calista flockhart-related stories
Posted Nov 5th 2007 9:20AM by Jen Creer
Filed under: OpEd, Brothers and Sisters, Episode Reviews
(
S02E06)
"I didn't want this baby."-- Robert McAllisterI am starting to regret every time I have criticized the show for being too prone to hijinks and slapstick, because after the past two episodes, I would love to have Robert's crazy family show up again so they can all jump into the pool. The best way to describe this episode is maudlin. No wonder Justin is taking more pain meds. This is some pretty depressing stuff, and it doesn't look like it's going to get happier anytime soon. Is this the writers' way of dealing with the impending strike? A little doom and gloom for everyone? And is Tommy growing a mustache, and could someone please call his agent and tell him to shave it?
Continue reading Brothers and Sisters: Two Places
Posted Oct 22nd 2007 8:34AM by Jen Creer
Filed under: OpEd, Brothers and Sisters, Episode Reviews
(
S02E05) I tend to separate
Brothers and Sisters episodes into light and dark episodes these days, even though every episode certainly has elements of both. Last week was pretty dark, and this was a relatively light episode, though, thankfully, they kept the slapstick to a minimum. This episode definitely explored the nature of relationships, or, as we get from the title, unions, namely: Nora's with her and her children, and the romantic nature of all of the siblings with their significant others. If you can say that Justin's significant other is Rebecca... And the show is definitely exploring what happens when siblings meet as adults and go from strangers who could have dated under different circumstances to instant family members.
Continue reading Brothers and Sisters: States of the Union
Posted Oct 8th 2007 9:40AM by Jen Creer
Filed under: OpEd, Brothers and Sisters, Episode Reviews
(
S02E02) My husband tells me that Heather Havrilesky has written in
Salon that
Brothers and Sisters is manipulative. She writes, "'Brothers & Sisters' is emotional Frogger. Luckily, I loathe these beautiful, wealthy, loving, empathetic humans and so it brings me deep joy to watch them suffer."
I, however, persist in liking
Brothers and Sisters, manipulation and all. That isn't to say that I don't get irritated with the show, as readers who followed my posts last year can attest. I was irritated tonight with the blatant manipulation of opening the show with a funeral, when last week's episode left us in some doubt about whether or not the youngest Walker (oops, second-to-youngest), Justin, was killed in Iraq.
Continue reading Brothers and Sisters: An American Family
Posted Oct 1st 2007 7:27AM by Jen Creer
Filed under: OpEd, Brothers and Sisters, Episode Reviews
(
S02E01) The Walker family is back, with bells on. Wedding bells, that is. The episode is nicely framed between two video letters to Justin Walker, who is in Iraq. Nora, the fabulous and Emmy-award winning Sally Field, sits before her computer and tells Justin what everyone is up to, which is a nice way of getting the viewer up to speed about what has happened since we last saw the family. As an avid viewer of the show, I didn't need Rebecca's letter at the end of the episode so much, in which she provides her insights into the Walker clan, as the most outsider insider or insider outsider of the bunch, however you want to think of Rebecca. But if you are new to the show, it's a nice, two-bit tour of the family.
Continue reading Brothers and Sisters: Home Front (season premiere)
Posted Jul 25th 2007 9:27AM by Michael Maloney
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, The Closer, Heroes, Brothers and Sisters, TCA Press Tour, Awards
After 15 consecutive days of Mohammed (TV shows) coming to the mountain (the Beverly Hilton hotel), today the mountain (actually, the TCA membership) went to Mohammed. Two bus loads of TV critics boarded vehicles to hit five sound stages and the offices of TMZ.com.
First up was The Closer at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. Kyra Sedgwick and other cast members of the TNT drama mixed and mingled on the show's squad room set. Most reporters hovered around Sedgwick to inquire about her Emmy nomination for Lead Actress in a Drama Series, the show's new season and husband Kevin Bacon.
