Bram and Alice

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.