Brothers and Sisters: Bloggers and Sisters

This Sunday-- Call Your Mom

A dramatic re-enactment of the fact that almost everybody is on vacation now.

Greetings, brothers and sisters who enjoy viewing "Brothers & Sisters." This is Elysse, aka Last Assistant Standing on the writers' floor (okay, Todd is still around, but I am going to seize the title for my own bloggish purposes).

Cole has fled the state. Spoiler alert: He's headed back to his home state of Texas. Yeehaw! (He'll be back before you can miss him too terribly.)

Beth, Dan and Marc are not here right now because they are trapped in a photograph. See if you can figure out how to free them:

Do you recognize Marc from the two-hour special? He's quite the chameleon.

Here are some ideas for how you can spend your Sunday nights until the next new episode airs, while keeping the Walkers in your hearts:

-You can stage a "family dinner" for your friends and/or family, in the style of the Walkers. Mid dinner, do something that nobody expected. Perhaps introduce a half sibling to your unsuspecting guests (you can "pull a Rebecca" and invite a non-biological half-sibling, or go "full Ryan" and find a real one).

-You can have a competitive game night with your neighbors (that's season one retro-Walker).

-You can cavort with nature-- maybe a romantic walk through Griffith Park a la Justin and Rebecca, or a surfing trip like we just saw in "Spring Broken."

-You can read a book-- or even write a book! If you make it about your family, tread lightly. (Remember when the Walkers found out about Kitty's book? Meow!)

-You can try to cook an exotic or experimental dish, just like one of our 5 L.A. Chefs on the Rise might do on his or her night off.

Any other suggestions?

This might not be a good idea (Remember that time I asked everybody to be friends? Remember how nobody really liked that idea?), but since there's no new episode to comment on this week, maybe we can use this as a chance to discuss which character we most identify with, or which character's house we'd most like to live in... you know, the type of thing we might do if we were all sitting around in a circle. I think I'm a Kevin because I'm a good-natured neurotic (among other things), and I'm a big fan of Holly's house (and its decor) in Silver Lake. How about you?

xoxo,
Elysse

This Sunday: Episode 320 -- “Missing"

Written by Jason Wilborn & Nancy Won
Directed by Michael Schultz

Nora prepares for the Center's opening gala. Upon learning that Tommy has disappeared, the family pulls together to try to help clear him of the charges that he seems to be running from. Kitty questions Robert’s commitment to family, and finds a sympathetic ear in her new friend at the park. With Rebecca’s help, Ryan searches for evidence that William might have been involved in his mother’s death.

Between episodes 320 and 321, there will be about a month of repeats. Sorry! But when the new episodes air in April, get ready for this…

Ep321: S3X
Written by Cliff Olin & David Marshall Grant
Directed by Laura Innes
What will the return of Chad Barry (Jason Lewis) mean for Kevin and Scotty?

Ep322: “Julia”
Written by Molly Newman & Michael Foley
Directed by Michael Morris
How much is that pony in the window?

Ep323: “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”
Written by Peter Calloway & Daniel Silk
Directed by Laura Innes
You say tomato, I say… fiasco?

Ep324: “Mexico”
Written by Alison Schapker & Monica Owusu-Breen
Directed by Ken Olin
Is it humanly possible for the Walker family to dine in silence?

Okay, enough teasing for now. Go, go off into the world, and mull about these cryptic questions.

xoxo

Cole  & Elysse

Interview with Brian Studler- Episode 319 "Spring Broken"

In honor of last night's episode, Cole sat down with Brian Studler, who co-wrote the episode with Sherri Cooper-Landsman. Brian is the newest member of the writing staff, but he handled the interview like an old pro.

Cole: So this is your first episode as a staff writer. What has the transition been like for you?

Brian: It's been really exciting. I did the two freelance episodes, but because I'm now a staff writer my focus is entirely on writing. I don't have my other duties to run around with. I wound up being on set a lot more during this episode because I didn't have to stay at my desk. [Laughs at Cole, who is chained to the desk this very moment] And also, I co-wrote this episode with Sherri Cooper--

Cole: Yeah, how was it, teaming up with Sherri?

