Relax “Brothers & Sisters”’ fans: Kevin and Scotty are in good hands

Monica Owusu-Breen and Alison Schapker

Rumor has it that a major character dies on the upcoming season of Brothers & Sisters’ which debuts this Sunday night on ABC. I’m sitting in the Burbank offices of Monica Owusu-Breen and Alison Schapker, conducting an exclusive interview with the two showrunners charged with shepherding the hit drama through its third season.

I’ve just asked Breen and Schapker if the unfortunate soul who kicks the bucket is either Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys) or Scotty Wandell (Luke MacFarlane).

If they actually tell me, I’m hoping for their sake the answer is that neither man perishes. Because if one of them does, I picture an army of gay fans laying siege to their ABC offices, enraged over the death of one of the most beloved couples to ever grace American televisions.

The two exchange glances and then Schapker says, “Yes, I think we can say it’s not going to be Kevin or Scotty.”

Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty Wandell (Luke MacFarlane)/All pics courtesy of ABC Studios unless otherwise noted

See, I said you could relax – which isn’t to say all will be smooth sailing for the couple who made television history during last season’s B&S finale by having a commitment ceremony, the first on network TV involving major characters.

The show's third season marks a pivotal point in the series fortunes due in part to last year’s writers’ strike which shortened Season 2 and hurt ratings overall for scripted dramas. Brothers & Sisters came back fairly strong ratings-wise after the strike, but while the show has always been a solid performer, it's never quite pulled the numbers of Desperate Housewives or Grey's Anatomy, the two ABC dramas by which all ABC shows are currently measured.

And everyone involved with Brothers & Sisters knows networks watch those ratings ever more closely and are increasingly willing to drop the ax – especially on expensive scripted dramas. 

Breen and Schapker wrote the commitment ceremony episode – titled “Prior Commitments” – and talking with the two, it quickly becomes clear how much both women like Kevin and Scotty a lot. Each question about them elicits long, thought out responses. It’s obvious the two of them have spent a lot of time thinking about them separately and as as couple. It’s also equally clear each are very protective of their characters. Indeed, during a follow-up phone call to clarify just how much of an upcoming plot point can be revealed, Schapker’s affection for her two gay charges practically brims over. It’s as if she’s talking about two friends and in a way she is because Schapker very much likes and identifies with gay men. More about that later.

We start off discussing what happened with Kevin and Scotty last season. While their ceremony did break new ground by having two major gay characters exchange vows, there were those who felt the couple’s small ceremony held in Nora Walker's house got short shrift, especially when compared with the lavish wedding of Senator Robert McCallister and Kitty Walker earlier in the season.

Senator Robert McCallister (Rob Lowe) marries Kitty Walker (Calista Flockhart)

However, the two showrunners definitely don’t see it that way.

“First let me say this about the Kitty marriage versus the Scotty-Kevin ceremony,” says Schapker. “We felt the reason Kitty’s wedding had so much pomp and circumstances was it was a senator and a pundit and … Robert was running for President. [Their wedding] served a media function. So it wasn’t so much in our minds that they were more deserving as a couple and that’s why they got a big ceremony. It was more to underscore who they were as characters and what kind of ceremony they’d almost be forced to have. We thought that Kevin and Scotty in some way had not the desire for that kind of pomp and circumstance and that they wanted an intimate ceremony. And so the family ceremony we were going for was supposed to be equally meaningful and a smaller intimate Walker wedding where it happened in the Walker home."

Breen especially has a different take from those disgruntled fans. “I’ve heard this criticism before,” she says. “And it’s so funny to me because having written a lot of weddings there is something so moving to me about a wedding that is two people; that it’s not about the bigness of the event or the flower arrangements and the dresses and the sort of like – not that there’s anything wrong with a big wedding. But some of what I don’t always see, especially on television weddings, is the wedding where it’s really two people and they’ve boiled it down to the essence, which is we are going to be partners. You are going to walk with me through life.”

Schapker chimes in saying, “We wanted it to be equally romantic and we were going for that in a different way. [But] I can understand the longing for seeing those traditions inhabited by gay people.”