Brothers and Sisters Overview

Brothers and Sisters premiered on ABC Sunday night after Desperate Housewives at 10 pm on September 24, 2006. William Walker (Tom Skerritt) collapses into the family pool at the end of the first episode due to a fatal heart attack. Tom Skerritt appears in later episodes through flashbacks. His wife, Nora Walker (portrayed by Sally Fields) is now the family patriarch. There are five adult children, consisting of two girls and three boys. The eldest son is Kevin Walke. He is portrayed by Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, who hides his accent very well. Kevin is a openly gay lawyer that also helps the family-run business in legal issues. Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) left a fortune 500 company to head up the business, which pushes Tommy, the middle son (Balthazar Getty) into a corner. Tommy was under the impression he would be running the business. Kitty is the only conservative of the family, living in New York as one of the hosts of a political talk show. She is back in California for a job interview and at the home during the tragedy. Her fiance at the time was Warren, who did not want to move to New York. Justin (Dave Annable) is the youngest with an addiction problem and in the military. Nora blames Kitty for Justin serving in the military and going to war.

Saul Holden is Nora's brother, played by Ron Rifkin, who happens to be a confirmed bachelor and someone who was aware of all the secrecy surrounding William at the office, both personally and professionally. They were doctoring the books and stealing from the pension plan, plus there is the mistress, Holly Harper who also has a daughter Rebecca, unbeknownst to the Walker clan to be a half sibling. Justin notices Holly (Patricia Wettig) at the funeral and sees her having lunch with Saul and becomes suspicious.

Secrets come out as the weeks go by and Nora visits Holly at her Silverlake home and questions just who she is. Everyone in the family learns Holly has shares in the family business and wants to be on the board and pitch her ideas on how the company should thrive. It turns out that there is a code to access the computer records with the name Rebecca the key. Rebecca (Emily Van Camp, formerly of Everwood fame) turns out to be Holly's daughter. Holly denies that William is her father for a long time until Rebecca comes back from Chicago and Justin sees her and notes the resemblance to his father.

The Walker children tiptoe around issues so that Nora does not learn of more lies. It turns out that Nora was aware for many years that there was another woman. There are tense moments when Holly comes for a family dinner and everyone has questions. There are comical episodes when both Holly and Nora work at the family business and it is apparent that Nora is out of place in that environment. Holly butts heads with Sarah and an alliance is formed with Tommy when he learns that his father had plans for him to run a winery.

Justin goes to a rehab facility in Malibu where the family has to come for a session, but they turn it into a discussion of all their troubles and each sibling visits Justin to tell him a secret but ask not to tell their Mother. Justin is called back to Iraq with everyone worried about his safety. Tommy and his wife Julia learn they cannot get pregnant, so both Kevin and Justin become sperm donors and they become pregnant with twins. Nora goes on some dates with the contractor working on the house and they even run into all the kids at the cabin since everyone wants to spend one more weekend there before they have to sell it. Nora takes some writing classes and ends up dating her Professor. This character was not suited for her at all and the actors had no chemistry. It was not surprising to see Holly go after him at the winery party and even Saul noted how obvious Holly was.

While Sarah was so busy climbing the ladder at the business and leaving the parenting and home care to Joe, she neglected to notice that her daughter Paige was becoming quite sick and still grieving her grandfather. First Paige was not interested in going back into the pool after witnessing her grandfather topple over next to her and then Kitty mentioned she might be sick when sitting for her sister. It turned out that Paige was diagnosed with Diabetes. Joe was the parent that stayed home with the kids and picked them up from school and offered guitar lessons to young people. This is where Rebecca kissed him at their home and Justin found out from Rebecca and then the secrets ensued before everyone learned of this encounter. I did not really like either Joe or Sarah and having Joe move out was inevitable as the viewers saw their issues weekly and how they were mismatched and not communicating.

Kevin has an active lifestyle and has a secret relationship with Chad, a soap star played by Jason Lewis, who previously appeared on Sex and the City. Chad is not openly gay, but eventually goes public but the relationship nosedives and Kevin is set up with the Senator's brother, who also happens to be a minister, but that is not revealed until the season finale and by this episode they seem to have more chemistry.

Kitty does an interview with the Senator (Rob Lowe) and asks him off camera for a favor for her brother Justin so he does not have to go back to war. Everyone assumes she asked for a favor and she tells the world on the television show that she did compromise herself and leaves the show to take a job with the Senator. The season finale is their engagement party with the arrival of his crazy relatives, including an Uncle portrayed by Garry Marshall.

They have lots of parties at Nora's house and Justin moved back in there due to his addiction problems, Rebecca moved in also and Kitty lives there but moving out since she will marry the Senator that wants to be President.

Celebrities that have made guest appearances include:

Margot Kidder as Nora's friend for the Valentine's Day Episode.

Susan Sullivan played the matriarch of another family that played games with the Walkers weekly and they ran into her and had a game night.

Treat Williams played a younger man that Nora had a rendezvous with.

Behind the scenes tidbits:

Two of the executive producers of the show are openly gay - Jon Robin Baitz and Greg Berlanti

Two actors from the pilot were switched. Betty Buckley played Nora and Jonathan LaPaglia played Kevin Walker. The coveted timeslot after Desperate Housewives was home to another hit Grey's Anatomy.

Patricia Wettig is the real-life wife of series co-producer/co-creator Ken Olin.

I believe the house they use for the outside shots is on a side street off of Wilshire boulevard and it looks like the house across the street from where my son had his therapy.

My impressions -

The chemistry of many of the siblings, parent and daughter/son relationship is very realistic. It is not really stated their ages, but Nora recently celebrated her 60th birthday along with a surprise visit from her Mother Ida, portrayed by Marion Ross. I did not see any connection between Ida and Saul or Nora. She was not there for the funeral when William died. They seem to spend many nights at Nora's house and at times too close knit and protective of the mother and then of Sarah in not wanting her to know of anyone's good news since her life is a shambles.

Somoe of the characters are more developed than others, so I am hoping they will expand on the second season. I really preferred seeing the personal stories compared to the bickering and happenings at the workplace. I did enjoy viewing Kevin discussing legal maneuvers and thought the talk-show format for Kitty was interesting at times. Justin and Rebecca seem to be close in age and confidants, while the other siblings are more mature and dealing with different issues. Some of the storylines did not really fit into the growth of the show, like the rival family game night and the Professor was boring.

Just as the first episode ended by the pool with the fatal heart attack of William Walker, the season finale ended with various members jumping fully clothed into the same pool. Julia had the twins, but the boy did not survive.