Brian: Well, Coop I love. She's the greatest. And she was like, you know, eight and a half months pregnant by the end, I think, of our writing. So by the time we finished she went on maternity leave, and I wound up covering the episode on set the entire time. So that was really cool.

Cole: So you liked covering set?

Brian: Yeah, it was great. I've gotten to spend a little bit of time on set in the past, but not much, so it was really good. I got to know our crew a lot better, who are amazing, absolutely amazing and really fun. I'm still a little nervous around some of the actors, but I think doing this was really helpful. I got used to talking to them, and they figured out who I was. I actually could not have asked for a better experience as far as that stuff goes.

Cole: Whose idea was it to send the brothers to Baja? That seems like a Brian Studler idea...

Brian: I don't remember whose idea it was initially. It might have actually been our co-showrunner Monica's idea. I will say that while we were in the writers' room, Monica, for whatever reason, always referred to it as "The Baja." We actually kept wanting to do that in the script, like have one of the brothers refer to it only as "The Baja" and the others pick on him. But we didn't have room for that. We knew we kind of wanted to get the brothers away from everybody else, that it needed to be a sort of self-contained little thing, and we wound up getting really really lucky, I have to say. Our brilliant production designer, Denny Dugally, did a great job creating the cantina and hotel that we had in mind.

The brothers have a beachside heart to heart

Cole: So for the folks at home, we didn't actually go to “The Baja?”

Brian: We did not actually go to “The Baja.” All of the interiors were shot here, on the Disney lot, on a brilliant set. And then we had a glorious day down at the beach in Malibu--or actually just north of Malibu. And it was really funny-- it was this one week sandwiched right in between a couple really cold rainy weeks, could not be more beautiful weather. It was 85 degrees, perfect-- not windy, not cold. We were all out till, you know, 11:30 at night on the beach, just in shirt sleeves, you know, with 80 extras in bathing suits... also I should point out, there's 80 extras in bathing suits.

Cole: Yeah, I hear the crew was pretty happy about that.

Brian: They thanked me profusely.

Cole: I heard you got slipped a few gifts.

Brian: There was some gifting. It was fantastic. We actually had a really good time. Everybody was really nice. I thought casting did a great job on this episode, with all the various people that they meet in Baja.

Cole: Yeah, I was going to say, this episode has more guest spots than usual. What was it like for you working with a lot of new actors, and not just the main cast?

Brian: So nice. Everybody was really cool. There was a gaggle of girls that the brothers meet down in Baja-- they were all just lovely, they were so sweet, and really fun.

Desiree Hall as Tessa, one of the episode's Spring Breakers

Cole: Now, did you attend the auditions for any of these guest spots?  In particular, I’m wondering about the Shot Babe and Shot Hottie.

Brian: [Laughs] Shot babe and shot hottie? That whole incident with the Shot Babe and the Shot Hottie, that's all based on my own personal experience in Tijuana, years ago. We don't talk about it. But uh, yeah.

Cole: [laughs]

Brian: I thought both those actors were just spectacular. They were about as perfect as you could ask for. The other thing that was amazingly cool about this episode for me was that Richard Coad directed it, who is our first AD. I've known Richard for many many years from working on Alias and just love him. He's the greatest guy. So having this be his first Brothers & Sisters episode to diect-- to be on the set with Richard as the director-- that helped make me a lot more comfortable just because I know him so well. It was just cool and really fun. The cast and the crew all love him so much, and so it was a really great atmosphere on set this episode. Even more than normal.

Cole: In previous interviews you've expressed how stressful table reads can be.

Brian: Nah, that wasn't me.

Cole: How was the table read for this episode?

Brian: It was really fun. Uh... I was nervous... but it was actually kind of great.

Cole: I remember the room was crowded, with all the dayplayers.  The cast kept looking around the room whenever the dayplayers spoke. It was like, for once the regular cast had a separate show to just sit back and watch. 

Brian: Yeah, it was funny. I think we had a higher turnout than normal of all these little guest roles in this one.

Cole: Normally it's just one of us shouting out a line.

Brian: Yeah, it wasn't like you and Marc Halsey playing parts. It was the actual actors. It was pretty fun, though--because of that, I think. It's also always funny when a bunch of guest actors come in and see our sort of dysfunctional family at table reads. We've all gotten very comfortable with each other.

