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

[CeCe]

{{{{will}}}} I'm here, doll. Always. Even if I don't respond, I'm out here shaking my pompoms, trying my damnedest not to pull a hamstring! ;-)

And you know I adore you, too! MUAH! I know when the B&S folks don't update this blog very often, when they finally do, it looks like we've been obsessing and angsting (yes, it is a word!) constantly, when really, our thoughts have come pouring out over a period of time. Hang in there, y'all. The show will be back before we know it, and we can have NEW, current issues to dwell on and obsess about! :-D

I'm still holding out hope for a scene for Kevin and Scotty that mirrors the one between Justin and whoever that dark haired girl was who was his girlfriend in the first season. Remember the one? You know you do! Where a shirtless Kevin will be eating juicy pieces of melon off Scotty's yummy stomach? Mmmm. Yup. That's my dream.

*shares some of her meds* Hee. I am a hopeless optimist, it is true.

Oh, yes, and I remember why I came in here to comment in the first place! Totally agree with this:

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

Now get 'em back on my teevy!!!!!

[Colleen]

Dan the Man! Is there an Emmy for Best Episode Title? You've got that nailed. And "teaparty" is a rockin' scene.

IA the "God won" line is classic, but it means entirely different things to Kevin and Jason. I think it's hard for Kevin to believe in anything beyond his loving family. Faith adds another dimension to your life, and it's hard to describe, but so worthwhile, like Saul's statement of faith in "Light the Lights." I wish Jason had had a moment like that.

And IA with Will about the retcon in "36 Hours" being overkill. *ducks & covers* I did aid work in Africa for 8 years, with everyone from missionaries to the UN. Crisis in mid-mission totally happens. The second the plane lands? Not so much. Long-distance relationships are hard, balancing love for God with love for man is hard, complicated storylines are more emotionally satisfying. OK then! * moves on*

[Lee]

Scotty and Kevin are great together. They need to stay together. Yes, I am defending Kevin and Scotty, and my name is not Scott.

Will, you have reached new heights in obsessive-compulsive behavior. Please seek professional help immediately. If you won't do that, get over yourself. Your opinion is not as important as you seem to feel it is.

The monitors of this blog would be doing you (and the rest of us) a favor to stop publishing your attention seeking blather.

[Carrie]

It has been so long since this blog was updated I'd almost forgotten about it. I can't wait until B&S is back. It's been a very long winter watching Big Brother 9 so I'm ready for some quality TV again.

[Maria de Albuquerque]

Well said CeCe!
Will makes me hyperventilate with his verbal diarrhoea and with his obsession with that nauseous Reverend, and with all the supposed chemistry between him and Kevin.

(I'm better now, I just put my head in a paper bag.

[JoAnne]

Im here Will, haven't had much to say right now...I still look for what you have to say, that's for sure!

anxiously awaiting the new episodes.

by the way, what do you think is in the future for Justin and Rebecca? Take a break from Kevin's "unlucky in love" situation and let us know.

[Scott]

Please keep both Rebecca and Justin legit Walkers. Anything else would require (in my view) an extremely contrived explanation that would in some fashion rewrite the show's history, and potentially do damage to characters I care about deeply.

I'm all for drama, but not at the expense of character continiuity. We are a loyal audience and we love this show, but many of us (myself included) have watched the show since its inception. One of the qualities of this writing staff I've most admired is their integrity and their refusal to insult the audience's intelligence with cheap twists.

I sincerely hope that doesn't change.

[CeCe]

You know what is mind-numbingly worse than "obsessing over a tv show" or having "verbal diarrhea?" Telling someone to shut up or that their feelings and opinions aren't worthy of your time. None of us can say what this or any other show/blog/community can mean to any of the other of us...or put a cap on how much is enough, or too much to participate.

The scroll key is your friend.

[will]

Colleen,
Love reading your comments. Once this season gets underway again, I know I'm gonna take a lot of guilty pleasure reading what you have to say. I sense a wild streak in you.

