Marc Halsey

By NEAL JUSTIN

If the smell of smoke emits from your screen during Sunday's episode of ABC's "Brothers & Sisters," don't be alarmed. It's only because the script was written in front of the fireplace in a Prior Lake log cabin.

Burnsville native Marc Halsey, a graduate of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA program, penned the episode, "Leap of Faith," during a two-week vacation back in the Twin Cities. Halsey has been a writers' assistant for the show since April 2008 and finally got a chance to get his own work on the air.

"They felt like it was time," he said.

Halsey had hoped to write under the new-fangled invention called electricity, but his father had recently installed thermal heating - and that led to the power being out for much of the trip.

"I'd write 10 pages, then put a log on the fire," Halsey said.

The show airs 9:01 p.m. Sunday on KSTP, Ch. 5.