Television writers are like any of us, really; they live normal lives with the same types of interactions with popular culture as the rest of us. They watch the same television shows, experience the same classic cinema, and likely watch the same Academy Award nominated films as we do. In fact, after watching tonight’s episode of Brothers & Sisters, I am convinced that writers Alison Schapker and Monica Breen (Late of ‘Lost’ and ‘Alias’) most certainly saw one of the films nominated for an Oscar this year. For, you see, they most assuredly ripped off the basic premise of Stephen Frears’ The Queen for tonight’s episode, ‘Bad News.’
This week, one of the many storylines revolved around a helicopter crash which claimed the life of a young speechwriter who Senator McAllister (Rob Lowe) had been hard on. Kitty (Calista Flockhart) was very emotionally distraught over this, considering that she had been the one who decided that Steven would be in the chopper instead of her and the Senator. This is the real plot of things, but in the process there was an exchange that was quite literally ripped out of The Queen.
After the crash has taken place, Kitty insists that McAllister needs to address the people, and he is aghast at this suggestion. For him, this is a personal matter, and he doesn’t believe that he should have to make it a public issue. Kitty, however, insists that the people need to know how to react, and that there are people who are counting on him to set an example. The people need you, Senator McAllister!
For anyone who has seen The Queen, this likely sounds very familiar. The entire film revolves around the reaction, or lack thereof, from the royal family (Queen Elizabeth II, portrayed by Academy Award winning Helen Mirren, specifically) to Princess Diana’s tragic death. For Elizabeth, this was a private manner for her son and her grandchildren, and she felt that she had nothing to say to the public. Newly elected prime minister Tony Blair (Portrayed extremely well by Michael Sheen), however, believes that it is the Queen’s role to comfort her subjects in this time of mourning.
I seriously doubt that this was pure coincidence, although I can’t real blame Alison and Monica for turning to The Queen for inspiration; it was well-handled in that film, and it was well-handled on Brothers & Sisters as well. The show seems to like to treat Kitty as its star, and sometimes I don’t really buy it…but her storyline this week held resonance, so I guess that plagiarism was successful in this instance. I guess if you’re going to rip off something, a first-class piece of screenwriting from Peter Morgan is probably a good place to start.
Cultural Learnings 