Cole: [Laughs] They're like, 'What is going on?"

Brian: [Laughs] "This isn't even a TV show. This is some kind of weird soap opera in real life." No, I actually thought that table read was really fun. The actors did a great job of finding the fun parts in it and making it funnier than it might have been otherwise.

Spring Breakers kept the episode (and table read) very entertaining

Cole: Cool. I wanted to shift gears to talk about another storylines. This episode is also about Kitty being a new mother. What were you guys going for with this storyline, and was there any collaboration with Calista Flockhart?

Brian: With all our actors-- and Calista is one in particular who's really good about this-- we always get their input and their feedback from the first drafts, and then sort of help tailor it. We're also getting notes from the studio and network, but Calista had a lot to say about it in a really good way, actually.

Cole: Being a mom herself.

Brian: Yeah, and we had Sherri Cooper, obviously a mother and at that point imminent mother-to-be. We also got a lot of help from Co-Executive Producer Jennifer Levin, another mom. I should give an enormous shout-out to Jennifer. She was very much a part of writing this episode. Actually, most of our writing staff have kids, so we had a lot experience to draw from.

Cole: So when you guys were breaking the story, what were you trying to capture with the Kitty storyline?

Brian: Well, certainly that exhaustion of new motherhood, but then coupled with the fact that her husband had just had a heart attack and there's clearly other strains on their marriage. We really just tried to dramatize Kitty's frame of mind and the state of her own life and marriage. This is also the episode where she finally meets her mysterious half-brother. What we're really trying to do at this point, in episode 319, is tee up for the end of the season. Not to give anything away, but there's a lot of things that we have to put in place for what is going to happen.

Cole: So, was there a particular storyline that took the most work and the most thinking about?

Brian: Well... obviously the Baja story takes up a lot of real estate of the script and is very important in terms of what happens with Tommy and the brothers. Although, we had a really clear idea of what that story was, from the beginning. I mean, the mechanics of it needed to be worked out, and a lot of that story is scenes that are more light-hearted and fun, you know, when they're drunk in Mexico. But really the Kitty story, that whole Kitty arc, was the thing that probably took the most time and the most finessing. I also like it on our show when we get those pairings you don't always see, and I like the scene with Sarah and McCallister when she goes up to the ranch to talk with him. I was very happy to work on that scene. That was really cool. You don't always see those two together.

Cole: Cool. And was there a favorite scene to film?

Brian: [Laughs] Hmm. I should be careful what I say. There were some things in Mexico that were really great to film... Yeah, any scene with the donkey in it. I love the donkey. He was cool.

Cole: Who was responsible for the donkey?

Brian: I don't know that this is 100 percent true, but I hear that in looking at pictures of spring break in Mexico and things, Richard Coad actually saw a donkey with kegs strapped to it the way that our donkey had, and decided that he needed that to realize his vision.

Cole: So that was based in reality.

Brian: Completely based in reality. There are donkeys with kegs. But yeah, he was a very sweet donkey. We liked him very much. He tried to go swimming, at one point.

Cole: I also heard, didn't Michael Morris almost hit the donkey with his car or something?

Brian: That's quite possible. He's British. They often are on the wrong side of the road.

Cole: [Laughs] So do you think you're getting a reputation for being the funny guy on staff? Your last episode was also one of the more lighthearted episodes...

Brian: [Long pause] No. [Both laugh.]

Cole: Well, that's easy enough, then.

Brian: I don't-- it's far too soon for me to have a reputation yet. I'll work on that.

Cole: We'll see what happens next year.

Brian: Next year it's all tear-jerkers, all the time.

Cole: [Laughs] Well, we look forward to it. Thanks again for sitting down with us.

Brian: Thank you, Cole Fowler.

This Sunday: Episode 319 – “Spring Broken"

Written by Sherri Cooper-Landsman & Brian Studler
Directed by Richard Coad

Kevin and Justin take Tommy on a boys' get-away to Baja.  However, Kevin has hidden agenda: he wants Tommy to consider taking a plea bargain.  Kitty finds herself very overwhelmed with being a new mom and also caring for Robert.  Ryan spends some more time with Nora, Sarah, and Kitty, but it is Rebecca with whom he shares a big secret.  Nora, not wanting to be overbearing, attempts a new mothering style, but will her children actually appreciate this?

