''Brother's Keeper'' is an American television
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
that ran for one season on
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
from September 25, 1998 to May 14, 1999. Created by Donald Todd, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of Porter Waide (
William Ragsdale
William Ragsdale (born January 19, 1961) is an American actor known for playing teenaged vampire slayer Charley Brewster in the horror vampire film ''Fright Night'' (1985) and Herman Brooks in the television series ''Herman's Head'' (1991–94) ...
) and his irresponsible pro-football player brother Bobby Waide (
Sean O'Bryan
Sean Michael O'Bryan (born September 10, 1963) is an American film and television actor from Louisville, Kentucky. He attended and graduated from St. Xavier High School.
Career
He co-starred with William Ragsdale on the series '' Brother' ...
), who is contractually forced to move into his brother's house, where Bobby's lifestyle often clashes with that of Porter's, and becomes an unwitting second parent to Porter's son Oscar (
Justin Cooper).
Premise
The series centers around Porter Waide (Ragsdale), a milquetoast college history professor and widowed single father, raising his son, Oscar (Cooper), by himself until his brother, Bobby (O'Bryan), a
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
placekicker
Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. In many cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist or punter.
Spe ...
who had just been signed to play with the
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...
and has a reputation for being a bad boy, moves in with his brother and nephew, as part of a stipulation in his new multimillion-dollar contract in which Bobby has to live with someone who is more responsible than him, in order to change his troublemaking ways.
This situation proves incredibly challenging as Bobby continues to exhibit childish behavior in his adult years, which often aggravates Porter, as well as Bobby's smart, sarcastic and harried sports agent Dena Draeger (Bess Meyer), who has the unenviable task of "babysitting" Bobby to ensure he stays out of trouble and keep him from violating the terms of his new
NFL contract. Although Porter is reluctant to let Bobby stay with him and his son, he realizes that Oscar is thrilled with the fact that he now gets to spend time with his famous uncle, with Bobby becoming an unlikely second parent to his nephew and making attempts to try to get his brother to have fun and loosen up, while Porter tries teaching Bobby how to be a responsible person.
Cast
Main
*
William Ragsdale
William Ragsdale (born January 19, 1961) is an American actor known for playing teenaged vampire slayer Charley Brewster in the horror vampire film ''Fright Night'' (1985) and Herman Brooks in the television series ''Herman's Head'' (1991–94) ...
– Porter Waide
*
Sean O'Bryan
Sean Michael O'Bryan (born September 10, 1963) is an American film and television actor from Louisville, Kentucky. He attended and graduated from St. Xavier High School.
Career
He co-starred with William Ragsdale on the series '' Brother' ...
– Bobby Waide
*
Justin Cooper – Oscar Arthur Waide
*
Bess Meyer
Bess or BESS may refer to:
* Bess (name), a given name and surname
* Bess (content-control software), a brand of web filtering software
* Bess (Dane), legendary Danish general mentioned in ''Gesta Danorum''
* Bess (singer), Finnish singer
* BESS ( ...
– Dena Draeger
Recurring
* Natasha Slayton – Rose
*
Kate Hodge
Kate Hodge is an American actress and film producer.
Life and career
Hodge was born in Berkeley, California,
Her first starring role was as Michelle, the heroine of the 1990 horror film ''Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III''. She t ...
– Marilyn
Special guests
*
Elizabeth Berkley
Elizabeth Berkley (born July 28, 1974) is an American actress. She played Jessie Spano in the television series ''Saved by the Bell'' and Nomi Malone/Polly Ann Costello in the 1995 Paul Verhoeven film ''Showgirls''. She voiced the title role o ...
(as Amy; episode: "You Are Me")
*
Dan Dierdorf
Daniel Lee Dierdorf (born June 29, 1949) is an American sportscaster and former football offensive tackle.
A native of Canton, Ohio, Dierdorf played college football for the University of Michigan from 1968 to 1970 and was selected as a conse ...
(as himself; episode: "Kick Ball, Get Check")
*
Illeana Douglas
Illeana Hesselberg (born July 25, 1961 or 1965), known professionally as Illeana Douglas, is an American actress and filmmaker. She appeared in three episodes of '' Six Feet Under'', for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as O ...
(as Ginny; episode: "Dating the Teacher")
*
Boomer Esiason
Norman Julius "Boomer" Esiason (; born April 17, 1961) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons, primarily with the Cincinnati Bengals. He was selected in th ...
(as himself; episode: "Kick Ball, Get Check")
*
John Michael Higgins
John Michael Higgins (born February 12, 1963) is an American actor and comedian whose film credits include Christopher Guest's mockumentaries, the role of David Letterman in HBO's '' The Late Shift'', and a starring role in the American versio ...
(as Mark; episodes: "Trick or Treat?", "The Note", "Politically Impolite")
*
Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
(as himself; episode: "Politically Impolite")
*
Jack Klugman
Jack Klugman (April 27, 1922 – December 24, 2012) was an American actor of stage, film, and television.
He began his career in 1950 and started television and film work with roles in ''12 Angry Men'' (1957) and '' Cry Terror!'' (1958). D ...