Continue reading Set visits to The Closer, TMZ, Cold Case, Two and a Half Men, Brothers & Sisters - TCA report
Posted Mar 7th 2007 2:44PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Web, Celebrities
Posted Jan 8th 2007 9:42AM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, ABC, Celebrities, Brothers and Sisters
Love him or hate him, Rob Lowe is sticking around for the rest of the season on
Brothers & Sisters. He plays conservative Sen. Robert McCallister. Ever since Lowe's first guest appearance on November 19th, ratings have been up in the coveted 18-49 age category. Apparently people really like him in a supporting role. So, he has agreed to play the character for the rest of the season. Lowe will continued to be billed as a 'Special Guest Star' but, as
Variety points out, Heather Locklear had the same billing on
Melrose Place even after becoming a regular.
I don't watch
Brothers & Sisters, so I can't give an opinion on this one. What do you think? Are you happy Rob Lowe is a somewhat permanent part of the cast?
Posted Dec 18th 2006 11:01AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, ABC, Industry, Celebrities, Brothers and Sisters
Over at TV Guide,
Michael Ausiello is reporting that Marion Ross will be joining
Brothers & Sisters as Nora's (Sally Field) mother. Her character is said to be "tough, obstinate, judgmental, direct, and uncompromising." Is it just me, or doesn't that sound a whole lot like Ross' Trix Gilmore character on
Gilmore Girls?
It will be interesting to see where they go with it. I suspect we'll learn that Nora had a whole boatload of mother issues herself before her relationship with Kitty (Calista Flockhart) went all haywire. I could even see the Nora/Kitty relationship getting more rocky if it turns out that Kitty and her grandmother are fast friends. However it shakes out, you can never get enough Mrs. C on your TV. Even if it is a crankier, more curmudgeonly, Mrs. C.
Related:Rob Lowe joining cast of Brothers & SistersBrothers & Sisters gets full season orderPosted Dec 6th 2006 12:34PM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Gilmore Girls, Celebrities, Ugly Betty, Men In Trees, Brothers and Sisters
Not every woman can look like Salma Hayek, but every woman can smell like her. Just in time for the holidays,
InsideBayArea.com has released a list of the fragrances favored by television's leading ladies. Not everyone understands the appeal of expensive perfume, and nobody wants to be around someone doused in it. Perfume is an indulgence when you're penny pinching, but I've got to admit that it's one of my own weaknesses.
As you might expect, the perfumes on the list are ridiculously pricey, but at least, no one is wearing Britney's Curious for Women. I personally can't afford any of these scents - even in the 1 oz. bottle - but I can certainly "test" them at Sephora. Here are some list highlights:
The Gilmore Girls' Lauren Graham wears Fracas by Robert Piguet;
Men in Trees' Anne Heche wears Amaze by IsaDora;
Ugly Betty's Salma Hayek wears Narciso Rodriguez's For Her;
Big Day's Marla Sokoloff wears Trish McEvoy's #9; and
Brothers & Sisters' Calista Flockhart wears be by becker.eshaya.
Posted Nov 2nd 2006 11:05AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, ABC, Celebrities
Rob Lowe likes playing politicians, doesn't he? Well, at the very least, he like playing politically based roles. Maybe those roles give him a chance to jut his chin two or three times per episode, but I can't be sure.
Anyway, the reason why I ask is because
Variety reports that Lowe has been signed to play a "John McCain-type Republican" senator (Do Hollywood scribes write any
other type of Republicans?) in at least six episodes of the ABC show
Brothers & Sisters. His character will be running for reelection while going through a contentious divorce, and will start dating Calista Flockhart's character Kitty when he goes on her talk show.
Jon Robin Baitz, the show's executive producer, wrote the role with Lowe in mind, and tells
Variety that he hopes Lowe will stay full time after his six episode stint is over.
Related:Trouble on the set of Brothers & SistersBrothers & Sisters gets full season orderPosted Oct 25th 2006 12:28PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, ABC, Web, What About Brian
Interesting
piece in Slate today, on all of the TV shows on ABC that writer Troy Patterson calls a "nauseating lineup of yuppie dramas."
Which shows is he talking about? You can probably guess:
Men In Trees,
Brothers & Sisters,
What About Brian, and
Six Degrees. I think that Patterson's whole viewpoint can be summed up with this paragraph:
These shows share a view of the human mind modeled on Dr. Phil's and an aesthetic sense shamelessly cribbed from a Pottery Barn catalog. When you watch them, you're mostly watching people feel bad over beverages. Despite it's pseudo-literary ambitions, the genre's got a certain soap-operatic streak, and the soap's an orange-lavender bath wash.Ouch.
