Brotherhood:

Reporter: Obviously, Mike got better after the end of last season. We were certainly left with the impression that he was dead, so not dead is better than dead.
BLAKE MASTERS: We made a real conscious choice that, A, he’s not dead; and, B, we didn’t want to do hospital scenes and men in comas on breathing machines and the false drama of, you think he’s going to die when he’s a series regular and you know there’s no way in the world he’s going to die. So we decided to do what a lot of good series do, is — our audience has been away from our show for eight, nine months, so we went six months into the future. There’s a long rehab period from a traumatic brain injury and they’re necessarily causes — I’m sorry, there are necessarily long-term symptoms that come from that kind of injury. We’ve done a lot of research, and Jason, particularly, has done a ton of research. It all becomes integrated into Michael Caffee’s personality.

QUESTION: Can you talk a little bit about the thinking behind the cliffhanger. Did you want viewers to assume that he was dead?
BLAKE MASTERS: The thinking behind the cliffhanger.
HENRY BROMELL: Yeah, to wonder what happened.
BLAKE MASTERS: It seemed a fitting end to the first season. To be perfectly honest, we had no idea where we were going to go in season 2. We don’t preplan that way. We decided that it felt like the right place to end the first season, and we decided to go from there.

Reporter: And one last question. Are we going to find out at some point where Mike was during the time when he was missing? Because that was a big topic in season 1.
HENRY BROMELL: In the pilot.

Reporter: No, it would come up other times since then. People would ask him about it.
BLAKE MASTERS: I don’t know. You’ve watched the show, you know the way we do things, figure it out.

Reporter: How much are you disadvantaged by having to have this much time between the first season and the second season? Why was there so much time?
BLAKE MASTERS: I think in terms of the air date time, the lag between air date time is strictly that Showtime made a very strong decision. They thought that we would — that the Fall was a great time to put this show on. What they’ve done is they’ve jiggered their schedule to put us on when they think it’s most advantageous for our show, and we’re excited as all punch that we’re on September 30th. There are a lot more eyeballs on television. The Fall is the right time for this series to be on. We’re really excited by it. As for logistically, it actually gave Henry and I a huge opportunity, in that the two of us have written every episode. We are the writing staff.

Reporter: I guess I didn’t mean how are you disadvantaged in terms of production, but in terms of the fact that the audience doesn’t always remember things that were on a year ago. And as far as September 30th, there are a few shows going on about that time.
HENRY BROMELL: We don’t think about that.
BLAKE MASTERS: We don’t think about that. We actually think that Bob has shown real courage, throwing us up against all those shows, knowing that we are a great show, that the people who have found the show are starting to spread the word about the show, and there’s going to be growth in what we do and growth in the attraction to get to the show. We’re excited. We don’t view it as anything but a validation of the quality of what we’re doing.

Reporter: For the producers, can you talk about the addition of Brían F. O’Byrne, his character, and the decision to put him in Tommy and Eileen’s house.
BLAKE MASTERS: First off, Brían is a pleasure to work with. He is, as anybody who seems to work on Broadway is, he’s an incredibly gifted actor, and we’re doing a show about the senses of family and family not just in the sense of nuclear family but extended family and then larger, a neighborhood family deck in our way, is part of the family. We made the choice that would be most interesting is if, in fact, Tommy’s — the way Tommy approaches Colin, the new character, is almost the antithesis of the way he approached Michael’s return, the idea that Tommy likes him which is — and is unafraid of his presence and which is the exact antithesis the way he was about Michael’s return. We thought that would lead to some interesting potential. As the season goes on, we find that despite the differences in the way they behave and the way they approach Colin and eventually they’re sort of on career paths, there are certain bonds that will become clear as to why these two men are quite close to each other.
HENRY BROMMELL: You mean Colin, not Tommy.
BLAKE MASTERS: Right.

Reporter: For the producers, you know you say the show is really good, which I certainly agree with, so why did nobody watch it?
HENRY BROMMELL: We can’t answer that question.
BLAKE MASTERS: I think one of the things at Showtime that they really made an effort to do this year is to say, “Okay. We know the show is good. You all gave us love letters, for which we thank you, and hope you like the new season as much.” What they’ve decided is, this is a good show, and like a lot of great shows in the history of television that stumbled up in the ratings right out of the gate like “Hill Street Blues,” “Seinfeld,” “Cheers,” and you can go on and name some a lot of the best shows in the history of television and they didn’t rate well right off the bat. They decided to do everything possible to make it capable for us to reach a larger audience in our second season because they know that when people find the show, they become addicted to the show, which is why they’re putting us on in September, which is a much better time of year for us. They’re putting us on directly after “Dexter” to give us the advantage of “Dexter”’s pull and my bet is come September when it turns to be 10 o’clock when “Dexter” is over, people will stick around and say, “What is this ‘Brotherhood’ show?” And they’re going to watch an episode, and they’re going to be hooked, and they’re going to watch them all. So I think the answer to your question is, it takes a while sometimes for a complicated show to find its audience, but Showtime has done easily everything possible to get us to the place where we will find the audience that we hope we ultimately get, and truthfully, I think we deserve. I hope that all of you will continue to give us the good word of mouth you have because it helps.

ELIZABETH STEPHEN: Let me just add to that, this is a tricky show because it’s not a noisy show. It’s not a big concept that’s really easy to sell in one sentence. And it’s very novelistic, too. So it’s the kind of show that the more you watch it, the more you become involved in these characters and in this world, and hopefully, it then becomes really absorbing. But I think what is really special about this show and this network is we probably wouldn’t have had a chance to have another season on any other network, but because Showtime has so much passion and confidence in their programs and are willing to take a risk, they saw how you all responded to this show, and they said, “We’re going to give it some more time, and we’re going to let it really bloom.” And I think we’re incredibly lucky to be where we are.