Writers Video

Today, for the first time, I joined the ranks of Brothers & Sisters scribes featured in the "Writers Room" -- the neat little interviews ABC online does with the writers of episodes.  Normally the video is posted immediately following the corresponding episode's airdate, but "The Missionary Imposition," the script I co-wrote with Brian Studler, was aired over a month ago, and we didn't have a chance to do one back then.  Why?  Oh, just this little thing called the Writers Strike.  But we did them for 211 and 212 today, so you should be seeing them up in the next few days.

I want to respond to a couple of questions I've been reading over and over on the blog. 

1.  Are we coming back?
Yes, God yes, of course.  As soon as we have a firm airdate, you will have it too. 

2.  Is there a Season 3 in the future?
We have already begun mapping out the long arcs for the Walkers in Season 3, and we've hired three new writers to help us with this:  Jennifer Levin, Nancy Won, and Michael Foley.  In the coming weeks I'm hoping to feature little interview-lets with them.  Or maybe I'll just force them to write personal statements.   I got heft like that.

3.  When is the "McCallister & Me" blog returning?
Okay, no one actually asked that.  But the triumphant return of Leonard Koplitsky will precede our first new episode by roughly three days. 

4.  What happened to the B&S Softball Team?



We had an inspiring run, finishing the regular season at 7-3 and handily defeating Family Guy -- the No. 1 seed who were previously undefeated (10-0) -- in the first round of the playoffs.  Pyper pitched maybe the most dominating game I've seen in high-arc softball, and our offense led us to a 15-2 win.  For my part I was 3-4 with a walk, I think.  Unfortunately, then the holidays came.  We had three weeks away from the diamond -- so did everyone else -- and when we returned to face CSI, we played like we were rehabbing after surgery.  Which is to say, we were atrocious.  The game was so depressing that after Pyper drove me back to Silver Lake from Sherman Oaks, I vomited on my street corner.  We were pretty down for about a week.  But hey, there's always next year...

On an unrelated note, I had the privilege of attending a lip-syncing contest held by Sarah Jane Morris's (Julia Walker) theater group in Echo Park last Thursday.  Emily VanCamp was there, as was Pyper (Joe Whedon) and David Burke (who played Jack Bishop, the "White Chair" from Red, White & Blue in Season One), and of course Sarah Jane, clad in purple tights -- who, with the help of two other brilliant lip-syncing dancers, reinvented Heart's classic "These Dreams"... and very deservingly won 1st prize!   The performance somehow managed to be both totally hilarious and oddly touching.   

A photo:

Okay that's all for now -- talk soon.

Your pal
Dan

Comments

[will]

Dan.
Daniel?

I'm a little disappointed, Dan. I expected more from you than ho-hum water cooler chit-chat after 3 months of striking. Where's all the behind-the-scenes drama stuff telling us what REALLY happened with Robbie Baitz? Where's the gossipy meat & potatoes? Nobody's clamoring to know if there's a Season 3 for freaking sakes! We had this info months ago. This is the type of blog we used to get when there were real creative differences in the past with the show, and all you gave us here were pictures of Matthew & Dave buying tacos off a taco truck - with a humorous capsule underneath - instead of filling us in on the juicy, un-expunged details.

Thanks for supplying the "McCallister & Me" news (*sigh* - I've actually had the unhappy experience of clicking onto this feature in the past. There is a reason nobody's asked about it... but I am getting bitchy here; I'm going to try to tone down this bitchiness).

Dan, your posts used to be more....IRREVERENT in the past....you were silly & OUTRE! Your prose had a breezy looseness.... I could sense sin & flippancy in your posts. Now that you're being systematically assimilated into the writing structure at "Brothers and Sisters", your prose (in the blogs at least) is losing its weird & wacky edge. Where's the sin?? You're becoming more....CORPORATE. Yes, CORPORATE, Dan. As in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", you're turning into a pod person.

Please, I want my old silly, wacky Dan back, with his looney sense of the absurd (btw, "Missionary Imposition" is a beautiful title).

All I can say is you'd all better be glad that I have no creative control over B&S. I have spent the past few weeks re-reading the works of Tennessee Williams at night before going to bed (I am so sick of reality TV....except, unfortunately, "Big Brother 9" which has somehow managed to suck me in). I find I am very attracted to overripe, fetid drama. I would love to inject a couple over-the-top, lush melodramatic storylines onto the Walker family (exactly what Holly needs, by the way, to snap her out of her stupor). I have an attraction to Tennessee's lush perversions (over the past 3 weeks, I've re-read "Streetcar Named Desire", "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" & "Suddenly, Last Summer"). The scenes I can envision between Kevin & sister Sarah!