Continue reading Easy listening TV?
Posted Sep 25th 2006 6:29PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, ABC, OpEd
(S01E01) I had an
early look at this one a couple weeks ago, and finally premiere day is here. The
Brothers & Sisters writers face a tough problem with the launch of the show. There is just so much information to convey to give the viewer an idea of who all of these people are. It leads to what sometimes feels like a rushed episode.
This also means that most of the happenings around the family in this episode are set-ups for future arcs that will involve the characters. Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) and Tommy (Balthazar Getty) discovering the financial shenanigans of Uncle Saul (Ron Rifkin), Justin's (Dave Annable) hangups from his past, and Kitty's (Calista Flockhart) relationship with her mother (Sally Field) are all clearly things that we will be looking at closer as the show moves along. For me though, the highlight of this episode was the confrontation between Kitty and her mother.
Continue reading Brothers & Sisters: Patriarchy (series premiere)
Posted Sep 7th 2006 11:22AM by Brett Love
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, ABC, Programming, OpEd
With the doctors from
Grey's Anatomy packing up their little black bags and moving to Thursday, ABC had a spot to fill on the Sunday schedule. Starting September 24th, the post
Desperate Housewives slot will be the new home of
Brothers & Sisters. I've just watched a rough cut of the episode "Patriarchy", let me tell you a little bit about it.
Of course, the big news with the show is that it marks the return of Calista Flockhart to series television. In a departure from her
Ally McBeal character she plays Kitty Walker, a 39 year-old right-wing conservative radio host in New York. This episode finds her heading home to Los Angeles to interview for a job on a political talk show, and to see the family.
The Walker family is made up of a pretty impressive list of actors, including Tom Skerrit, Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths, Balthazar Getty, and Ron Rifkin. "Patriarchy" walks a fine line between telling the story and introducing all of these characters. As we meet each of them, little bits of the overall story are revealed, setting up events for future episodes.
Continue reading Brothers & Sisters -- an early look
Posted Sep 6th 2006 9:34AM by Brett Love
Filed under: OpEd, The Five
The preview for this weeks
Blade teased a kiss between Krista (Jill Wagner) and Chase (Jessica Gower). In celebration of that possibility, I thought now would be a good time to touch on other girl-girl kisses in our television history. Sometimes they are to make a statement. Sometimes they are a ploy to grab ratings. And every once in a while, it's just a natural part of the story. Here are the five that come to mind first for me.
Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) and Sharon (Mariel Hemingway) - RoseanneThis was an important moment in television. At the time, there was no L-Word, and two girls kissing was still a very controversial thing. Roseanne has her faults, to be sure, but standing up to the network to get this episode on the air is something to be proud of.
Ally (Calista Flockhart) and Ling (Lucy Liu) - Ally McBealThis one strikes me as somewhat the opposite of the
Roseanne kiss. There was much less statement, and much more ratings grabbing sensationalism in this lip-lock. In that regard, it worked very well. Of course, the gang over at Ally McBeal had plenty of practice. Along with Ling, Ally also kissed Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith) and Elaine (Jane Krokowski). But if I have to pick one, it's Ling every time. And yes, I was an
Ally McBeal fan.
Continue reading The Five: Girls kissing girls
Posted Sep 3rd 2006 9:04PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: NBC, Industry, Music and Variety, Celebrities
Oh, puh-lease. The Parent Television Council, a group that has a stick up its collective ass, has made a formal complaint to the FCC about last week's Emmy telecast. It wasn't the
plane crash skit that ignited their anger, it was a comment by winner Helen Mirren as she accepted her Emmy for Best Actress in HBO's
Elizabeth I. You may recall, Helen worried about taking a tumble on her way up to the stage. She mentioned falling "tits over ass", a common British phrase. Calista Flockhart later presented with Mirren and said the phrase again in playful banter. NBC did air the show on a delay but chose not to censor the comment. The PTC released this statement, "It is utterly irresponsible and atrocious for NBC to air this vulgar language during the safe harbor time when millions of children were in the viewing audience." The FCC is reportedly trying to decifer its own rules to determine whether the offense is worthy of a fine.
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