Home On The Range

My God --

Did you feel that earthquake?  Since last Tuesday's 5.4er, the computers have been down here on Stage 6.   Not only that, but the pre-teutonic tremors made writing blogs impossible for two weeks previous.  Fortunately, things are back to normal, though we're under orders to engage the blogosphere only with extreme caution.

After a month of Disney Lot quiet time, where seldom was heard a discouraging word, the Television Apparatus has roared back to life.  At Brothers & Sisters, this means the production of Episode 307, "Do You Believe In Magic?," written by Sherri Cooper-Landsman & Jennifer Levin, and directed by our very own Supervising Producer, Michael Morris. 

Here's a special and noteworthy fact about this episode: it features the wonderful actress Sonja Sohn, whom some of you may know from her outstanding work on The Wire.

Sonja Sohn, shown here as Detective Shakima Greggs on The Wire, is coming to Brothers & Sisters.  

It's been awfully strange not having everyone around the last month.  It did allow us writers to get a mess of work done on several episodes:

308 - "Going Once... Going Twice."   Written by Brian Studler & Beth Schwartz.  In this ep, which is hitting the table read circuit next week, Ojai Foods holds a 'slave-for-a-day' auction for its employees.  Uncle Saul is purchased by... Paige, who is on hand for Take Your Daughter To Work Day.  Hilarity ensues.

309 - "TBD."  Written by Nancy Won & Jason Wilborn.  This episode centers around the demolition of Nora's house.  Believe it or not, the Walker children are happy to help, until they find a famous teamster buried underneath. 

310 - "TBD."  Written by Monica Owusu-Breen & David Marshall Grant.     The entire Walker clan leaves town for a holiday... and forgets one member.  Can you guess which one?

311 - "TBD."  Written by Jennifer Levin & Molly Newman.  The episode will introduce a fabulous character into the Walkers' world, one that may remind you of Leon Trotsky, if he set socialism aside to become a gentleman farmer in 2008 Los Angeles.

And whose love interest might you be, Comrade?

Aside from all that, it's been business as usual.  Long hours.  Late nights.  Gearing up for softball season. 

Here's a trivia question for you:  what was the name of Ojai Foods' secretary in Season 1?  The first person to post the correct answer in a comment gets to pick one item for the Writers' Kitchen. 

Always your dear friend,
Dan

Comments

[WillC]

The secretary is Gladys. Yay me.

[Scott]

Ojai Foods' secretary in Season 1...is it Gladys from 1.02 ("An Act of Will"?)? Yes, imdb.com is my friend. ;)

Aside from that, the only other person could be Nora when she temporarily took a secretarial position in Family Day.

[Anna]

Sonja Sohn, are you kidding? I freaking love her. Can we keep her and get rid of Rob Lowe?

[will]

Dan! Glad you're back!

How surreal to see a picture of Sonja Sohn during the course of a blog-column. Yes Danny Glover was featured for a few episodes last season, but you must admit, Dan, that the Walker clan's version of southern California tends to be absurdly Xanadu-ish white. After all, "Brothers and Sisters" guest-cast-land is the land of Treat Williams and Marion Ross and Jason Lewis (it's almost like early TV....you're as likely to run into a person of color here as you might on "Leave it to Beaver" or "Gunsmoke"... or "Gidget").

Ok. I google Sonja Sohn and here is the first line from the wikipedia article:

"Sohn is of African and Korean American heritage. Before she was an actress, Sohn was a slam poet, having written lyrics and co-written the script for the film 'Slam'."

I went through a phase after high school where we'd all congregate in coffee houses. Acoustic guitars playing. A poetry slam. Newly painted impressionistic and expressionistic art hanging on the coffee house walls... smoking joints and drinking lattes....(haven't we all gone through this phase?)

In fact, let my little Paige grow up. Let little Paige become a Communist/Socialist teenager quoting Karl Marx and going to poetry slams. Paige can develop an interest in the Jack Kerouac and Bob Dylan Beat Generation! It's time to add a little zest and heft and spice to Paige's character. Break her from the bonds of conventionality!

Yes, I know, you guys have different, QUOTIDIAN plans for my little girl.... you want to give her dolls and make her whine and be made sujugate to her mommy's storylines....

Ojai Foods' secretary? I think I'm stumped. I rememeber Justin dating a Fawn....and an Amber working at Kitty's tv show.... hmmm. I'll sleuthe around for this later (unless someone beats me to it).

Miss you all. Don't be a stranger, Dan. Keep your notes coming....

[Lee]

Good to hear from you again, Dan. Thanks for the epsiode info.

Can you share with us who wrote and directed 303, 304, and 306?

[Andrea]

My guess is either Lyla (my first choice) or Gladys!

[will]

Dan, you're always so freaking agreeable here and...p-p-p-positive! and...forward-looking!...in your ruminative, reflective posts. I really have to learn a lesson here and stop being so damned negative and cynical and hypercritical.

Why wasn't Kevin ever allowed a cool socialist boyfriend? (I'm right in the middle of reading Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine", a book I wholeheartedly recommend, and I am finding a great deal of fault with this system of unfettered capitalism we've created, a system of government where we find ourselves, ironically, ruled by corporations. Why is it that the redistribution of wealth, where the stream of revenue is forever flowing in the direction of large, politician-buying globalist corporations, considered an american value? Exxon-Mobil posted a quarterly profit of 11.7 billion dollars last week. Yes, billion with a "b").

Ok! Enough of my silly little diatribe against big business!

You know, in the Coppola film "Peggy Sue Got Married", an adult Kathleen Turner awakens to find herself back in her senior year of high school again. Being free now to take advantage of this gift to re-live being 17 (with an older woman's wisdom and experience), she has a one-night fling with a sort of freethinking beatnik, Michael Fitzsimmons, who reads Allen Ginsberg's "Howl", and talks about the destructiveness of materialism and conformity, and dresses solemnly in a black turtleneck.

Where was Kevin's brainy-nerdy boyfriend who dresses in black and reads poetry and talks truth to power and practices Zen Buddhism (and who has a lot of raw kinky animal magnetism to boot)?

WHERE WAS KEVIN'S LEON TROTSKY?

Now, Kevin's all hitched up with Scotty and in a dead, pre-determined bourgeois domestic relationship.... all the excitement has seeped out of his strange personal life.... I suppose it is far too early for him, in his quasi-marriage (not legal!), to have a one-night-stand, like Peggy Sue, with a Michael Fitzsimmons...?

Please give Kevin a weird poetry-reading beatnik to enjoy. Give us a freaky little adventure. A temporary break from the sedate charms of Scotty Wandell.

[carissa d]

well nora was executive secretary when william was alive. I don't think that counts, but i thought I'd give it a try anyway...

[Charlie]

Doug!...I think.

[Charlie Blakeley]

Doug. Thats my final answer.

[Sara]

I am assuming someone beat me to this, but the secretary's name was Gladis.

[jim]

gladys?

[cecilia]

do not get rid of rob lowe love him and calista together hope they have their own baby not adopted

[Sylviane]

Thank you for giving us once again something to debate about. It's been too quiet on the B&S front.

[Shida]

Can anybody let me know what season is shown in the USA right now? Is it season 3? I bought Season 1 & 2 DVD and now can't wait for season 3.