Brothers and Sisters (2006 TV series)

Premise

The series revolves around the lives and problems of the wealthy Walker family in the wake of the death of family patriarch William Walker (Tom Skerritt), the founder of the family business Ojai Foods. The family consists of wife and mother Nora Walker (Sally Field) who must deal with revelations about her husband's infidelity, and her children Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) and Tommy (Balthazar Getty), both married executives at Ojai Foods, Kitty (Calista Flockhart), a conservative activist, Kevin (Matthew Rhys), a gay lawyer, and youngest sibling Justin (Dave Annable), who has recently returned from the Afghan War with a substance abuse problem. They were joined by Nora's brother Saul (Ron Rifkin) and Holly Harper (Patricia Wettig), William's mistress. Plotlines typically revolved around the romantic relationships of the family, their business fortunes, especially with regard to the control of Ojai Foods, and the relationship between the siblings. Most conflicts were resolved with a renewed call for family unity and a lot of wine.

Plot points

The show's narrative launched with the death of William Walker at Kitty's birthday party. His death causes a number of secrets from his life to be revealed—secrets that impact the remainder of his family and which include the introduction of William's mistress Holly Harper and her daughter Rebecca.

Other main storylines throughout the series include the personal, political (usually through Robert and Kitty's and later Kevin's careers) and professional lives of Nora and all the brothers and sisters; their relationships with each other; interaction with Rebecca and her mother (William's mistress) Holly; and the running of the family business Ojai Foods—which is mostly looked after by Saul, Sarah and Tommy along with Holly and Rebecca from season 3 onwards. After the family sells Ojai Foods, Scotty and Saul open a restaurant and Nora begins working at a radio station which Sarah decides to buy.

Walker Family

Other main characters

Season 1 (2006–07)

Most of the season focuses on The Walkers dealing with the loss of William Walker and the secrets uncovered by his death, most notably the discovery of Holly Harper, a woman he had an affair with, and her daughter Rebecca. The season also introduces the audience to the lives of the Walker siblings who must deal with their jobs, turbulent love lives and each other.

Season 2 (2007–08)

The second season focused mainly on the romantic lives of the Walker siblings. As Kitty and Robert start planning their wedding, Kevin runs into Scotty (his lover from the first season) and they become a couple. Sarah must now deal with her divorce and being a single parent while Tommy and Julia go through serious issues after struggling with the loss of one of their twins. Nora begins a new romance with one of Robert's staff and, along with Rebecca, tries to help Justin regain his life after being injured in the war.

Season 3 (2008–09)

After the discovery that she is not, in fact, a Walker, Rebecca must deal with her new place in the family and her new relationship with Justin which could be in trouble with the appearance of Ryan—William's actual secret child. Kitty and Robert face problems in their marriage as they try to adopt a baby while Kevin and Scotty settle into married life. Nora decides she wants a career of her own after spending most of her life in the back seat and finds a new romance. With Holly becoming a major presence at Ojai. Saul and Sarah decide to quit leading to a new business venture for the eldest Walker sibling, while Tommy turns to drastic measures to take back the family business.

Season 4 (2009–10)

The show was renewed for a fourth season on April 23, 2009. It premiered on September 27, 2009 on ABC.

This season sees Kevin and Scotty decide to start a family while Kitty finds her family may be torn apart when she receives unexpected news that she has lymphoma, cancer of the lymph nodes. Sarah finds love with Luc, a man she met in France who traveled to America to be with her, but the dream doesn't seem to last in her real life. Justin is finding it hard to balance his engagement to Rebecca with his medical school studies, while Rebecca has troubles of her own. After not having their wedding Rebecca comes to find out she is now pregnant with Justin's baby but Rebecca ends up having a miscarriage which causes some more strain on their relationship. While her children go through difficult times Nora must try her hardest to get them through their troubles and Ryan causes trouble for the Walkers and Ojai by teaming up with a man from William's past. Will Holly's obsession with the secrets of Ojai ruin her relationship with David? The season ends with a horrific car crash that leaves Holly severely injured and the fate of Senator Robert McCallister unsure.