(as Jack; episode: "An Odd Couple of Days")
*
Piper Laurie
Piper Laurie (born Rosetta Jacobs; January 22, 1932) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in the films ''The Hustler'' (1961), '' Carrie'' (1976), and '' Children of a Lesser God'' (1986), all of which brought her Academy Award no ...
(as Jane Waide; episode: "Everybody Says I Love You")
*
Bill Maher
William Maher (; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show ''Real Time with Bill Maher'' (2003–present) and the similar la ...
(as himself; episode: "Politically Impolite")
*
Karl Malone
Karl Anthony Malone (born July 24, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Mailman", he is considered one of the greatest power forwards in NBA history. Malone spen ...
(as himself; episode: "You're in Trouble")
*
Al Michaels
Alan Richard Michaels (born November 12, 1944) is an American television sportscaster currently working as the play-by-play announcer for ''Thursday Night Football'' on Prime Video and in an emeritus role for NBC Sports. He has worked on netwo ...
(as himself; episode: "Kick Ball, Get Check")
*
Heather Nauert
Heather Ann Nauert (born January 27, 1970) is an American broadcast journalist and former government official who served as Spokesperson for the United States Department of State in the Donald Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. She is a seni ...
(as herself; episode: "Politically Impolite")
*
Tony Randall
Anthony Leonard Randall (born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play ''The Odd Couple'' by Neil Sim ...
(as Tony; episode: "An Odd Couple of Days")
*
Bobby Slayton
Robert Michael Slayton (born May 25, 1955) is an American actor and stand-up comedian. Slayton is probably best known for a supporting role in the 2001 film '' Bandits'', and as a frequent guest on '' The Adam Carolla Show'' (2006-2009).
Career
S ...
(as himself; episode: "Politically Impolite")
Episodes
Production
''Brother's Keeper'' was produced by Axelrod-Widdoes Entertainment and Donald Todd Productions in association with
Studios USA Television. Show creator Donald Todd served as the
executive producer
Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...
and
showrunner
A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also th ...
of the series, alongside non-writing executive producers Jonathan Axelrod and
James Widdoes
James Widdoes (born November 15, 1953, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), sometimes billed as Jamie Widdoes, is an American actor and director.
Early life
Widdoes graduated from The Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1972, and is a membe ...
(the latter of whom had also directed fifteen of the series' 23 episodes, including the pilot episode and the final episode of the first season, that effectively became the show's series finale, "The Duel").
Broadcast
The series aired as part of ABC's
TGIF comedy lineup on Friday evenings; despite this, some of the show's episodes featured decidedly more adult humor than the rest of the TGIF lineup, which otherwise targeted pre-teens and teenagers (though like most family sitcoms aired on TGIF, ''Brother's Keeper'' incorporated humor that would appeal to both adult viewers as well as to the lineup's target audience); as such, the series was aired at 9:30 p.m. ET on Friday evenings and was one of two freshman series added to the block that season, along with the
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Fuller Olsen (born June 13, 1986), also known as the Olsen twins as a duo, are American fashion designers and former actresses. The twins made their acting debut as infants playing Michelle Tanner on the television s ...
starring vehicle ''
Two of a Kind'' (both series were joined by veteran TGIF shows ''
Boy Meets World
''Boy Meets World'' is an American coming-of-age sitcom created by Michael Jacobs and April Kelly that aired on ABC for seven seasons between September1993 and May2000. The series centers on Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and his friends and famil ...
'' and ''
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
''Sabrina the Teenage Witch'' is a comic book series published by Archie Comics about the adventures of a fictional American teenager named Sabrina Spellman. Sabrina was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo, and first appeared ...
'').
Online streaming
Since October 12, 2007, 22 of the series' 23 episodes (excluding the show's ninth episode "The Boss of Me") are available through
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
though its distribution agreement with part-owner
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primari ...
(one of the show's production companies, Studios USA, was absorbed into Universal Television after NBCUniversal predecessor company
Vivendi Universal
Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...
acquired
USA Networks
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
' film and television assets in 2002;
NBCUniversal Television Distribution
NBCUniversal Syndication Studios (a.k.a. NUSS), formerly known as NBCUniversal Television Distribution (a.k.a. NUTD), Universal Domestic Television, Studios USA Television Distribution and MCA TV, is the television syndication division of NBCUnive ...
currently handles the series' domestic and international distribution rights).
The series is among a handful of program titles (both ongoing and discontinued television series with complete seasons) that do not require a subscription to the Hulu Plus service to access all of the episodes online, though a Hulu Plus subscription is required to view the episodes on internet-enabled television sets and mobile devices.
Reception
Ratings
Despite respectable ratings, often winning the 9:30 p.m. timeslot in most demographics
and averaging 10.7 million total viewers during its run (finishing the 1998-99 season #62 out of 155 primetime shows, tied with the
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
newsmagazine ''
48 Hours'', according to
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
), the series was cancelled by ABC in May 1999.
Awards
References
External links
*
{{TGIF (ABC)
1998 American television series debuts
1999 American television series endings
1990s American sitcoms
American Broadcasting Company original programming
English-language television shows
Television series by Universal Television
Television shows set in San Francisco
TGIF (TV programming block)