Next week we will interview Brian Studler, one of the writers of Sunday's episode.

This Sunday: Episode 318 – “Taking Sides”

Written by Michael Foley & Beth Schwartz
Directed by Michael Morris

The effects of Tommy’s embezzlement charges ripple through the Walker family.  But meanwhile, an unknowing Nora plans a dinner for Ryan to meet his half-siblings. Robert comes home from the hospital and must learn to accept the limitations of his recovery.  Despite attempts to stay neutral, Justin and Rebecca find themselves caught in the middle of a family feud.

- - - - - - - - - -

Our Two Hour Special aired Sunday night and got the best ratings since the season premiere.  It’s airing again on Saturday for those of you that missed it.  These days most of us TiVo it or watch online.  But then again, there’s people like my mom who wouldn’t know how to stream an episode if her life depended on it.  Hear that Mom?  Tune in this Saturday at 9/8c.  I know you missed the first 15 minutes.

We’re all very happy with how the Two Hour turned out.  We even had a viewing party for the writing staff, cast, and crew to celebrate everyone’s hard work.  Hopefully, you guys are as excited as we are for the stories we have coming down the pipeline.

In other news. today was the writing staff’s last day of work.  We have finished the script for our finale, written by our showrunners Alison Schapker & Monica Owusu-Breen (who also happen to be my amazing bosses).  The finale is currently shooting on location.

The writers may be packing up for the season, but many of the assistants will still be around.  Many blog postings ahead.

Until next time,
Cole

Interview with Todd Stolarski- Episodes 316 & 317 "Troubled Waters"

In anticipation of the premiere of "Troubled Waters," Elysse interviewed executive producer Ken Olin's assistant, Todd Stolarski. Since Ken directed and acted in this episode, Todd was in the middle of the action. He took a moment out of his always-hectic schedule (he was actually putting the finishing touches on a fabulous cast & crew screening party) to share his experiences. We waited until after the episode aired to post it, because there are a few spoilers (beware!).

Elysse: Can you walk us through a typical day of work for you and Ken?

Todd: Yeah, certainly. You know, it all depends really what we’re doing, what we need to focus on. With Ken being not only an on-set director but an executive producer as well, his duties include a lot of things in pre-production, like actually breaking story, along with Alison [Schapker] and Monica [Owusu-Breen]—the showrunners—and casting inquiries and things of that nature. Also we have a lot of responsibility in post-production—we have to oversee the editing of all the episodes. So Ken really is involved in every aspect of the production.

Elysse: What’s your favorite aspect of production?

Todd: You know, because I originally started out on set [as the set PA], I have a personal affinity towards that. I have an established relationship with all of the people down there. So being removed from that for the past couple of years in the office with Ken, it’s always very welcoming to go back and spend time with those people. [I really appreciate every aspect of the production itself, but it’s always nice getting back to those folks.] The actual physical production of things on set is why I got involved in filmmaking in the first place, and so I’ve always been drawn to that and excited by it the most, but knowing that post-production and editorial was the thing that I knew least about, I’m really excited to always sit in on that and with the writing process and everything that’s done in prep—that’s what I’m most interested in, so I’m drawn to that. So I’m really enamored with every aspect of the production process itself, and very blessed and fortunate to be working alongside Ken, because he exposes me to every element.

Elysse: How much crazier were your work days during the two-hour than they usually are, with Ken wearing so many hats, literally [Ken has a lot of cool hats] and figuratively?

Todd: Well, because this was such a large episode for us, and an important one, there was—I mean, not to say that there isn’t an attention to detail that is extraordinarily intense all the time—but particularly on this episode, we felt the need to go above and beyond what we’ve ever done before. To really go out there, to step outside of ourselves and see if we could surprise ourselves, that kind of thing. You know, we always strive to turn out the best possible product and nurture our characters and material as much as we can, but this was really an instance where, it’s like, “We gotta swing for the fences,” and close down any outside influences as much as possible and just really be the best that we can be. The reason why it was—I wouldn’t say more difficult, it was more arduous—is because we realistically shot a feature film in less than half the amount of time one would shoot a low-budget independent picture. Like, normally you would do thirty to fifty days on an Indie flick that would end up being the length of what we shot. We did our shoot in… twenty-one days. The days weren’t long, either. It’s not like we did sixteen, eighteen hour days. I think we only did one thirteen hour day in that time period. But it was… it was a hell of a shoot, it really was. It was very exciting.