To other posters: I was taking specific issue with the writers of "36 Hours" in a previous post (not with David & Molly as the team who wrote the episode, but the writers meetings in general that lead David & Molly to concoct a wimpy "backstory" for Jason, effectively trashing him) where Kevin informs us that he calls & calls Jason in Malaysia ("twice a day") who never reciprocates... & I felt that this demolition of Jason's character was not in sync with the sweet slightly eccentric studmuffin priest we'd come to love in the previous episodes.

Colleen used the word "retcon" to describe this, a word unfamiliar to me. So I looked it up:

retcon: retroactive continuity. The common situation in fiction where a new story "reveals" things about about events in previous stories, usually leaving the "facts" the same (thus preserving continuity) while completely changing their interpretation. For example, revealing that a whole season of "Dallas" was a dream was a retcon.

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

Of course, this made me think of Saul "revealing" to Kevin & his sister (& to us) that he has a secret gay past (and if you believe sites like afterelton, a story that is being put on the back burner.... so maybe it will now be "revealed" to us, retroactively a second time, that Saul HAD a gay past, was considering a gay future, but, in fact, is gay no longer).

JoAnne: A storyline revealing to us that Rebecca is not a Walker would (again) be a sort of double retcon situation, since revealing to us that William had a "secret" past which produced a daughter ("the Other Walker") was retcon in itself in the first place. (I think I have more to comment on this Rebecca/Justin storyline, but will leave that discussion for a future post as this post is getting a little longish).

Lee: You are not the first to suggest I need to "seek professional help immediately."

Sorry to everyone about endless posts on Scotty & Jason & Kevin. I felt a potentially interesting storyline (gay priest navigating love & spirituality) being derailed by a return of the cater-waiter. I'll get over it.

I remember fondly Monica & Alison's blissful dialogue in the season 2 premiere ("Home Front") at the mexican restaurant when Kevin, getting sloshed on margaritas & in a deep funk over Jason's departure, talks to his mother at the bar:

Kevin: You know, this is your fault.

Nora: (sighing, with ennui) What's my fault this time?

Kevin: The "Thornbirds". You made me watch it. Richard Chamberlain and his {mimicking Nora) "cute little white collar! a love that's taboo and irresistible... Ooooohhh!"

It's silly, whackjob hit-and-run bits of dialogue like this (with Matthew's truly inspired line readings) that keep me coming back.

[Scott]

Will,

William Walker being revealed to have a daughter in Season 1 was NOT a retcon. It was fully consistent with the show's history, where we learned way back in 1.06 ("For the Children") that Holly had a daughter.

A true retcon is when a storyline twist effectively rewrites a show's factual history.

[JoAnne]

tsk tsk...lets be nice. Take CeCe's suggestion and use the scroll button when
your not interested in what someone has to say.

[Spike]

Will: I'm seriously scared of you now.

It's one thing when, in the plethora of posts you shower this board with upon every post, you bemoan the fact that the show is not "Kevin Walker and Friends", or complain on every point that pops into your head where the show has not acted like a virtual vending machine to provide you with the exact experience that you wanted.

But did you REALLY do that to Dan, a real person? Really? "I want my silly Dan back!" Paragraphs on aesthetic expectations on how you expect him to act? Wow. That's not only a misguided sense of entitlement, it's just creepy. Please stop.

[will]

MORE FUN WITH RETCONNING

I've been scouting around the internet. Courtesy of wikipedia, here are a few examples of notable television retcons:

* On the primetime soap opera "Dallas". the seventh season finale and the entire eighth season were dismissed at the start of Season 9 as nothing more than a dream of Pamela Ewing. As a result, the death of Bobby Ewing at the end of Season 7 (and its aftermath in Season 8) was erased, a move punctuated by a widely-remembered scene in the final episode of season 8 where Bobby emerges from the shower as if nothing had happened. The spinoff series "Knots Landing", which had incorporated Bobby's death into its storylines, continued as though the death had indeed occurred, and the two series never crossed paths again.

