Brothers & Sisters (2006 TV series)

Brothers & Sisters
Format	Drama
Created by	Jon Robin Baitz Ken Olin
Starring	Dave Annable Sally Field Calista Flockhart Balthazar Getty Rachel Griffiths Matthew Rhys Luke Macfarlane Gilles Marini Ron Rifkin Emily VanCamp Patricia Wettig Maxwell Perry Cotton Kerris Lilla Dorsey John Pyper-Ferguson Sarah Jane Morris Rob Lowe Luke Grimes
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	87 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jon Robin Baitz, Greg Berlanti, Ken Olin, Mark Perry (2007), David Marshall Grant, Monica Owusu-Breen, Alison Schapker and Molly Newman (2008–)
Running time	42/43 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 720p (HDTV), 1080i (HDTV) (7HD)
Original run	September 24, 2006 (2006-09-24) – present
External links
Official website

Brothers & Sisters is an American television drama series that centers on the Walker family and their lives in Pasadena, California.

The series premiered on ABC on September 24, 2006 and airs in a regular Sunday evening timeslot after Desperate Housewives. The cast includes a plethora of award-winning actors, including Academy and Emmy Award winner Sally Field, two-time Golden Globe winner Rachel Griffiths, Golden Globe winner Calista Flockhart, and Emmy and Golden Globe winner Patricia Wettig. Sally Field won the 2007 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Nora Walker. Rachel Griffiths was also nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

The show has been renewed for a fifth season.^[1]

Characters

The Walker family

• Nora Walker, matriarch of the Walker Family and a stay-at-home mother; widow to deceased husband William Walker.
• Sarah Walker, Firstborn child of Nora and William, a working mother, President of Ojai Foods and former CEO of Greenotopia; ex-wife to Joe Whedon.
• Kitty McCallister, second child of Nora and William, one year younger than Sarah,^[2] a writer, mother and former radio host and communications director; married to Robert McCallister.
• Tommy Walker, third child, two years younger than Kitty, and firstborn son of Nora and William, father and former President of Ojai Foods; ex-husband to Julia Walker.
• Kevin Walker, fourth child of Nora and William, two years younger than Tommy, the communications director for Senator McCallister and former corporate lawyer; married to Scotty Wandell.
• Justin Walker, fifth and youngest child of Nora and William, eight years younger than Kevin, medical student, war veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, and former drug addict; Married to Rebecca Harper.

Extended family and friends

• Saul Holden, CFO at Ojai Foods; brother of Nora Walker.
• Scotty Wandell, a head chef; married to Kevin Walker.
• Rebecca Harper, daughter of Holly Harper; currently working at Ojai foods as their advertising executive; married to Justin Walker.
• Holly Harper, is Chairwoman and CEO of Ojai Foods; ex-lover of William Walker; actress.
• Luc Laurent, Sarah's love interest from France; artist.
• Robert McCallister, the United States California Junior Senator; married to Kitty Walker.
• Ryan Lafferty, the Walkers' newly discovered half-brother.
• Joe Whedon, a music teacher. He is the ex-husband of Sarah Walker. He and Sarah have two children, Paige and Cooper.
• Julia Ridge, a teacher; ex-wife to Tommy Walker, with one daughter, Elizabeth (whose twin brother, William, dies shortly after birth).

Recurring characters

• William Walker, deceased, founder and owner of Ojai Foods, was husband to Nora Walker and father to Sarah, Kitty, Tommy, Kevin, and Justin Walker, and Ryan Lafferty. The actor Tom Skerritt has reprised his role in several flashbacks related to events after 9/11/2001 and to the mother of his son, Ryan.
• Jason McCallister, a gay minister and brother of Robert McCallister; former boyfriend of Kevin Walker.
• David Caplan, director/photographer, father of Rebecca Harper.
• Ida Holden, Nora and Saul's mother who favors Saul. She has a difficult relationship with Nora, and after falling ill, she chooses to move into a home rather than live with her daughter.

Cast members

Main cast (in alphabetical order)

Recurring cast

Overview

Premise

The show is centered on 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 Industries d.b.a. Ojai Food Co, a produce distributor and wine producer. 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 (deceased) (Tom Skerritt), mother Nora (Sally Field), and their five grown children – Sarah, Kitty, Tommy, Kevin, and Justin. Nora's brother, Saul Holden (Ron Rifkin) helps run the Walker family business and is involved in most of the family's affairs.

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.

Other main storylines throughout the series include: the personal, political (usually through Robert and Kitty's and later Kevin's careers) and professional lives of Nora and all the brothers and sisters; their relationships with each other; interaction with Rebecca and her mother and William's mistress Holly; and the running of the family business Ojai Industries d.b.a. Ojai Foods – which is mostly looked after by Saul, Sarah and Tommy along with Holly and Rebecca from season 3 onwards.

Seasons

Season 1: 2006–2007

Most of the season focuses on The Walkers dealing with the loss of William Walker and the secrets uncovered by his death, most notably the discovery of Holly Harper, a woman he had an affair with, and her daughter Rebecca. The season also introduces us to the lives of the Walker siblings who must deal with their jobs, turbulent love lives and each other.

Season 2: 2007–2008

The second season focused mainly on the romantic lives of the Walker siblings. As Kitty and Robert start planning their wedding, Kevin runs into Scotty (his lover from the first season) and they become a couple. Sarah must now deal with her divorce and being a single parent while Tommy and Julia go through serious issues after struggling with the loss of one of their twins. Nora begins a new romance with one of Robert's staff and, along with Rebecca, tries to help Justin regain his life after being injured in the war.