Elysse: You guys used a lot of our own stage areas, as different locations than we usually have on this show. I was just wondering, how many locations went into the “one” hospital that we saw?

Todd: Well we saw one hospital, and we shot a couple of days over at an abandoned hospital in Altadena, and did some of the stuff that we needed to do that was kind of the wider shots, the longer lens stuff—stuff where you’d be seeing several areas of the hospital at once. And for everything smaller that we could do in tighter coverage we built on stage and did it here. So realistically, between using our location, the places that our production designer, Denny Dugally, built on stage, and the actual lot itself—our line producer, Sarah Caplan, is very very creative about using many areas around the Disney lot, to transform it into different areas. I’d venture to say that she’s transformed the exact same area from a Pasadena hospital to an industrial weapons plant in Moscow…

Elysse: …for Alias.

Todd: For Alias. Right, of course. Not for Brothers & Sisters—that’s not a spoiler for next season or anything. But yeah, she is extraordinarily creative with locations. And so—I’d say that we used a good four different areas, between Altadena, and the lot, and the stages, to actually create the hospital. You’d be pretty surprised if you saw what we actually used, in order to create what you actually see.

Elysse: You even used our lobby, downstairs.

Todd: We did, we used the lobby… that’s right, you know, there’s so many things that you even forget about. When you’re watching the show itself, you’re into the diagesis [showing the fictional world], and so you’re not really—you know, like, "Oh, that’s a person with a camera and that’s a guy with a gurney." It’s like, "No, that’s a paramedic and that guy just had a heart attack!" And so… it’s easy to lose sight of the operationalization of things, and how you technically achieve them. And… yeah, we have some true experts on our side, and we’re very fortunate to have their experience.

Elysse: Indeed we are. Speaking of compelling moments, what was, for you, the most compelling moment—on set—of the two hour?

Todd: In the shooting of the two hour… you know, we here at Brothers & Sisters, we don’t typically have explosions and car chases and big fights and things like that. Knowing that we were going to be doing some things that were out of our wheelhouse, essentially, at Brothers & Sisters, made it more exciting. You know, a lot of the people on this show did Alias previously, and so they miss those car chases and explosions and things of that nature, and stunts, and so—I think the most compelling thing, for myself, during the filming of the actual show itself, was probably… Rob [Lowe]’s heart attack. It was very interesting to see an actor of his stature prepare for a scene like that, how excited he was to…almost die, you know? And the way that we technically pulled it off, we used some equipment that we normally do not, here on Brothers & Sisters. We used 35mm cameras to film—

Elysse: --usually we use 16mm?

Todd: We normally use 35mm, but for this we used a Steadicam, We’re normally on dollies to stabilize the image itself, but we used a Steadicam piece of equipment—which we normally do not—in order to be fluid with our movement and what we saw. And so the ability to use more experimental equipment, I find—as like a technological junkie—very intriguing. That was great. Realistically, for me it’s extraordinarily difficult to pick a scene or a moment or anything, but the scene with Kevin and Scotty when Kevin comes back from trying to quell the story of McCallister’s heart attack from leaking to the press and he sees Scotty for the first time and when she says, “I feel like it’s been [years] since I’ve seen you,” that scene got me more than anything else. It was beautifully acted and very touching. But the heart attack scene, that was the most fun to shoot, because, well—I mean, we got to have Rob Lowe vomit and fall, and it was exciting. There were cars flying around, and it felt like we were shooting, you know—Alias starring Rob Lowe. So, getting out of our typical comfort zone was exciting. Any time you get to do something that you normally do not, everybody starts getting really excited. On the crew—it’s not just like myself or Ken or the actors—it’s the director of photography, the grips, makeup—everybody’s really excited.

Elysse: Awesome. What is your favorite part of working on set vs. working upstairs in the office?