* At the beginning of "Happy Days", Howard and Marion Cunningham have an oldest son Chuck who is never seen after the first season, and Richie and Joanie are later referred to as the couple's only children. This is the origin of the term "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome" as a name sometimes used for this particular form of retcon when a character just disappears.

(My sensibility tends toward the slightly baroque, so I really like this next retcon synopsis of the daytime soap "Passions"):

* On "Passions", Sheldon Crane originally believed she had killed her lover Luis' father, Martin, when she was a child. In 2004, it was revealed that Martin - and Sheridan's supposedly dead mother - were alive. Then it was revealed that Sheridan had stabbed Martin in the back. In 2005, the story was changed to say that Sheridan killed her aunt Rachel. Later, the story was again changed to say that Sheridan's father Alistair had actually been holding Rachel captive until she was presumed dead from falling off of a cliff. Sheridan had barely wounded Rachel the night of the alleged killing. Rachel was, in fact, alive.

One last,

* On "All My Children", Erica Kane had an abortion without the knowledge of her husband Jeff Martin in 1973. Coming 3 mere weeks after the Supreme Court's decision in "Roe v. Wade", it was the first time that a character on an american television soap had a legal abortion. In 2006, it was revealed that the obstetrician who performed the procedure, Greg Madden, had actually performed an experimental fetal transplant. The doctor placed the fetus into his own wife, who gave birth to Erica's biological son, Josh Madden. This retcon has been highly controversial because the procedure in question was all but impossible in 1973, and because this change unravels one of the most significant storylines in soap opera history.

[Colleen]

Bravo, Cliff & Peter! Good job under impossible conditions! Never thought anything could be more fun than Road Trip Sarah. But Karaoke Sarah is! And thanks for "Sometimes, motherhood means sucking it up." As my friend Terri says, it's the perfect book title.

So many classic lines and good character developments. Situationally "Evil" (Wicked?) Stepmother Kitty! Evan! Cliff, I love how well you write for your parents. It's a thrill to have Ken back on my Teevy; I waited a long time for that kiss! Now please write a nice juicy part for your lil sis: I miss sassy Michelle, and I think she and Justin would be great together.

But, as Scotty says, this is not the part where I let you off the hook. Last McBrothers scene: not so much. This is not the time for St. Jason. (That would have been Over There. But I digress.) You had the right idea in "Game Night:" the J-Team loves Rev. Snark, and we want him back in Season 3.

And to continue the Fantasy Baseball draft: Kristin, in the finale, singing "Defying Gravity" (or "For Good"); Gale Harold and Wilson Cruz as recurring biznessmen or politicos; and the return of Noah, Tyler, and Isaac.

[CeCe]

"I felt a potentially interesting storyline (gay priest navigating love & spirituality) being derailed by a return of the cater-waiter."

Now WAIT just a ding dang minute, will! You did NOT just call my boifriend's boifriend a "cater-waiter", did you????? Hee. If I didn't know better, I'd have to conclude that you were pre-judging Scotty. Or assuming he had these automatic external limitations around him simply because of his current career status? Or dare I go one step further and say it, you were *gasp* stereotyping *gasp* him???

Heh. Ok, enough sarcasm.

But I must say, I was surprised to hear that tone from you! So that means, if fate had put you in my path when I was just out of college (and you were interested in dating a girl, and you were interested in a plain country girl like me, and I was younger and cuter and single and childless and ohhh f#%k it ...you get my point -- it's hypothetical ;-)), that you would have passed simply because I was a bank teller trying to find myself???

Schplain yourself, young man!!!!

[CeCe]

And PS...I meant no disrespect to bank tellers (if they are even called that any more)! I'm sure you all know that, but I wanted to clarify just in case. I was merely trying to find an example/analogy to Scotty's cater-waiter position. I took great pride in my job, much like Scotty does, but it was only temporary, while I was on my way to finding out what I really wanted to do with my life.

