Brothers & Sisters

Brothers & Sisters
Format	Family Drama - Dramedy
Created by	Jon Robin Baitz
Starring	see belos
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	73 (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 dramatic television series that centers on 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 current acting ensemble includes Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths, Calista Flockhart, Balthazar Getty, Matthew Rhys, Dave Annable, Ron Rifkin, Rob Lowe, Luke Macfarlane, Emily VanCamp and 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.

Season four of Brothers and Sisters premiered on September 27, 2009.^[1] Series 4 will air on More4 in the UK in mid-Spring 2010.

In Australia Brother and Sisters Series 1 repeats started airing on Seven's new free-to-air digital channel 7Two weekdays at 12pm from Nov. 4, 2009.

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, a working mother, President of Ojai Foods and former CEO of Greenotopia; ex-wife to Joe Whedon.
• Kitty McCallister, a writer, mother and former radio host, talk back presenter and communications director; married to Robert McCallister.
• Tommy Walker, father and Former President of Ojai Foods; ex-husband to Julia Walker.
• Kevin Walker, the communications director for Senator McCallister and former corporate lawyer; married to Scotty Wandell.
• Justin Walker, a current medical student, war veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq and former drug addict; engaged to Rebecca Harper.

Extended family and friends

• Saul Holden, Former CFO at Ojai Foods; brother of Nora Walker.
• Robert McCallister, the United States California Junior Senator; married to Kitty 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; enagaged to Justin Walker.
• Holly Harper, is Chairwoman and CEO of Ojai Foods; ex-lover of William Walker; mother of Rebecca Harper.
• Ryan Lafferty, the Walkers' newly discovered half-brother.

Recurring and former 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.
• Joe Whedon, a music teacher. He is the ex-husband of Sarah Walker. He and Sarah have two children, Paige and Cooper.
• Julia Walker, a teacher; ex-wife to Tommy Walker, with one daughter, Elizabeth (whose twin brother, William, died shortly after birth).
• Jason McCallister, a gay minister and brother of Robert McCallister; former boyfriend of Kevin Walker.
• David Caplan, director/photographer, father of Rebecca Harper.

Cast members

Main cast

Recurring cast

Note: Currently, series stars Sally Field (Nora Walker), Calista Flockhart (Kitty Walker) and Matthew Rhys (Kevin Walker) are the only three relatives of the family to appear in every episode of the series. Rachel Griffiths (Sarah Walker) appears in almost all the episodes with the exception of 1, Ep. 3.15 (Lost & Found). Dave Annable (Justin Walker) also appears in almost all the episodes, with the exception of 2. Ron Rifkin (Saul Holden) also appears in all the episodes, with the exception of 5, in various seasons. Rob Lowe (Robert McCallister) never missed a single episode, from the moment he joined the cast midway throughout Season 1, as a recurring character, before becoming a series regular, with the exception of 1 episode. Balthazar Getty (Tommy Walker) missed 9 episodes, including 5 episodes at the beginning of the 2009-10 season, and Patricia Wettig (Holly Harper) missed 9 episodes as well.

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. 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 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.

Season 2 (2007–2008)

Season 3 (2008–2009)

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]

DVD releases

Production notes

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008)

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 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.^[8]
• 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 filmed in several cities in the Greater Los Angeles area including Los Angeles, Santa Monica, South Pasadena, Pasadena, and more.

Ratings

American ratings

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

British 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^[12]. The show aired in the timeslot previously occupied by Desperate Housewives and was promoted heavily on magazine covers^{[citation needed]}. 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^[13] 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.^[14]

The second season was shown on E4 starting on March 30, 2008 at 11 pm, after the first run episode of Desperate Housewives fourth season. Season 2 ended on E4 in July 2008. From October 11, 2008, Channel 4 looked set to air Season 2 in a varying afternoon slot on Saturdays around 4.30 pm, and did this for a couple of weeks using double bills but afterwards began airing episodes, still in double bills, in a un-specified time slot after midnight on Sunday night. Season Three was screened on More4 starting on January 8, 2009 and has a regular slot of 10 pm on Thursdays after ER. Leading up to Season Three, More4 began airing repeats of Season Two on weekday afternoons in double bills from 3 pm-5 pm.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Brothers & Sisters

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