Todd: I think that I find about set that is so intriguing, is that you have so many different people at the top of their respective crafts coming together to accomplish one common goal, and that is the shot. Whatever that shot is—if it’s a man holding a banana and performing a monologue about, you know, how much he loves fruit, then you need a prop for the banana, you need makeup on the guy, you need lighting, you know—there are so many different things that you need, and seeing how all of these elements converge to essentially create homeostasis on screen is beautiful. And so I appreciate how these artists at the top of their game can all perform under so much stress and pressure, all for the greater good. I really like the team aspect of that.

Elysse: As Ken’s assistant, what other episodes have you really enjoyed that you’ve been on set for?

Todd: The two-hour, definitely the two-hour itself has been my favorite thus far. I mean, it’s the most recent and we all had a feeling that we were doing something big while we were doing it. And it was special, and so that was really enjoyable. But the season finale last year was really good as well. And even though it was under very chaotic circumstances, given the writers’ strike and our lack of actually having writers on set and things of that nature… it was pretty incredible to shoot. Although with every episode of Brothers & Sisters that gets shot, there’s always a handful of memorable moments that I take from each shoot. Never a dull moment, there really isn’t. We all enjoy ourselves a whole helluvalot when Ken is down on set directing, and I’m very fortunate to be in his pocket whenever he is.

Elysse: [Laughs] Excellent.

Todd: He’s got big pockets.

Elysse: For people who aren’t familiar, how was it having newborn babies on the set? Will you explain what it means to have newborn babies on set, first of all?

Todd: Yeah, that’s the thing. It’s always been said that the two things you never want to do in filmmaking are work with children and animals, just because there are so many restrictions, and instructing them and directing them can be trying at times. We went through and screened so many different babies. Finding a half-Korean, half-black, half-white… so, 150%, total, that’s three halves…finding a baby that was so multiracial, but so specifically multiracial, obviously proved difficult. There aren’t too many partially Korean, partially African American, partially white babies in Los Angeles, a city of thirteen million people, believe it or not. And so what we did is we tried to screen twins. What you do is you have to get twins because babies have such small working windows. Newborns can only work for twenty minutes at a time. It needs to be 110 degrees on set because they try to be as warm as possible not to disrupt them and make them cry. You have to be silent. So everybody’s just silently standing there in the dark, and sweating their ass off, and they bring in Jasmine and then they bring in Jasmeena ten minutes later once Jasmine starts crying. So normally it’s a very tedious process, you only have four hours to do the time, they only work for twenty minutes at a time during those four hours, and they sleep and poop for the other time, and that’s it. But we had the most amazing newborns throughout this entire shoot. We had a couple different sets of twins that we used, and we’d rotate between, you know, Jasmine and Jasmeena, kind of thing. And our babies almost seemed as if they were acting. We had some young thespians in the group, and fortunately working with actresses who are mothers—Rachel Griffiths, Calista Flockhart, Sally Field—they have experience in holding children and properly caring for them. And Rob Lowe, for that matter, too, who has children. So the natal care on set was amplified by our actors’ experience with children. It made it so much easier, as to where it could have been an absolute disaster. But we got great stuff from the babies. There’s one point where Evan’s waving—we couldn’t have asked for anything more out of them. The crying was nonexistent for the most part.

Elysse: I’ve always wondered, how old in real life is a baby that plays a newborn?

Todd: That’s the thing. You can’t—you know, you have a baby that just popped out the womb on TV— you would have that in real life but you can’t have it on TV. We were using newborns that were between six and eight weeks... some people get bit by the bug earlier than others. We’re happy that they do what they do, because we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them.

Elysse: That’s true. Okay, so, this is a question about Todd Stolarski, the actor… Fans may recognize you as the handsome young man with the camera phone in Episode 201, "Home Front," where Kitty and Nora fight in the bridal shop. Have you thought about doing any further acting? Were you Method? [Todd laughs] Did people notice—what was the response?

Todd: That’s great. Okay. Well, first of all, I do not envision myself doing any other acting in the future. I feel as if any time I spend in front of a camera is a complete waste of time for all those other people around. I have a face for radio, Elysse. I don’t have a face for television. But I can truly say that it was an enjoyable experience, as much as I was reluctant to do it. Ken was directing the episode—the season premiere of season two—and he had made the remark that all the actors that they brought in to do the role looked like serial killers, and so…

Elysse: [Laughs] You’re not a serial killer.