No, I still haven't figured it out, yet! ;-)

[will]

I'm still obsessed with this idea of disrupting the continuity of television shows (and comic books & sci-fi movies). Don't know if this classifies as a "true" retcon but... (wikipedia has several categories detailing the retcon - or retconesque - experience):

SOAP OPERA RAPID AGING SYNDROME

SORAS or soap opera rapid aging syndrome is a term for when an infant or young child in a soap opera is aged very quickly by the writers.

* Some child characters literally mature faster than others. For example, Billy Abbott on "The Young and the Restless" was born on the show in 1993, yet was 16 years old by 1999, while his niece Colleen Carlton was only 14 years old in 2001, meaning that Billy had changed from being two years younger than his niece to being four years older. Perhaps the character with the biggest impact is Nicholas Newman. He was born at the end of 1988 and was sent off to a "Swiss boaring school" as a preschooler, only to return as a late teens/early 20s grown man a few years later in 1994, and has since been featured as a prominent character. On the other hand, Phillip Chancellor IV, a child born several months prior to Nicholas remained at his real age until he finally aged in 2000.

* On "All My Children" Erica Kane's daughter Kendall Hart was reconned/SORASed at the demand of fans. When Kendall (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) arrived in Pine Valley in 1993, she was a waifish teen, despite the fact that she was the result of Erica's rape at the age of 14, before the show even began in 1970, 23 years earlier. Fans protested, and so the show's producers immediately aged Kendall to "over 21".

* On "Guiding Light", Rick Bauer and Mel Boudreau's daughter Leah was born on-screen in 2004 but at the apparent age of 18 months was sent to boarding school in Switzerland and was brought back on screen 6 months later in 2006 having been aged to 14. This posed a serious problem with fans who not only remember Leah being born on screen 28 months earlier but had to suspend disbelief that Leah is now 10 years older than her "older" half-brother Jude, who was born in 2001 and is only 5 years old on the show.

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

I believe it is time for little Paige to go to Swiss Boarding School. If you write that into the series now, in these last 4 episodes of season two, it will be perfect timing to bring her back at the beginning of season three as a 15 year old with a marijuana habit and a snotty attitude.

[CeCe]

LOL. That recent post of mine makes no sense because the one I posted before it isn't there!!!

Ah well. Nevermind.

ARGH. Ok, now it's up there. But still, nevermind!

When is a new episode going to air so I can talk about something relevant to the show??? Prettyplease???

On Topic: Kevin is hott. Scotty is hot. Justin is hot. Sarah is hot. Rob Lowe is hot (so I guess that makes McPrez hot too?) Rebecca is cute. Tommy is cute. Nora is a doll. Saul is handsome. Kitty and Holly are annoying.

I'm all about the hot. Yep.

[will]

CeCe: "Fate" did not bring Scotty into Kevin's path. A bunch of scheming writers drinking too many overly-caffeinated lattes brought Scotty into Kevin's path.

You sure have a lot of "ifs" in that sentence, CeCe: "...if fate had brought you into my path when I was just out of college (and you were interested in dating a girl and you were interested in a plain country girl like me, and I was younger and cuter and single and childless and ...)" Look, you are CeCe to my Will. Nothing wrong with that. There's no dating going on here unless you morph into a 33 year old Christian Bale. But you are perfect just as you are, CeCe.

Dan, create another column please. I am running out of material to react to. I have serious juices flowing here, I am ready & primed to type, yet I have very little stimulus to direct my coffee-induced inspiration. Give us photos and cast anecdotes. I need grist for my mill. Feed the monster.

[will]

CeCe (my love): "If I didn't know better. I'd have to conclude that you were pre-judging Scotty. Or assuming he had these automatic external limitations around him simply because of his current career status."

