Bram and Alice

I hadn't been expecting much from this show, but it came on after "Becker" so I decided to give it a shot.

Alice O'Connor, an ambitious young writer, discovers to her shock that her real father is Bram Sheppard, famous writer and a bit of a lech. She moves in with him they try to form a relationship, with Bram's assistant, Paul Newman, offering a slightly more normal perspective on things.

The writing is good and very funny; one reaction shot of Bram's made me laugh for minutes. Alfred Molina totally captures Bram, and Traylor Howard does a good job as his slightly irritating daughter Alice. Roger Bart turns in an amusingly understated role as Paul, and Katie Finneran and Michael Rispoli are good stand-outs as Katie the young professional, and Michael the priest-turned-bartender. Whether these two will be recurring roles or not I cannot say, but I sure hope so.

"Bram And Alice" got off to a good start. Let's hope it can sustain this level of comedy and wit.

The first time I heard about this show was when it was canceled (which was after two episodes). I happened to look it up.

Network idiocy, all the way. This show had one of the best casts a sitcom could ever hope for.

Alfred Molina is probably Hollywood's most underrated actor. He's been in wide range of projects, good and bad, and he's always been much better than the role demanded, whether playing the effeminate Harvard professor in "Species" or the Mexican villain in "Maverick" or the nasty Greek lawyer in "Before and After". He finally, now, has been given a major role (as Diego Rivera, in "Frida") after about 25 years in Hollywood.

Traylor Howard should be ranked with Renee Zellweger and Julia Roberts for likeable talent, but she keeps getting stuck in failing projects that don't do her any justice. At least she's free, again, to go pursue something else. She should've been given a break-out role five years ago, already.

The rest of the "Bram and Alice" cast was strong, too, although because I never heard of the show, I never saw it, so I can only guess at the chemistry.

I've asked around. I don't know *anyone* -- in person or online -- who saw this show or even saw an ad for it. The network simply decided to waste its money and kill the show even before they canceled it. Sheer incompetence, and someone ought to be fired.

What a fantastic show! I saw the pilot and laughed out-loud! And laughing out-loud for me usually takes smart writing and great delivery by the actors. This show does that and I hope to continue to watch and laugh out-loud.

The pitch for this show sounded boring before I ever watched the first episode. Alice is one more sweet, talented girl with low self-esteem looking to have her dreams fulfilled who goes to meet the father she never knew (and never knew she didn't know--that Bram was her father was news to her). The character is a cliche (though a fairly modern one) and a bit of a waste of Traylor Howard's talent. This is her third series in a relatively brief time, which tells us that she is appealing but they're not sure what to do with her. The character of Bram has potential as a laughgetter but I don't really think he has much potential to be sympathetic. I was more interested in his assistant, though the "same name as a famous person" gag was pretty much played out by "The Tony Randall Show" and "Busting Loose" in the Seventies. For "Bram and Alice" to work out, they're going to need to bring more meat to the casserole than they have so far.

The series is about Alice O'Connor (Howard) wanted to be a writer in New York City and she finds out that her biological father is Bram Shepherd (Molina) a novelist and the show is titled "Bram and Alice" from the people of "Fraiser".

The show stars Alfred Molina as novelist Bram Shepherd with Traylor Howard as Alice O'Connor, with Roger Bart as Paul Newman (now to be confused with the motion picture star) Katie Finnerman as Katie and Michael Rispoli as Michael.

The show airs on CBS-TV at 8:30 p.m. Eastern/7:30 p.m. Central on Sunday Nights.

The pilot episode is well-written and a cast of talented actors and actress.

I give the show 9 1/2 out of 10. Great series.