Pasadena, Calif. -- Nothing leads a TV critic to cast a skeptical eye on a series as quickly as when a network refuses to show us the pilot episode. ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" is this year's no-show pilot, a high-profile series that's taking the coveted 10 p.m. Sunday time slot vacated by "Grey's Anatomy," which moves to Thursday.

	Reed Saxon/Associated Press Actresses Calista Flockhart, Rachel Griffiths and Sally Field, from left, talk about their new ABC show "Brothers & Sisters" at the 2006 Summer Television Critics Association Press Tour. Click photo for larger image. Related article Rob Owen's Tuned In Journal

"Brothers & Sisters" marks Calista Flockhart's return to series television after "Ally McBeal." She plays the sister of Rachel Griffiths, acclaimed for her work on HBO's "Six Feet Under." Sally Field plays their mother, replacing Betty Buckley, who filled the role in the original pilot, which, though unseen by American critics, was made available to Canadians who generally liked it but said it needed some of the fixing that's presumably under way. (It's also worth noting that Flockhart's "Ally McBeal" was not screened for critics before the July press tour in 1997, and it became a critical darling and ratings hit.)

Producers, naturally, tried to distance themselves from the "troubled show" tag, with executive producer Marti Noxon ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Point Pleasant") saying it's not trouble: "We're the private show," she joked.

Created by playwright Jon Robin Baitz, "Brothers & Sisters" follows the lives of grown siblings in the Walker family. Sarah (Griffiths) runs the family business, Kitty (Flockhart) is a right-wing radio show host who becomes a TV pundit, Tommy (Balthazar Getty) is the womanizer, Kevin (Matthew Rhys) is a gay lawyer and Justin (Dave Annable) grapples with the trauma of fighting in a war.

"There was a great response to the pilot," Noxon said, but producers decided to go in different directions with some of the characters. "We wanted the temperature to be a little different. We wanted there to be an opportunity for the family to be shown having a little more fun. It's the same story, just told from a slightly different point of view."

Baitz compared the original pilot to a workshop production, while the remade pilot is akin to opening night on Broadway.

Unlike so many series this fall that feature strangers brought together by unusual circumstances, "Brothers & Sisters" offers a more straightforward plot.

"We have this organic [family] connection," said executive producer Ken Olin ("Alias"). "It's not a tortured premise of, 'How do these people come together and feel something for each other if they're not working in a law firm or a hospital?' We understand their investment in one another."

Olin said, in an effort to make a more updated family drama, the series will feature multiple things happening at once to imitate the cacophony of sound often found at family gatherings.

Although Flockhart's character may bring to mind conservative pundit Ann Coulter, Olin said she differs from Coulter in one significant way: "She's not insane."

"She's a thoughtful conservative," Baitz said, comparing her politics to those of Dwight D. Eisenhower or William Buckley. "Ideologically she's very much in line with the older parts of the party, but she's also a humanist and there's a real tension in her in her role in all of that. She's not apologetic about being a conservative, but it's interesting and compelling to us to leave behind some of the smug presuppositions of the two coasts that I'm most familiar with politically and look at an evolving patriotism, an evolving traditionalism."

Should "Brothers & Sisters" disappoint, as some observers are betting it will, well, that's OK with Field, who said she knew that her last ABC drama, "The Court," would fail before it ever aired.

"I figure, better to fail with a big, huge, loud splat than a tiny, little, weenie whimper," Field said. "Certainly this is a different try, and if we splat, I hope it's really colorful, really bold."

Getting 'Lost'

Executive producer Bryan Burk wouldn't offer many hints about the third season of "Lost."

"We've got big problems," Burk said. "Jack, Kate and Sawyer, they've got Other issues, and I mean Other with a capital 'O'."

But executive producer Carlton Cuse was more forthcoming.

"This year we're looking to make the show brighter, more vibrant," Cuse said at an ABC party Wednesday night. "There's more emphasis on action, adventure and romance. The show won't be as dark, as internal. There will be more emphasis on character access, less on mythological access."

For instance, Cuse said John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) will be a different person in season three.

"All his doubt and questions and uncertainties were answered; the button did mean something, there was something at stake," Cuse said.

The relationship between the outside world (including Penny, Desmond's beloved) and the island will be a part of season three. The black cloud monster will return, as will the polar bear.

"Lost" won't return to the story of Michael (Harold Perrineau) and Walt (Malcolm David Kelley) immediately, but Cuse said their tale is not done (and will eventually take into account young Kelley's growth spurt in puberty).