CeCe, I have nothing against all you posters who are in Scotty's thrall. For me, however, there remains something irredeemably "little" about Scotty's conception, from character to actor. Scotty appears to have no passion or drive or "bigness" to him. If he were a female, his largest goal would be to get the husband & the house with the white picket fence. And if ambition & ardor (enthusiasm, passion) were traits added to Scotty's character, Luke MacFarlane doesn't appear like he'd be able to play it off.

Look, I realize I am being hard (& probably unfair) on both Scotty & Luke, but IN DREAMS, I want more for Kevin. He deserves a passionate & energetic, extravagantly romantic & rashly unpredictable guy. Kevin Bacon, Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling. All could portray this guy.

Scotty is quirky in a "little" way and becomes noble & condescending whenever Kevin breaks up with him. I just want better. :(

[will]

The ABC comedy-drama "Eli Stone" (a program I've yet to watch; I'll give it a shot tonight) is featuring B&S writer David Marshall Grant in a guest role - in front of the camera this time, not behind.

David has ties with Ken Olin, going back 20 years to "thirtysomething", and "Eli Stone" is co-created by "Brothers & Sisters" writers & producers Greg Berlanti & Marc Guggenheim (Marc, I believe, has a legal background & has written for "The Practice", and "Eli Stone" is set in a law firm). Ken Olin is also an executive producer on ES & directed the pilot.

Which brings me to.... WHY IS THIS DAMNED BLOG BEREFT OF ANY ACTUAL B&S-RELATED INFORMATION? "Brothers and Sisters" ties are shooting out all across the current ABC roster, it's incestuous in an interesting way, you'd think it might occassion an opportunity to tell us fans out here the connections....to help us connect the dots....yet....crickets....nothing.....silent as the lambs.... This blog is running on empty....

Tonight's ES episode is called "Heartbeat". Previous episodes have been entitled "Freedom", "Father Figure". "I Want Your Sex", "One More Try". So, I guess they're all titled after George Michael songs.

And we receive practically zero information about THIS show. Dan, I am bending you over my knee. Inexcusable. By the time episodes begin airing in 2 1/2 weeks, the shooting will have begun winding down, production slows to a season's end & YOU HAVE NOT SHARED WITH US in an appreciable way a "behind-the-scenes" B&S experience.

Which I thought was the point.

[maria de albuquerque]

I just read something about the famous twist: Justin and Rebecca are not brothers so they can have a love affair. I can not believe this is true because it's so ridiculous!
I'm sure the writers are clever enough to build intelligent story lines.
I don't know if incest is a crime in your legal system, in mine is not a crime but is a moral and culture issue, and so it's something completely morally forbidden. I mean, I do not see how it could be possible that Justin and Rebecca could go into a love relationship when they met presuming they were brothers, they were stucked in those boundaries, a dna result would not change the feeling. I hope you understand what I mean, sometimes it's difficult for me to express in english.

[Scott]

Dan, just FYI...Kristin from E! has written about an alleged twist between Justin and Rebecca (I won't disclose it for those who wish to remain unspoiled). As you'll see in her comments section and on the main B&S boards, the alleged twist is almost universally reviled by fans ("jump the shark" has been used a number of times) and is deeply troubling to those of us who love this show and have watched from the start. I respect this group of writers a great deal as they have delivered consistently strong material, but this alleged twist is so lowbrow that I can't even begin to fathom why anyone could think this is a good idea or at all true to the show's sensibility.

I can only hope that we have an inaccurate picture of the storyline and that it develops differently than what's being implied. That's really my only hope at this point.

Sorry for such a downbeat post, but I'm speaking as a devoted fan who is deeply invested in these characters. And I'd be extremely saddened to see a great show like B&S take such a wrong (and potentially irrevocable) turn.

For now, I'm just going to express my concern and hope for the best.

[Nancy]

Dan: "Expect me to stay in touch and feel free to harangue me if I don't."

Harangue, Dan! Someone please post a new blog and update us on what's going on!