On a serious note. Can you all please jazz up the dialogue? I don't actually care where you take us. All stories tend to be the same in the end. As long as the dialogue's fast & easy & bitchy (which Kevin & Sarah do so well) & semi-sophisticated & the show keeps moving....

Here's to a smashing last few episodes of an abbreviated season. I hope everything gets richer & funnier & the show finds an appreciative, mainstream audience (without toning down Kevin in the least, if that's possible).

[Linda Safran]

I'm the Lizzie's "other" grandmother. The girls will be shooting a scene on Fri. 3/14. Today (3/13) was their first birthday. Hope they do a good job and that someone can tame their wild hair!

A proud grandma in Baltimore

[Colleen]

Welcome back, Writers; Room! I've missed you. "Missionary Imposition" is a killer title; fav scenes: "tea party," Nora/Isaac, Tommy/Justin, and of course Ranchero!

[Mary]

I heard the news about Eric Winters. I can not believe that he is leaving again.

His character made the show so interesting. He was the reason why I started watching the show. I was happy when his other show got cancelled and now we are back to where we statred with Eric Winters leaving the show.

I am dissapointed that he was only in two episodes and I didn't like the way things ended. This is very sad news, very sad, very sad.

[Scott]

I wish Eric Winter all the luck in his future endeavors.

I greeted the news happily, however, because hopefully this means Kevin/Scotty can settle into something more long-term without the (tedious) threat of a triangle. In my view, it is important that K/S are able to progress on their own terms.

After a season and a half of lovelife drama, I'd really love to see some stability in Kevin's personal life. That's not to say there shouldn't be any obstacles for the couple (this is a drama, after all), but I hope the writers are able to provide some balance and show us the couple in happier/romantic moments too. Kevin's storyline could certainly use a little levity.

Hey Dan, any chance of posting on-set photos as was a regular occurrence earlier this year? I love getting such behind-the-scenes glimpses into the making of the show.

[sylviane]

I was sorry to read that Eric Winter will leave (again). I would have loved to see some more scenes between the McCallister brothers, but, at the same time I'm glad to see him leave, because I didn't want him back as Kevin's love interest.

This makes me hopeful that there is a future for Kevin/Scotty, which I find more important.

I loved the Kevin/Scotty moments, in 2.11, especially the one in Scotty's car. And my compliments for that great dinner table scene with K/J/S. It is absolutely brilliant. The more I see it, the more layers there are to discover and the way it was filmed... just great! (Ofcourse with 3 great actors like that, you can't really miss.) :-)

[will]

MOURNING FOR JASON

Oh, good grief. It's true. Eric is leaving to do another show ("Moonlight", regressing back to playing a damned heterosexual), and I am just resentful. I feel antagonized.

This Scotty-Kevin pairing is for uncreative people with pedestrian imaginations. Kevin is screaming out for better.

Ok. Sense my bitterness. Feel my frustration.

Will's fear: More & more I sense a creeping "flattening out" of plotlines & character. A general trend toward inorganic, whipped-up soapy melodrama and away from the truly challenging & innovative. Ok, yes, I know you guys aren't necessarily trying for "innovation" here; but this show desperately needs to find (& keep) its own distinct funk & STYLE; its own idiosyncracies... (sometimes - like in Cliff & Peter's musical cell phone sequence last season, with Kitty calling Sarah, Sarah calling Kevin, Kevin interrupted by an incoming call from Nora, etc, etc; or in David & Molly's talk-radio sequence in "American Family" with Nora, Kitty & Kevin all throwing snarky one-liners at each other in the car; or Monica & Alison's "Home Front" sequence in the mexican restaurant with Kevin slurring into his margarita, drowning his sorrows over Jason leaving, as the other family members get drunk & gossip - the drama comes amazingly alive; it all works. Dialogue crackles, viewer feels energized & giddy). I sensed this trend IN SPADES with the introduction of Lena. I couldn't imagine who could dream up a plotline where a vapid character goes from one brother to the next, except for the purpose of killing 2 birds with one stone, trying to rehabilitate 2 sagging storylines. I saw "solutions" to lackluster plotlines for Tommy & Saul & Holly which were no solutions at all. It was the equivalent of filling time, keeping us fraudulently "involved".

I mean well. I want what's best for B&S. But it's frustrating to sense a general trend towards mediocrity. Nothing is challenging the status quo except a gay kiss every now & then. I sense a backing away from the particular, from the eccentric & the unique. This show could definately benefit from the PARTICULAR. More sharply delineated characters.