Season 5 (2010–11)

Brothers & Sisters was renewed for a fifth and final season on March 5, 2010. It premiered on September 26, 2010 on ABC. The events of the fifth and final season begin one year after the season 4 finale. Rebecca divorced Justin and was written out of the show early in the fifth and final season. A lot has changed for both the characters, and the show's viewers in the final season. The show lost two cast members: Rebecca Harper (Emily VanCamp) and Robert McCallister (Rob Lowe). These two losses were not the only major changes that occurred in season five. The Ojai Foods building, the Walker's family business, is not seen in the final season and many locations are different than in the last season. Kitty no longer lives at the ranch in Santa Barbara, but has moved into a smaller house with her son, Evan, after a short stay at a cottage in Ojai. Kevin and Scotty moved out of their apartment and into a different one which is located above Cafe 429 (the restaurant that Scotty and Saul opened). Cafe 429, and Nora's new workplace – the radio station, are two primary locations where many scenes take place in season five. One location that the audience does not see as much is Nora's house. For four seasons, the family home has been the location where most scenes were shot. That said, all of these changes have been made to fit in with the characters' new lives and chapters.

The season starts with Kitty holding on to Robert who has been in a coma for a year since the car accident. Sarah considered selling the new land and water found in Ojai and moving to France with Luc. Kevin has become a low-paid pro-bono lawyer working on family law cases. He and Scotty have also given up on having a child after their surrogate, Michelle, apparently lost the baby. They find Olivia through an adoption agency, and she joins the family. Saul bumps into an old flame, Jonathan, who now campaigns for a HIV+ charity, and reveals that it was Jonathan who infected Saul. Jonathan doesn't even remember it. However, they eventually become a strong couple. Nora has become distant from her family and has taken a secret job as a florist to fill her time, being bullied by her boss, although she soon quits and finds a place as an agony aunt on a radio show. Sarah then later buys the radio station as part of a business venture. Justin, having returned to the war front after Robert's accident, comes home to help fix everyone's problems but has issues of his own after having been separated from Rebecca for a year. Meanwhile, Holly has developed long term memory loss after the accident and is struggling to remember her life and loved ones. Nora's first love, Nick Brody, comes back into her life and they enjoy a passionate romance, until Justin sees Brody's medical records and realizes that he is Sarah's biological father. Scotty bumps into Michelle, who had mysteriously disappeared after claiming to have miscarried, and he and Kevin discover that she actually ran away and gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Daniel. In the series finale, Sarah gets cold feet but in the end, marries Luc. To everyone's surprise, one of Nick Brody's daughters shows up uninvited to the wedding party. Jonathan and Saul decide to get married. Kitty also finds romance after Robert with younger college student Seth Witley. In the series finale, Kitty admits that she's pregnant. Seth is worried about how the pregnancy will affect her health after her cancer. At the hotel for Sarah and Luc's wedding party Justin runs into a former love and boss, Tyler. He finds out she is married but separated from her husband.

Production

The series is from producer Ken Olin (star of thirtysomething and producer of Alias) and Jon Robin Baitz, one of Broadway's most prominent playwrights (The Substance of Fire). Noted producer Greg Berlanti was also an executive producer and "show-runner" during season one. Berlanti continues to serve on the series as executive producer. Mark B. Perry (The Wonder Years and One Tree Hill) served as the showrunner for twelve episodes before departing the show in the aftermath of the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. Perry was replaced by Monica Owusu-Breen and Alison Schapker who served as showrunners until they were replaced by David Marshall Grant shortly into season 4.

After the series pilot was shot, and the show was picked up by ABC, the series underwent some moderate changes. Most notably, three of the roles were recast:

The more minor role of Cooper, Sarah and Joe's younger child, was also recast after the pilot episode.

Robert McCallister was the name of a character on a previous Greg Berlanti production, Jack & Bobby, about a boy who grew up to be the President of the United States. As with the Robert McCallister on Brothers & Sisters, the character on Jack & Bobby was a Republican who had a wife named Courtney and a son named Jack.

Brothers & Sisters is produced by Berlanti Television, After Portsmouth, and Touchstone Television (Fall 2006–Spring 2007), which is now ABC Studios (Fall 2007–2011).

Syndication

Brothers & Sisters aired on SOAPnet weekdays and also aired local syndication on weekends only until 2012.

Location

Brothers & Sisters was filmed in the Greater Los Angeles area including: Los Angeles, Santa Monica, South Pasadena, Pasadena, and other locations.

Critical reception

Brothers & Sisters's first season received mixed to positive reviews from critics but positive reviews from fans. However, the reviews became warm and earned acclaim even from critics.

U.S. ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Brothers & Sisters on ABC: