Thursday, March 28, 2024

Does Sally Field’s New Job Mean the End of “Brothers & Sisters”?

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Does Sally Field know something we don’t? After years of speculation, she’s finally accepted the role of Mary Todd Lincoln in Steven Spielberg‘s film about the 16th president. Daniel Day Lewis will star as Honest Abe.

It’s a major role, and not one that can be performed without focus and attendance for a two time Oscar winner. Yet, Sally is the star of ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters,” a once great soapy series now slowly dissolving before our eyes. “Lincoln” shoots this fall, right in the middle of the next TV season. Sally wouldn’t be able to do both jobs unless she can ask James Cameron for an avatar. So what gives? Insiders say she has no knowledge about the renewal of “Brothers & Sisters.” But the show, after watching an episode last week, has run its course.

More or less gone are several cast members including Calista Flockhart, Balthazar Getty, Emily van Camp and Patricia Wettig. The show has also lost its main storyline–the Walker family owned Ojai Foods, a produce distributor, and a vineyard. There was also the ongoing saga of secrets discovered in the Walker family when their patriarch suddenly died.

All of that is history. The episode I watched the other day, about the family’s grandmother dying, was so awful I wondered if anyone had actually written it or if the actors were just given an improv. In a strange way, “B&S” was just a long mini series, with one main idea that really resolved itself a while ago. It’s time to pull the plug. I think ABC knows it, and Sally Field–a true showbiz survivor–probably senses it, too.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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