"Brothers and Sisters" Big Event: Did ABC Deceive Viewers?
By Ed Martin TV / Video Download Archives
Television networks these days will do just about anything they can to attract viewers to their programming, and given the intense competition they face from other media, not to mention the chorus of irritating doomsayers who delight in bashing a medium that is still enjoyed on a daily basis by millions of people, who can blame them?
But I think they ought to draw the line at deliberately misleading their audience. Nobody likes to be made to feel like a fool. Case in point: The marketing for last Sunday’s two-hour episode of ABC’s Brothers and Sisters.
I’m looking at the back cover for the February 16 -- March 1 double issue of TV Guide as I write this. It’s a beautiful full page ad for the two-hour Brothers and Sisters “movie event” (as it is referred to across the top) featuring the smiling faces of most of the show’s accomplished cast members, plus the following copy: “A joyous birth … A shocking death … A family shaken to its roots.” I was struck by the ad when this issue arrived at my home three weeks ago, because it was my initial notification that something huge was going to happen on the show. (I must have missed the press release.) In the ad, the images of series leads Sally Field, Calista Flockhart and Rob Lowe are much larger than those of the rest of the cast. My first thought the first time I saw it was, “They’re killing off Rob Lowe!”
The two-hour Brothers and Sisters really would be a “movie event,” I figured, if a major character was going to bite the dust. And the fact that the same character was set to become father to an adopted child in the same episode seemingly set the stage for what might have been a television classic, one we might all be talking about years from now.
My mind raced forward: Flockhart’s character, Kitty Walker, would suddenly be a widowed single mom. She would likely move in with her mother, Nora (Field, an Emmy winner for the role), ensuring renewed multi-generational conflicts for seasons to come. After all, Brothers and Sisters is never better than when two or more Walkers are gathered under the same roof, getting in each other’s way, quarreling like mad and swilling as much alcohol as they can handle.
I chose not to watch this two-hour “movie event” in advance on ABC’s press Web site not because much of the video on it is dark and drab, and not because I prefer to watch television shows on actual television screens, but because Brothers and Sisters has since its premiere three seasons ago been a treasured Sunday night viewing ritual for me. I wanted to experience the “event” at the same time as the rest of its audience, including the two women I overheard excitedly talking about it at my local Stop & Shop that very afternoon. “Rob Lowe is going to die!” one of them squealed, perhaps sounding a little more excited than she should. One of the women, a cashier who mentioned that she usually works until 10 p.m. on Sunday, said she had asked to leave at 8 p.m. that night so she could get home and settle in for her show. It was clear that this “event” was the highlight of her weekend.
I have to admit, I was disappointed that Lowe’s character, Sen. Robert McCallister, didn’t buy the farm that night. Yes, it was a huge story surge for him: His baby was born, he declared himself a candidate for governor of California, he suffered a heart attack and endured open-heart surgery. But he didn’t die. Not permanently, anyway. McCallister’s heart did briefly stop, and I suppose that for those fleeting moments he was technically dead, but come on. As Monty Python might complain, he did not cease to be!
The ad on the back cover of TV Guide promised “a shocking death,” not a “quick bit of temporary deadness.” Television spots for the episode had also suggested that someone was going to buy the farm. ABC didn’t lie, but any way the network chooses to spin it, millions of fans, myself included, were deliberately misled!
The point here is that Disneyshould not be so devious in the way it treats loyal viewers of any of its shows on any of its networks, especially viewers of shows that seek to establish strong emotional connections with their audience, as Brothers and Sisters so skillfully does. People deserve more respect than that. They do not need additional motivation to abandon television (especially broadcast) for other entertainment pursuits.
For what it’s worth, I thought the other storylines in the show provided greater drama than the misfortune of Mr. McCallister: The exposure of Tommy Walker’s illegal actions to seize control of his family business back from his late father’s malicious mistress Holly; William Walker’s illegitimate son Ryan arriving on Nora’s doorstep; Justin and Rebecca trying to hold their crumbling relationship together; Nora preparing Kitty for the miracle of motherhood; gay liberal Kevin realizing how much he has come to care for his stern conservative brother-in-law Robert. Much of this felt new to me, whereas I have seen dozens of television characters suffer heart attacks (especially during sweeps months) and survive. On the upside, I forced myself to watch this coming Sunday’s episode on ABC’s press site and while all of these stories reach full boil, Lowe absolutely nails his portrayal of a man deeply unsettled by an unexpected brush with his own mortality.
Maybe ABC should buy a clue from Fox, which promoted the heck out of this week’s two-hour 24 event without misleading anyone about anything. Fox promised something much more than the usual 24 experience and damn, did it deliver! I couldn’t turn away – even during the commercials – as the White House hostage crisis unfolded. I think there were more on-screen deaths during those two hours of this one show than I have seen on all of primetime this season, and every one of them was a punch to the gut. This was a case of a program far exceeding the power of its own promotion.
Ed Martin
Ed Martin is the chief television and content critic for MediaVillage. He has written about television and internet programming for several Myers publications since 2000, including The Myers Report, The Myers Programming Report, MediaBizBloggers a…
