Kitty left her talk show job and went to work for a Republican Senator. Rob Lowe has been confirmed as a guest star for the remainder of the first season (and as a regular for the next season [1]). Lowe plays the Republican senator from California running for re-election in the middle of a nasty divorce and vying for Kitty's affection.

Jason Lewis, formerly of Sex and the City and Charmed, is currently guest-starring as a bisexual/bicurious character named Chad Barry, a love interest for Kevin Walker. Kevin's former boyfriend, Scotty Wandell, is played by Luke MacFarlane.

Emily VanCamp, formerly of Everwood, has been hired to take on the role of Rebecca Harper.

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).

The series has been performing solidly in the ratings, averaging 12-14 million viewers per episode.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Main

Actor	Role
Dave Annable	Justin Walker
Kerris Lillia Dorsey	Paige Whedon
Sally Field	Nora Holden Walker
Calista Flockhart	Kitty Walker
Balthazar Getty	Thomas "Tommy" Walker
Rachel Griffiths	Sarah Walker Whedon
Sarah Jane Morris	Julia Walker
John Pyper-Ferguson	Joe Whedon
Matthew Rhys	Kevin Walker
Ron Rifkin	Saul Holden
Patricia Wettig	Holly Harper
Emily VanCamp	Rebecca Harper

[edit] Recurring

Actor	Role
Marika Dominczyk	Tyler Altamirano
Jason Lewis	Chad Barry
Rob Lowe	Robert McCallister
Luke MacFarlane	Scotty Wandell
Tom Skerritt	William Osgood Walker

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Brothers & Sisters episodes

[edit] International broadcasts

Country	TV Network(s)	Series Premiere	Weekly Schedule
Australia	Channel Seven	February 5, 2007	Mondays 9.30pm, repeated Saturdays at 10:30pm
Belgium	Prime	April 2007
Canada	Global Television Network	September 24, 2006	Sundays 7:00pm ET
France	TF1	2007
Germany	Premiere (pay tv), ProSieben (fall 2007)	2007
Ireland	RTÉ Two	2007
Israel	Xtra HOT	April 12, 2007	Thursdays 10:00pm
Italy	Fox Life (satellite tv)	March 14, 2007	Wednesday at 10 pm (right after a fresh episode of Desperate Housewives)
The Netherlands	RTL4	April 4, 2007	Wednesday at 08:30 pm, with Dutch subtitles.
New Zealand	TV One	2007
Philippines	Studio 23	2007
Portugal	RTP2	March 23, 2007	Fridays at 10:30 pm
Singapore	Channel 5	2007
Spain	Cuatro TV, FOX	2007	Thursdays 10.20pm FOX, repeated Fridays 7.20pm & Sundays 6.45pm
Sweden	Kanal5	2007
United Kingdom	Channel 4	2007	Expected to take Desperate Housewives timeslot, Wednesdays at 10pm in May 2007
United States	ABC	September 24, 2006	Sundays 10:00pm ET
Turkey	Mymax	March 20, 2007	Tuesdays 3:00pm, 10:00 pm

[edit] Trivia

This is Sally Field's first successful TV series in more than 35 years, after doing The Flying Nun in 1970.
In the pilot, the character of Kevin was originally named Bryan, and was played by Jonathan LaPaglia. Bryan was going through a divorce and custody battle after coming out of the closet. After the original pilot, Bryan became Kevin, now played by Matthew Rhys, who was established as out since high school and single with no children.
Betty Buckley was originally cast as Iva Walker in the original pilot. When the pilot was reshot, Buckley was replaced with Sally Field, and the character was renamed Nora Walker.
Sally Field and Tom Skerritt also played a married couple in the 1989 movie Steel Magnolias.
The show was nominated for a 2007 People's Choice Award as Best New Drama Series.
In episode 11, "Family Day", the birth order of Nora and William's five children is mentioned as follows; Sarah, Kitty, Tommy, Kevin and Justin. William and Holly had one child, Rebecca, some time after Justin was born.
During the filming of episode 13, "Something Ida This Way Comes," Calista Flockhart got really sick and had to be taken out of two scenes. Those scenes were given to Matthew Rhys who plays her brother, Kevin Walker.
Hilary Duff and Roxy Olin were considered for the role of Rebecca, the 20-year-old byproduct of Holly's affair with Nora's late husband, William. In the end, Emily VanCamp, a former cast member of WB's Everwood, was given the role.
David Marshall Grant, co-writer of several episodes of Brothers & Sisters, played a recurring gay character on thirtysomething, whose 1989 scene talking with another man in bed caused a great deal of controversy and loss of advertising revenues. On Brothers & Sisters, several of Grant's episodes included scenes of men kissing as well as being seen in a bedroom together. In contrast to thirtysomething, there was no apparent backlash from viewers or advertisers.
Calista Flockhart's character Kitty Walker works as Rob Lowe's character Senator McCallister's Communications Director. Rob Lowe played White House Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn on NBC's The West Wing from 1999-2003.
On The WB show Jack and Bobby, the President in question is named also Robert McCallister.
Five months after Ron Rifkin's show, Alias, another Touchstone-produced show, was cancelled, he joined the cast of the show. Rifkin's association with Touchstone Television began in 2001.
Along with Ron Rifkin, the series inherits other key personnel previously associated with Alias, including actors Balthazar Getty and Patricia Wettig, executive producer Ken Olin, and co-executive producer Sarah Caplan. Guest actor Joel Grey also previously appeared on Alias in a fourth-season story arc.