How Uncle Saul became gay on "Brothers & Sisters"

If you found it shocking that Uncle Saul is gay on "Brothers & Sisters," you're not the only one. The actor who plays him, Ron Rifkin, had no idea until the show was well into its first season! There's a good reason why Rifkin and others were caught off guard: the sexuality of the character was decided because show creator Jon Robin Baitz and the writers couldn't figure out what to do with the character, Baitz says in the new TV Guide:
“The story lines for Saul [Ron Rifkin] were just starting to run on fumes, and we kept looking for more areas to explore with him — the business and stuff — but none of it seemed as juicy as this," Baitz says. "Next season, Saul’s going to struggle to come to terms with himself and confront his shame — ‘I’m a nice Jewish boy. I can’t be gay.’ But it took me a month to ask Ron. It wasn’t what he had signed on for and I thought, ‘Is this really what he wants to be doing?’ I hadn’t even finished the sentence and he was like, ‘That’s great — why would that be a problem?’ He’s thrilled.”
So are we!