"Michael's story in the overall lexicon of 'Lost' isn't finished," Cuse said. "What fascinated us is that last season we asked, is there any price you would not pay to get back your child? Michael paid an enormous price" when he killed Libby and Ana Lucia.

Production on the third season begins in mid-August, later than usual by almost a month, Burk said, because finishing the second season and beginning the third season collided.

"The writers started breaking all these storylines for this season towards the end of last season," he said. "We have a really good handle on what the show is."

ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson said series co-creator J.J. Abrams will return to direct an episode this season (most likely the seventh, Cuse said). Abrams will also co-write the Oct. 4 season premiere.

By splitting the 22-hour season into six in the fall and 17 running from February through May, the show will offer fans two uninterrupted batches of new "Lost" episodes.

"It will be more satisfying to have an intense, high-octane pod in the fall," and return with a string of original episodes in early 2007, Cuse said.

Some fans are pouting about the 13 weeks between those episode clusters, but it's a smart move. Better to have two runs of uninterrupted episodes, even if they're separated by the 13-week Taye Diggs drama "Day Break" that airs November through January.

A more ideal approach would be the "24" model, with "Lost" returning for a single uninterrupted run in January. Perhaps this year's schedule is a step in that direction.

Funnier 'Housewives'

"Desperate Housewives" executive producer Marc Cherry acknowledged that in the show's second season he was "writing too much on the fly." He also said his conscious decision to write fewer scenes of the women together -- because they take a long time to film because they require so many different camera set-ups to get reaction shots of each of the women in the scene -- backfired because viewers missed seeing the stars together.

But this season, the show's third, he's ready: More planning time, new writers -- many with comedy backgrounds ("Will & Grace" and "Out of Practice") -- and a faster start to the year's mystery.

After the first five minutes of the Sept. 24 season premiere, the show will skip ahead six months to find:

Mike Delfino (James Denton), last seen getting hit by a car, will be in a coma.

Susan (Teri Hatcher), watching over a hospitalized Mike, will meet a man (Dougray Scott) whose wife is in a coma, and they'll form a bond that turns romantic.

Edie (Nicolette Sheridan) will acquire a sexy, trouble-making nephew. Her here-to-fore unseen son will be introduced eventually, too.

Lynnette (Felicity Huffman) will be at wit's end with Nora (Kiersten Warren), the mother of husband Tom's child.

Bree (Marcia Cross) will marry Orson (Kyle MacLachlan) in episode two of the new season. She'll eventually learn what son Andrew (Shawn Pyfrom) has been up to since she abandoned him on the roadside (and she'll be appalled).

Cherry promised "Housewives" will be funnier and the mystery more involving this year. Viewers will ultimately decide if they agree.

'Commander' do over?

Though ABC canceled "Commander in Chief" in May, there's been talk of a TV movie to wrap up the series, but so far it remains just talk.

"Rod [Lurie, series creator] is working with Touchstone [the sister studio that produced the series for ABC], and I think they're going to pitch us thoughts on a film," said ABC Entertainment's McPherson. "We'll make a decision based on that."

Should a film happen, McPherson said the ultimate hope is that it would be successful and lead to a renewal for the series. If not, at least the movie might give fans closure.

"The way everybody is talking about serialized drama, we thought it would be a good way to bring a conclusion to that series if it happens," McPherson said.

"Commander" was trouble from the get-go. Creator Rod Lurie wasn't getting scripts in on time, then second show-runner Steven Bochco really ran the series off its rails. McPherson said if he had it to do again, he'd make some different calls.

"What we would do is we would probably bring it on later in the season and let Rod prep for it a lot longer than he had a chance to," McPherson said. "You know, he was the voice of that show. I think the week-to-week production of a series is a real education, and that was what was hard for him. And I think if we had gotten way out ahead, we would have had a much better chance to being able to deliver a show week to week."

Channel surfing

Local singer B.E. Taylor will sell his two Christmas CDs from 7 to 9 a.m. Tuesday on QVC as part of the network's Christmas in July programming. ... Sci Fi Channel's premiere of "Eureka" was a cable hit, drawing more than 4 million viewers. ABC's premiere of "The One: Making of a Star" was a major dud, garnering what Daily Variety calls a "cancel-me-now" audience of 3.08 million viewers.

TV Q&A

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about TV shows that film in Canada, "Lost" and the continuing local news obsession with Big Ben. Read it online at www.post-gazette.com/tv.