And more fast, bitchy, eccentricly woozy bickering/bantering (the kind that Kitty & Kevin do so well, and Sarah & Kevin).

It's gonna take me awhile to get over Jason. Scotty feels like leftovers.

[Yuki]

Oh, Sarah is cute!!

[JoAnne]

OMG Will....calm down!

[Colleen]

Many happy returns of St. Patrick's Day! In 1895, W. B. Yeats wrote in a letter to the editor of the Dublin Daily Express:

"The creations of a great writer are little more than the moods and passions of his own heart, given surnames and Christian names, and sent to walk the earth."

Now, go to Molly's and have fun! Carson Daly wants 3/17 to become a national holiday, so somebody's gotta do the research. Live music starts at noon. Do what Walkers do best, get inspired, and we'll get our new episodes! Everybody wins!:)

Slainte!

[Lisa]

I also heard the terrible news Eric Winter is leaving again to CBS. He is going to start in the series Moonlight.

Is there no chance for him in Brothers and sisters?
Why is he leaving again?

[will]

I would like everyone to know that I am sluggishly resigning myself to this #2 guy (Luke/Scotty).

Kinda like going from filet mignon (Eric) to a Jumbo Jack, but, whatever. Meat is meat.

[Judy L]

Good Ord, Will, do you not have a life...outside of your bitchiness about something on this show? You are on my last nerve!!!!, a place no one who knows me wants to be.
Proud Mom of one of the writers of one of the episodes. He may just kill me for ths.

[will]

A COGENT OBSERVATION REGARDING THE KEVIN/SCOTTY RELATIONSHIP
(and a brief commentary on all you posters who think that Kevin & Scotty are so gosh dang "cute together" & can't wait for their relationship to "mature")

Here is some dialogue from "36 Hours", courtesy of screenwriters David Marshall Grant & Molly Newman. Kevin & Tommy have been tending to & nursing a detoxing Justin all afternoon, and they spar with each other:

Tommy: I'm not sleeping with Lena. The question is: Are you sleeping with Scotty?

Kevin: I'm in love with someone else. I'm sick of this whole family assuming I'm gonna screw it up. Jason's the one who went to Malaysia, ok? Not me. Yeah, I haven't talked to him about Scotty. You want to know why? I NEVER talk to him. Ever. I call him twice a day. Never calls me back.

Tommy: Isn't he in some remote village somewhere?

Kevin: Come on. If I were that important to him, he'd call back.

---------------------------

First of all, this is a loaded exchange. The writer's room has clearly decided to throw Jason under the bus here. This action, or non-action on Jason's part ("I never talk to him. Ever. I call him twice a day. Never calls me back") seems completely out of character will the decent, generous guy we were introduced to at near the end of season one. Obviously, this is a speech cobbled together to, in part, turn us against Jason. If Kevin is indeed calling him "twice a day", Jason is one of the last people (judging from his previous character) to leave the calls unanswered, to "never call back". He'd at least have the decency to return calls saying he no longer reciprocated Kevin's feelings or - whatever it was he felt. It is, however, an easy way to plant a seed of distrust into the viewer's mind, impugning a forthright character.

Later, in the same episode, Tommy & Kevin are drinking coffee in the Walker kitchen at 4 in the morning:

Kevin: You want to know why I'm letting Scotty stay with me?

Tommy: He's cute?

Kevin: Yeah. And I'm lonely. Dangerous combination.

This comes at a point when Tommy & Kevin had been drawing comparisons between Tommy's situation with Lena & Kevin's situation with Scotty. Tommy thought Lena was "cute" also. Tommy, like Kevin, was "lonely".

For those of you who remember season one, Kevin one-night-standed with Scotty in a rather obvious ploy to get back at Chad. The morning after sleeping with Scotty, he completely disrespected him by talking to Chad on his cell phone within full earshot, either knowing that or not caring if Scotty could hear (Scotty could). Chad was the obsession then. Scotty the (distant) 2nd choice for a manipulative Kevin.

In "36 Hours" we have a replay of this same dynamic.
I'M IN LOVE WITH SOMEBODY ELSE.
I CALL HIM TWICE A DAY. NEVER CALLS ME BACK.
SCOTTY'S CUTE AND I'M LONELY.

Yeah, dangerous combination. And all of you guys & gals cooing about how "cute" they are together and thier "romantic moments". Maybe the writers just assume we scrap all knowledge of previous episodes & come to this new one from scratch. Scotty has played second fiddle & the object of a rebound twice now.

[CeCe]

will said: This Scotty-Kevin pairing is for uncreative people with pedestrian imaginations.