Season 3: 2008–2009

After the discovery that she is not, in fact, a Walker, Rebecca must deal with her new place in the family and her new relationship with Justin which could be in trouble with the appearance of Ryan – William's actual secret child. Kitty and Robert faces problems in their marriage as they try to adopt a baby while Kevin and Scotty settle into married life. Nora decides she wants a career of her own after spending most of her life in the back seat and finds a new romance. With Holly becoming a major presence at Ojai Saul and Sarah decide to quit leading to a new business venture for the eldest Walker sibling, while Tommy turns to drastic measures to take back the family business.

Season 4: 2009–2010

The show was renewed for a fourth season on April 23, 2009.^[3] It premiered on September 27, 2009 on ABC.^[4]

This season sees Kevin and Scotty decide to start a family while Kitty finds her family may be torn apart when she receives unexpected news. Sarah finds love with Luc, a man she met in France who traveled to America to be with her, but the dream doesn't seem to last in her real life. Justin is finding it hard to balance his engagement to Rebecca with his medical school studies, while Rebecca has troubles of her own. After not having their wedding Rebecca comes to find out she is now pregnant with Justin's baby but Rebecca ends up having a miscarriage which causes some more strain on their relationship. While her children go through difficult times Nora must try her hardest to get them through their troubles and Ryan causes trouble for the Walkers and Ojai by teaming up with a man from William's past. Will Holly's obsession with the secrets of Ojai ruin her relationship with David?

Season 5: 2010–2011

Brothers & Sisters was renewed for a fifth season on March 5, 2010.^[1] The events of the fifth season premiere will take place one year after the events of the season 4 finale.^[5] The number of episodes have been reduced from 22 to 18.^[6] It was announced that Rebecca (Emily VanCamp) will be leaving the show and will only appear in two or three episodes during the fifth season.^[7] Season Five is due to air on September 26, 2010 according to the ABC official Brothers & Sisters website.

DVD releases

Production notes

The series is from producer Ken Olin (star of thirtysomething and producer of 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. Perry was replaced by Monica Owusu-Breen and Alison Schapker who served as showrunners until they were replaced by David Marshall Grant shortly into season 4.

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 show has subsequently received positive press attention for its depiction of Kevin Walker, who came to be seen as a breakthrough in the depiction of gay men on television: he has had several love interests, has kissed his boyfriends on-screen, and had a commitment ceremony with his partner Scotty in the second season finale — the first such ceremony ever shown on American network television between series regulars rather than minor recurring or guest characters.^[10]
• 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.

The more minor role of Cooper, Sarah and Joe's younger child, was also 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 the Robert McCallister on Brothers & Sisters, the character on Jack & Bobby was a Republican who had a wife named Courtney and a son named Jack.

Brothers & Sisters is produced by Berlanti Television, After Portsmouth, and Touchstone Television (Fall 2006-Spring 2007), which is now ABC Studios (Fall 2007–present).

Location

Brothers & Sisters is filmed in locations in the Greater Los Angeles area including Los Angeles, Santa Monica, South Pasadena, Pasadena and others.

Syndication

Brothers & Sisters is set to begin airing in local syndication, only on weekends, in September 2010.

International Broadcasting

Country	TV network(s)	Notes
Australia	Seven Network
Austria	ORF1
Belgium	Fox Life
Canada	Global TV
France	TF1
Greece	Fox Life
Germany	ProSieben
Germany	Sixx
India	Star World
Ireland	RTÉ One
Israel	HOT 3
Italy	Fox Life
The Netherlands	Fox Life
New Zealand	TV2
Poland	TVP1	Only Season 1.
Poland	Fox Life
Portugal	RTP2 and Fox Life
Russia	Fox Life
South Africa	MNet
Serbia	Fox Life
United Kingdom	More4
Latin America	Universal Channel
Japan	AXN

Ratings

U.S. ratings

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

British ratings

In the UK, 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^[15] The series then settled down to a regular audience of around 600,000, and Channel 4 started airing the remainder of the series in double bills from September 2007.^[16]

The second season was shown on E4 (Channel 4's digital-only channel) starting on March 30, 2008 at 23:00, directly after each first run episode of the fourth season of Desperate Housewives. Season 2 ended on E4 in July 2008, though viewing figures are not published for this season as the show consistently failed to reach the channel's top 10 programmes (suggesting an average viewing audience of less than 300,000). From October 11, 2008, Channel 4 began airing Season 2 in double bills at varying (and irregular) weekend slots.

For Season Three, the show was moved to More4 (another of Channel 4's digital channels). It premiered on January 8, 2009 and had a regular slot of 22:00 on Thursdays (scheduled directly after the first run episode of the fifteenth season of ER). It concluded on June 18, 2010 and was more successful on More4 than it had performed on E4 the year before. First run episodes on More4 averaged ratings of 380,000 (with an average further 85,000 on the 1-hour time-shift channel More4+1) and the show was consistently in More4's top 10 throughout its run.^[17]

The show remained in the same Thursday 22:00 timeslot on More4 for its fourth season beginning on January 21, 2010 (scheduled directly after each first run episode of the first season of The Good Wife). So far, ratings for Season Four have averaged around 345,000 viewers for first run episodes on More4 (with an average further 85,000 viewers on the 1-hour time-shifted viewing on More4+1), and again the show has consistently been in More4's top 10 throughout the season – with three episodes being the highest rated show on More4+1 for their particular weeks.^[17]

References

External links

• Official website
• Brothers & Sisters at the Internet Movie Database
• Brothers & Sisters at TV.com