Todd: So it’s good to know that I don’t have the appearance of a serial killer… on paper, that’s good. So I was quickly thrown into wardrobe and just tossed onto set. I had no choice. I totally gave myself a backstory, because the role that I played in the episode…before we actually shot it, it was a much larger role. It was a character who had lines: he had like four scenes, his name was Leonard Kaplitsky, it was a big thing. In early drafts of the scripts it was sizeable. Yet it dwindled down and dwindled down until you saw me doing the actual role. I did give him a whole backstory because myself and one of the other writers’ assistants, Dan Silk—we wrote the character blog for this character himself, for Leonard Koplitsky.


Todd Stolarski as Leonard Koplitsky.

Elysse: Was that the McCallister and Me…?

Todd: That was the McCallister and Me character blog that ran in the early portion of season two, before the strike, before we were unable to do anything anymore. They shut it down because you can’t create any material during the strike. So we did give a backstory, and we actually gave him, you know, a front story too. We went with it after that. Yeah, but I’ll never do it again—I only did it because of Ken. Interestingly enough, I did that scene with a girl I used to date, randomly—I didn’t date her afterwards, I dated her beforehand, but as much as I’m embarrassed about it, I still occasionally will pull it out when I am flirting with some girl and we’re talking about this, that and another, I’ll be like, oh here, look at this stupid silly thing, from time to time.

Elysse: So the ladies love it.

Todd: Point me to a lady that doesn’t love Brothers & Sisters.

Elysse: [Laughs]

Todd: It shows them that I can poke fun at myself, that I can relax, that I can have fun, and that I seem to be an enjoyable chap…who also might be stalking you with a cell phone in a bridal shop. I got a good story out of it, I guess it works... I am always painfully reminded of it, though, at the worst possible times, though.

Elysse: You also—this is a behind-the-scenes thing, but you are a very talented table read pinch-hitter.

Todd: Oh…well, apparently you don’t know the definition of “talented,” because uh… yeah, I certainly don’t like acting at all…

Elysse: I quote, Ken said you were “freakishly good” at the table reads.

Todd: It’s a lot of fun.

Elysse: You’re in charge of assigning the parts, too, for the people who are absent? So you get to choose the choicest parts?

Todd: Typically I interface with Alison and Monica, depending upon who is supervising the script, for each role. Fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to look at it, recently there has been less and less time to actually get together about these roles, when people are going to be absent, and so now I’ve been left to my own devices to just select people, and so I’m defaulting to me a lot these days, it seems.

Elysse: It’s fun for everyone. It’s fun for the whole family. Speaking of family, two more questions—about the Walkers.

Todd: Sure.

Elysse: Who is your favorite Walker?

Todd: I actually have a lot of favorites. I mean, to say one in particular would be difficult, obviously. I’m a big Saul fan. I’m a big Scotty fan. I’m a big Kevin fan… yeah, those are three of my favorite characters. And I like David Caplan [coincidetally—or not— Ken plays David Caplan]. Big fan of the David Cappers. 


Ken Olin as David Caplan.

Elysse: Me too.

Todd: I identify with David Caplan because he’s the rock and roll guy who likes photography, he’s got good style. He used to like to party a lot [both laugh]… I really like David Caplan because of that, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my boss. I really like David Caplan—but if I had to pick a Walker, I’m gonna go with Kevin, just because I think I identify with Kevin and his, you know, occasionally snarky sensibilities, his cynicism, and his sharp-witted tongue and smart-assed nature. I’m pretty close to that at times.

Elysse: I think a lot of us identify with him.

Todd: Like I said, I think I relate the most to Kevin. Although, um, I identify with… it’s a toss-up between… essentially, if Kevin was straight and had David Caplan’s taste, that would be me. So… take that for what it’s worth.

***

A very special thanks to Todd for that interview. And an extra-special thanks to all of YOU, because our ratings were great last night!

A quick update on where we're at on the writers' floor: We are headed into the table read for the Season Finale, which began filming this morning. Once again, Ken Olin is at the helm. Exciting times, all around.

Stay tuned!