*raises hand* I guess that would be me. Hi Will. CeCe. Nice to meet you. Sorry to disappoint.

No worries. I've been called worse. And I suppose I've also been accused of being easily pleased. Maybe even a bit too willing to suspend my disbelief and just let myself be entertained. *shrugs* Guilty.

But where you have come to view this show as a never-ending string of disappointments, from its writers to its bloggers to its storylines to its characters to its fans, I have come to cherish it for its depth and emotion and interesting characters and gay kisses and bloggers who certainly aren't even required to come here and tell us anything! Are there things I think could be improved? Oh, if I thought long and hard enough, I suppose yes. But there is far more with which I am delighted! I love traveling from low to high several times within an episode. I smile and laugh and cry and empathize and ache and rejoice and scream in frustration and get angry and get turned on and then cry all over again. My wish for you is that you are able to capture some of those feelings back as we move forward. {{will}}

I hadn't heard about Eric Winter until I came in here, and I have to say, I am delighted. First, for him, that he has another series. And second for me, because I love love love Scotty! Yes, Eric is beautiful. Yes, the opening scene this season showing him and Kevin seemingly co-habitating and having a wonderful life, was a tease. But it wasn't necessarily a tease because it was Eric. It was a tease because it depicted a relationship I so want for Kevin! But bottom line is...I have always wanted that relationship to be with Scotty!!! Eric was like a stone (his characterization/acting)...I saw no chemistry between him and Kevin.

Scotty is my dreamboy gay boyfriend (if I was a gay boy). He is sweet and emotional and real and raw and puts it all out there (ok, so maybe he is the gay boy equivalent of me). *makes note to bring this up in therapy* But I digress. What is so wrong with seeing that relationship we thought we saw with Jason grow with someone who has been there for Kevin forever? First season, Kevin wasn't emotionally ready for Scotty. Then Luke got a series and I was devastated, but was hopeful that Kevin would grow the F up as time wore on. Now, the writers are developing this lovely, loving, complicated, growing relationship between Kevin and Scotty, and it is everything I had hoped it would be.

Life is hard. Love is harder. Both can be incredibly painful and joyous -- usually at the same time.

The B&S team has never faltered in showing that dynamic, and I can't WAIT for the season to resume.

[Henry]

So...can you make those technical people hurry up and put the writers' room vids up?

Also, Eric Winter going to Moonlight is great. Sub-standard actor for a sub-standard show. It's a perfect fit.

[Delia]

10x for comming back ...

[Colleen]

Thanks for the Sarah Jane story and photo! Just had the pleasure of meeting her mom. And her brother's in the biz, too! I would love to see Walker and Sarah Jane do an episode together.

[will]

Please, writers, one suggestion:

I know plotlines & storyarcs are an immediate concern for the remainder of this & the beginning of the next season. But I've learned in my re-reading of classic plays (Williams, Albee, Stoppard, John Guare, Wendy Wasserstein, Tony Kushner) that plot is generally subservient to dialogue.

In fact, think of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". There is mostly only the bare bones of a plot there to hang all that fabulous dialogue onto (Act 1 is almost an entire monologue for Maggie the Cat). Same with Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead" is ALL dialogue & no plot. A conceit lifted from Hamlet with as much "action" as Beckett's "Waiting for Godot".

Wendy's "Heidi Chronicles" & Kushner's "Angels in America" do have more plot than those I cited above, but the point is: IT'S the freaking fabulous DIALOGUE that drives these engines. When one thinks of Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet", which is plot-rich, one still, generally, doesn't remeber the actions of the nurse or Tybalt slaying Mercutio or Romeo slaying Tybalt. One remembers the poetry, and sometimes specific actors delivering that poetry (you remember the lush, sweeping gestures - as in Olivier's "Hamlet" - the phrasing & the nuance of delivery).

I see that B&S has some dramatic "surprises" in store for us for the remainder of season 2. But, please, remember that it's the casual, in-character, sometimes incidental, throwaway dialogue that keeps us coming back. It's the dialogue that is clearly crafted, words that crackle & fizz & reverberate. There are a million plotlines that might be arresting, but it's how the character's spoken dialogue is crafted that pumps & jazzes us up & gets our adrenaline rushing.

Remember that. You easily have the most gifted ensemble of actors on television right now.

[Scott]

As I wait patiently for the run of new episodes, I've been rediscovering one of my favorite episodes from Season 1, "Northern Exposure."

It has so much great Walker family interaction, and it marked the first classic Walker dinner table meltdown.

But what I love equally are the episode's quieter moments. Like that heartfelt scene where Nora and Kitty say "goodbye" to the ranch that comprised such a huge part of their lives and their family memories.

