From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to the treatment, which you can also hear at KCRW.com.

I'm Elvis Mitchell.

My guest, John Robin Pate, is not enough that he has been a

post-prized finalist, a Guggenheim fellow, has written such plays as The Substance of Fire,

adapted to Hadda Gabbler, did one of my favorite plays, the Paris Letter, which I think is a

wonderful play. He's now turned his sights as a writer to television. He's written the series,

create the series, brothers and sisters, which has just been

picked up for its second year.

First of all, Robbie, thanks so much for being here.

It's such a pleasure.

And it fits so much into what you've done so far.

I think of the watch where it's used being family, guilt, secrets, and money.

Oh, I was going to say Jewish stuff, but then you added money, so I thought I'd do that.

Did you make fair to tell the honest little bit what the show is about, although I think I've kind of described it in those four words, but.

Mike Nichols once said to me, in order for anything to work, I'm going to try and even do him.

In order for something to work, there has to be sex, money, and fighting. And of course, that's stuck in my head. And it's, the show is sort of a

microcosm of a particular kind of America. Sort of there's a privilege, there's a patent

of privilege about them. They're hyper articulate.

They're educated.

The good thing about this family is that they sort of talk it all out, you know, and they finally hold on to each other very closely, which I think there's, there was a hunger maybe for a show about a family that lives in real time a little

bit and isn't entirely escapist fair.

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