Kate Brasher

For the English tennis player, see Kate Brasher (tennis).

Kate Brasher is an American drama television series created by Stephen Tolkin, that was broadcast on CBS from February 24 until April 14, 2001. It premiered at 9:00pm ET/PT on Saturday, February 24, 2001 and was cancelled after six episodes.

Kate Brasher
Genre	Drama
Created by	Stephen Tolkin
Starring	Mary Stuart Masterson Hector Elizondo Gregory Smith Mason Gamble Rhea Perlman
Theme music composer	Nathan Barr Lisbeth Scott[1]
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Executive producers	Danny DeVito John Landgraf Stacey Sher Stephen Tolkin
Producers	Mary Stuart Masterson Cyrus I. Yavneh
Cinematography	Gordon Lonsdale
Running time	60 minutes
Production companies	Jersey Television CBS Productions 20th Century Fox Television
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	February 24 (2001-02-24) – April 14, 2001 (2001-04-14)

Overview

The title character was the single mother of teenaged sons Daniel and Elvis living in Santa Monica, California. Facing a financial crisis, she seeks legal advice at Brothers Keepers, an inner city community advocacy center, and is offered a job as a social worker. Her co-workers include attorney Abbie Schaeffer and Joe Almeida, the organization's street-smart director, who founded it after his daughter was killed in gang crossfire.

Cast

• Mary Stuart Masterson as Kate Brasher
• Hector Elizondo as Joe Almeida
• Gregory Smith as Daniel Brasher, Kate's first son
• Mason Gamble as Elvis Brasher, Kate's second son
• Rhea Perlman as Abbie Schaeffer
• Roger Robinson as Earl

Among those actors making guest appearances during the series' short run were K Callan, Dennis Christopher, Paul Dooley, Mariette Hartley, Josh Hopkins, Carl Lumbly, Spencer Breslin, David Naughton and Mackenzie Phillips.^[1]

Development and production

Series creator Stephen Tolkin based the character of Almeida on Rabbi Mark Borovitz, an ex-convict and alcoholic who became the spiritual leader of Gateways Beit T'Shuvah, a residential treatment center for Jews in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. The two men met when Tolkin contacted the rabbi for help with a friend who was dealing with substance abuse.^[2]

Although set in Santa Monica, California, the series was shot on location in San Diego, California.

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by [3]	Written by [3]	Original release date	Prod. code [3]
1	"Kate" "Pilot"	James Frawley	Stephen Tolkin	February 24, 2001 (2001-02-24)	1AEA01
2	"Simon"	Jerry Levine	Story by : John Landgraf, Joel Fields, Stephen Tolkin Written by : Joel Fields, Stephen Tolkin	March 3, 2001 (2001-03-03)	1AEA04
3	"Jeff"	Steve Robman	Joel Fields, Stephen Tolkin	March 10, 2001 (2001-03-10)	1AEA06
4	"Jackson"	Joe Napolitano	Phil Penningroth	March 24, 2001 (2001-03-24)	1AEA05
5	"Tracy"	Arvin Brown	Stephen Tolkin	April 7, 2001 (2001-04-07)	1AEA02
6	"Georgia"	Steve Miner	Dana Baratta	April 14, 2001 (2001-04-14)	1AEA03

Critical reception

Anita Gates of the New York Times said the series "has an appealing cast and doesn't insult viewers' intelligence most of the time. But the main characters - who are 100 percent good and face off against people who are 100 percent bad - always seem to be making self-righteous speeches . . . There's nothing wrong with inspiring little speeches that make audiences cheer. It was always a pleasure to see Dixie Carter get carried away with one of hers on Designing Women. But the speeches have to say something in a fresh way, and even Ms. Carter's orations got old once the show's writers became so self-conscious about them.

Kate Brasher is trying too hard . . . to be quirky . . . to create a noisy ER-ish atmosphere of hustle, bustle, chaos and crisis, . . . [and] to be simultaneously uplifting and cynical."^[4]