And the way Nora wistfully relates to Kitty: "Well [the cabin] is special to me. Justin was conceived here."

And you just knew how much Nora was thinking of her husband William at that moment, who had recently passed.

I'm hoping these new episodes can recapture this kind of quality -- intimate, moving, and above all the sense you're getting a glimpse into the lives of a real family.

[Colleen]

(Writers') Room 211, Where Are You? C'mon out! You promised! And we've been waiting so patiently. *folds hands in lap; puts on "listening ears"*

Seriously videojonesing out here. Just one!
Please! For Easter!

[Daniel]

Thank god for youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z7wDXsAoW8

So so so funny. I don't think I'll ever look at Julia the same.

I think B&S needs more interpretive dance.

[will]

"The Missionary Imposition"

There's a Lena scenes here in the beginning that is indistinguishable from anonymous daytime soap. Justin & Lena kissing in bed. Then they "talk". There is no subtext of any kind. What you see is what you get. I've never been a fan of this type of drama.

Danny Glover is so horribly EARNEST. Don't know why, but I get uncomfortable watching him. Glad to see breezy scenes with Rachel after him, to chase down the taste. This is a fair example of a mediocre script (& I wish I could say otherwise; our friend Dan Silk co-wrote it, but there is no voice or originality & little pizzazz in the damn thing). Interesting to see how certain actors (Rachel, Sally, Matthew) can consistently rise above average material without getting mired in it.

Lena started off sleeping with Tommy. Then Lena moves to brother #2 and is in the midst of an affair with Justin in this episode. There is a scene here where Lena & Tommy are "talking" (more soap) & Lena goes in (clumsily) for a kiss. It's not just that it's so clumsy, it's so freaking PEDESTRIAN. She's an abstaction bouncing from one brother to the next, then trying to go back again. Where are the LARGE THEMES? What is supposed to rock our world? Halfway through & this has been an episode of nothing; of flat writing & perky, peppy music (apparently we're meant to find some of the "banter" charming, as the music keeps chiming in, but the "banter" through all of this is depressing; then the music cues me to laugh & I realize that this episode was written with an impending writer's strike looming... Dan, you should have written this on a complete caffeine buzz, during the course of a weeks's worth of vanilla lattes. What you gave us is as flat as your personality is not).

---------------------------

Am I being partial? The only scene that really took off for me was the 3-way between Jason, Kevin & Scotty over their little soft-crab dinner. The dialogue briefly sparkled (crackled). The 3 were playing honestly, the banter was genuine & nuanced.

I don't think I ask for much. Give us the zing & energy & verve of nuanced, crafted dialogue - give us shading & character & local color in the dialogue - yeah, it all comes down to the dialogue, guys - & give us a subtext; meaning, a meaning beneath the talk. You guys should have kept this 3-way going. I don't see a whole lot of friction or adversity to keep the Kevin-Scotty pairing fresh & interesting for long. Scotty's character tends to get sanctimonious during relationship friction & kills off suggestiveness & color. Joan Crawford did this too in the 1940's, this sanctimoniousness. And it always drags down the material.

[Scott]

Will, please accept that Kevin has chosen Scotty and move on.

You're entitled to feel disappointed, but enough with the treatises lamenting Jason's departure. It's old news.

[will]

CeCe!

Where the freak have you been young lady???

I LOVE reading your comments. You're conversational & jazzy & excessive & I really miss your voice! The only defense of Scotty I've been reading around here lately, aside from Scott, has tended toward the "I like Scotty because he is a warm puppy and he & Kevin are so cute together" variety. You know something in me rebels when I hear that. (P.S. I HAVE been depressive a lot lately... I need you here - & I need JoAnne to post more too - to add variety & to balance me out when I get obsessive. You guys are my prozac... or whatever: Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro...)

---------------------------

CeCe tells us: "I love traveling from low to high several times within an episode. I smile and laugh and cry and empathize and ache and rejoice and scream in frustration and get angry and get turned on and then cry all over again."

Man, I don't know what show you're watching exactly, but that statement indicates that either you need to be on meds or are on too many meds and they are interacting counter-productively.

OK, I'm just razzing you, CeCe. I LOVE your passion. I wish it was me! Love your prose voice. Really glad you're back.

Dan, give us a real column will you, please? Tell us what's going on with YOU. Get personal with us. We don't want Robo-Dan, company man. We love DAN, not the abstract blogger who chucks bits of show info at us, like meat to dogs in a cage. How is life in the writers room? (& don't be too positive; I get nervous.)