BROTHERS: PILOT {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The premiere of this comedy series about two brothers, a retired football player and a restaurant manager, trying to get along with each other.
Long-separated brothers Mike and Chill reunite after their father suffers a stroke and Mike flies from New York to Houston, Texas to see him. The two do not get along, as Chill feels that Mike’s success as a football player has kept him too distant from the family. Chill, meanwhile, is a wheelchair-using restaurant manager who feels unappreciated by his family. Mike arrives to see his father, who insists that he is feeling fine, although Mike and Chill’s mother is still worried about him. Mike, now retired, says things are going well for him, although Chill continues to mock him for being egocentric and jealous of him. They have an argument and Chill drives Mike away, and their mother tries to calm him. Mike speaks with his father, who tells him to try to get along with Chill. Mike notices that his father is experiences lapses in his short-term memory and is making odd non-sequiturs.
Mike and Chill play basketball with each other (with Mike in another wheelchair to make things fair) and get to talking about their personal lives, but they soon devolve into another argument. Their mother breaks up their fight and talks to Mike; she is convinced that Chill is not actually paralyzed and only uses his wheelchair to garner sympathy. She convinces Mike to make an appearance at Chill’s restaurant in order to drum up additional business. At the restaurant, Mike signs autographs and mingles with customers, but Chill resents his presence and says he does not need him there. However, Mike notices that his image is featured all over the restaurant, making him believe that Chill is capitalizing on his fame and success. He leaves, and the majority of Chill’s customers follow him en masse. The next day, Mike and Chill are convinced by their mother to talk to each other, and they argue about Chill’s supposed independence from Mike. He recounts being paralyzed in a car accident and blames Mike since he was supposed to pick him up but was absent.
However, Chill is told by his father that it is pointless to blame Mike for his accident and that he should move on from it. Mike prepares to leave and gets into yet another argument with Chill before their mother interrupts them. She reveals that Chill’s restaurant is failing and that she called Mike down to Houston specifically to bring him in to the restaurant; she lied about his father having a stroke in order to convince him. She also reveals that Mike has financial woes of his own after his manager embezzled most of his earnings, and Mike reluctantly admits that this is true. She points out that everyone has been too stubborn to admit their problems, and that the only way for them to overcome them is to work together. Left alone, Chill shows Mike a scrapbook featuring every article ever written about Mike’s career. This quells their argument somewhat and Chill offers to get Mike a job at the restaurant, which Mike accepts. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: FOX
- DATE: November 30, 1999 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:22:25
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 100396
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - Comedy; Comedy
- SERIES RUN: FOX - TV series, 2009
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Michael Hurwitz … Executive Producer
- Eric Tannenbaum … Executive Producer
- Kim Tannenbaum … Executive Producer
- Don Reo … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Annette Sahakian Davis … Co-Executive Producer
- Daryl "Chill" Mitchell … Producer, Music by
- Michael Strahan … Producer
- Barbara Brace … Co-Producer
- Sandi B. Hochman … Co-Producer
- Alyson Fouse … Consulting Producer
- David Israel … Consulting Producer
- Jim O'Doherty … Consulting Producer
- Ted Wass … Director
- Shareef Islam … Music by
- Michael Strahan … Cast, Mike Trainor
- Daryl "Chill" Mitchell … Cast, Chill Trainor
- Carl Weathers … Cast, "Coach" Trainor
- C.C.H. Pounder … Cast, Adele Trainor
- Colton Dunn … Cast, Roscoe