Brothers and Sisters: Bloggers and Sisters

A Superstitious Show...

Yesterday, Sunday the 24th of September 2006, was Judgment Day.  The verdict came in, and it was… good.

At the viewing party last night, it was tense amongst the writers.  Not only did we want the show to do well so we can keep our jobs, but we believed in the quality of what we made, and wanted to share it with anyone who is willing to sit through all the commercials.

Thank you everyone for watching.  Especially the viewers who have the Nielsen boxes attached to their televisions – we LOVE you.

You see, those of us employed in television live and die by the numbers released by Nielsen every week.  And it's a cutthroat world out there.  Had the numbers been low, ABC would've cut off the water and power in the office, and we'd have to update this blog from a local library.  This probably sounds like a joke.  It isn't.  Fortunately, sixteen million viewers tuned in – a strong beginning, and one that kept us from having to burden our library cards with overdue fees.

Why did we do well, you may ask.  Some would say it was because it was the greatest hour of television ever produced in the history of history.  However those people would be wrong.  It's a fantastic show, but the secret of our success – which we will share with you in this exclusive, behind the scenes look at television writing – is our superstitions.

For example, we decided to avoid ordering our lunch from Mo's restaurant.  It's not that the food is bad (in fact, Greg Berlanti quite enjoys their Santa Fe Chicken Caesar).  It's just that it's cursed.  Why?  Berlanti won't tell.  Not that he needs a reason – superstitions never need a reason.

Last week, the worst of the worst superstitions reared their heads.  Things like: Craig Wright not eating anything but dark chocolate.  The executive producers rooting against the show's softball team (our wins have coincided with bad weeks for the show).  The fact that no one was willing to say out loud that we were going to be a hit.

The universe is watching.  Any slip up would spell doom for our numbers.  And then we might have to resort to voodoo.

Tidbits from the week:
On Friday, we all bet on what the ratings would be.  We're waiting for the results, but it looks like Molly Newman is going to win.  She plans on splitting the winnings up amongst all the assistants… There was a conjunctivitis (pink eye) scare… Dave, our PA, just didn't understand why the candles on his birthday cake wouldn't go out… Trip, Robbie's three legged dog stopped by.  Nothing inspires like watching him run around… We have nothing good to eat in our kitchen…  I had a dirty Martini last night that was a little bit too dirty for my tastes… Current show progress: we're breaking 109, going to script soon.

How Came Up with This Title

Originally we were going to call this blog "A Troubled Show." After all, as anyone can find out if they google our show, we've recast and reshot the pilot, have undergone some behind the scenes changes, and, for the most part, haven't been advertised heavily.  So, of course, we are being called a troubled show.  Maybe that's fair - maybe we are.

But we don't see it that way.  We see this as a show we believe in, that we worked hard on, that we argued about and laughed about.  One that has evolved from the pilot that the network bought, to the episode you will see on Sunday night. 

So, why didn't we call this blog "A Troubled Show?"  Because "Bloggers and Sisters" is much, much lamer.  I dare you to disagree.  It's not even a pun.  It's a really, really bad play on words.  And, if we're a troubled show... well, our blog might as well be as lame as it possibly could.  But, in the spirit of full disclosure, here are some other tentative titles that were floated around:

We Can't Write
Walkers and Talkers
Broadway to LA: The Robbie Baitz Story
Family Feuuuuud (see, sounds like Family Food)
Twirling Our Mustaches
Cuba and Baseball: Where Unused Story Ideas Go to Die
The Epic Battle of Starbucks vs. Coffee Bean
Where's the Creamy Peanut Butter?
Dave, Our PA, Hates Us

And then, Cliff came up with the name.  We all rejected it almost immediately.  Which is why it's now the title.

So, what is this blog going to be?  Who knows.  Mostly, we hope to recount funny ancedotes from the writers' room, bring up ideas that were scrapped, and talk about anything that we think is funny, sad or funny/sad.  We'll sometimes talk about the episodes, sometimes about the production of them, sometimes about the lack of anything good to eat in our kitchen.

Of course, this blog's run, like the show in general, relies on the Nielsen numbers we receive Monday morning.  Then, depending on how well (or poorly!) we did, we'll know just how troubled we ACTUALLY are...