Conservatively speaking

It's true. Hollywood is full of liberals.

But one of the most prominent characters in the new ABC series "Brothers & Sisters" (Sunday, 9 p.m., Ch. 4) is an unabashed, unapologetic conservative. Calista Flockhart ("Ally McBeal") stars as Kitty, a right-wing radio host-turned-TV pundit who holds her own in a large family full of liberals.

"This is a woman whose sense of family and purpose go back in a way that I'm not entirely familiar with, but trying very hard to understand and not mock," said creator/executive producer Jon Robin Baitz. "Because for years and years, the left has looked at the right in complete incomprehension and felt 'We just can't connect.' Maybe there's an effort in the show to try and bridge that in some way."

"Brothers & Sisters" is a big soap opera that revolves around the big Walker family. Kitty is making her first trip to the family's California home in years — she's had a major falling-out with her mother, Nora (Sally Field), but to her father, William, (Tom Skerritt), she's still daddy's little girl.

Kitty has four younger siblings — Sarah (Rachel Griffiths), a former corporate exec who quit corporate life for the family business and marriage; Tommy (Balthazar Getty), a womanizer; Kevin (Matthew Rhys), a gay lawyer; and Justin (Dave Annable), a young veteran with substance-abuse problems.

There's something funny going on at the family business involving Saul (Ron Rifkin), Nora's brother, among others. Sarah's marriage to Joe (John Pyper-Ferguson) is in trouble; as is Tommy's to long-suffering Julia (Sarah Jane Morris); and there's a mystery woman, Holly (Patricia Wettig), who has a mystery relationship with William. And, in the final scene of the first episode, William dies.

It has the makings of a decent family drama/soap, but the inclusion of a conservative sets "Brothers & Sisters" apart.

Kitty is assertive, not overly confrontational. "She's not Ann Coulter. She's not insane," said executive producer Ken Olin.

Baitz called her "a thoughtful conservative" who's "sort of an Eisenhower Republican."

"She's also a humanist. And I think there's great tension in her about her role in all of that which evolves."

"I would defy you," Olin said, "to know what Robbie's politics are" from the script. "We want to do a thoughtful examination of the meaning of these ideas as they are pertinent to these individuals. It's not supposed to be a polemical. We're not in any way attempting to put up one set of beliefs to shoot them down. I don't really think any of us have a particularly strong political agenda.

"It's part of our lives and it's worth exploring."

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com