Kate Brasher is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 dramatic television series

Dramatic programming

Dramatic programming in the UK, or television drama and television drama series in the US, is television program content that is scripted and fictional along the lines of √a traditional drama. This excludes, for example, sports television, television news, reality show and game shows, stand-up...

 that was broadcast by CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

. It premiered at 9:00pm ET/PT on Saturday, February 24, 2001 and was cancelled after six episodes.

The title character was the single mother of teenaged sons Daniel and Elvis. Facing a financial crisis, she seeks legal advice at Brothers Keepers, an inner city

Inner city

The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...

 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.

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.

Although set in Santa Monica

Santa Mônica

Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...

, the series was shot on location in San Diego, California

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

.

Among those actors making guest appearances during the series' short run were K Callan

K Callan

K Callan is an American actress known for playing Clark Kent's mother Martha in the ABC television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman....

, Dennis Christopher

Dennis Christopher

Dennis Christopher is an American actor. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is known for playing Dave Stoller in Breaking Away and tragic film buff psychopath Eric Binford in Fade to Black....

, Paul Dooley

Paul Dooley

-Personal life:Dooley was born Paul Dooley Brown in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the son of Ruth Irene , a homemaker, and Peter James Brown, a factory worker. Dooley was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. He joined the Navy before discovering acting while at...

, Mariette Hartley

Mariette Hartley

Mary Loretta "Mariette" Hartley is an American character actress.-Personal life:Hartley was born in Weston, Connecticut, the daughter of Mary Ickes “Polly” , a manager and saleswoman, and Paul Hembree Hartley, an account executive. Her maternal grandfather was psychologist John B...

, Josh Hopkins

Josh Hopkins

William Joshua Hopkins is an American actor.-Career:Hopkins joined the fourth, and last season, of New York Undercover in 1998. In 1999 Hopkins starred in Alanis Morissette's "Unsent" music video...

, Carl Lumbly, David Naughton

David Naughton (actor)

David Walsh Naughton is an American actor and singer best known for his starring roles in the 1981 horror film An American Werewolf in London, the 1980 Walt Disney comedy, Midnight Madness, the 1984 comedies Hot Dog.....

, and Mackenzie Phillips

Mackenzie Phillips

Mackenzie Phillips is an American actress and singer best known for her roles in American Graffiti and as rebellious teenager Julie Cooper Horvath on the sitcom One Day at a Time...

.

Principal cast

• Mary Stuart Masterson
  Mary Stuart Masterson
  Mary Stuart Masterson is an American film, stage and television actress and director.-Early life:Masterson was born in New York City to writer/director Peter Masterson and actress Carlin Glynn. She has two siblings: Peter Masterson Jr., and Alexandra Masterson, who are both involved in the...
  
   ..... Kate Brasher
• Rhea Perlman ..... Abbie Schaeffer
• Hector Elizondo
  Hector Elizondo
  Héctor Elizondo is an American actor. Elizondo's first major role was that of "God" in the play Steambath, for which he won an Obie Award...
  
   ..... Joe Almeida
• Mason Gamble
  Mason Gamble
  Mason Wilson Gamble is an American actor known for his portrayal of Dennis Mitchell in the 1993 film Dennis the Menace and as Jason Schwartzman's sidekick, Dirk Calloway, in Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson's critically acclaimed 1998 film Rushmore. He also appeared in Anya's Bell with Della Reese,...
  
   ..... Elvis Brasher
• Gregory Smith ..... Daniel Brasher
• Roger Robinson
  Roger Robinson (actor)
  Roger Robinson is an American actor who won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for the 2009 revival of Joe Turner's Come and Gone....
  
   ..... Earl

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

Dixie Carter

Dixie Virginia Carter was an American film, television and stage actress, best known for her role as Julia Sugarbaker in the CBS sitcom Designing Women...

 get carried away with one of hers on Designing Women

Designing Women

Designing Women is an American television sitcom that centered on the working and personal lives of four Southern women and one man in an interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. It aired on the CBS television network from September 29, 1986 until May 24, 1993. The show was created by head writer...

. 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

ER (TV series)

ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

-ish atmosphere of hustle, bustle, chaos and crisis, . . . [and] to be simultaneously uplifting and cynical."