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Ben Browder began a much too brief run on the television series 'Party of Five' on November 13, 1996, a mere 3 years BF (Before Farscape). Cast in the role of gorgeous roofing/construction contractor bossman -- 'Sam Brody'. Unfortunately, for Party of Five... but not for Farscape... Sam must not have caught on too well with the Po5 fans, and not being a fan of 'Party of Five', and it's 'crisis of the week' storylines, I wasn't watching, and his presence went largely unnoticed by me. Although I admit, while channel surfing a couple of years back, I did come across "Significant Others" when it first aired, and couldn't turn it off-- Now, of course, I realize why I found it so mezmerizing, and why I remember it to this day! Wow. Sam Brody was initially characterized as a warm, gentle, understanding guy, who also happened to be simply drop dead gorgeous. Gee, that sounds familiar! It's no wonder that little Julie Salinger fell for him... hard. It's too bad, but not surprising (considering how badly show storylines were handled in general), that Sam's character was written off the show after a mere 11 episodes. Even more bad (just plain bad, godawful-bad, that is), that this was done using an absolutely 'out-of-the-blue' character development issue, which allowed Julie to end the 'relationship'. ARG! I'd almost rather he fell off the roof! Sorry, hate bad storytelling. Anyway, overlooking all of that, and how woefully underused Ben Browder was in this trifling little serial, it's still worthwhile to give it a look. At this writing, Party of Five is airing on the syndication network "LIFETIME", and the Season 3 Episodes Ben Browder aired in 'should' be coming up again sometime in February 2001! Update: (December 21, 2000) Unfortunately, Party of Five is no longer airing on LifeTime. Dang it. Was looking forward to the repeats. Oh, and apologies to Ben Browder for even having this section. But I'm an obsessed fan. What can I say? hehe. Listed below are the episodes Ben Browder appeared in, with some links to a brief 'Sam Brody' episode summary, along with a few captures for the gallery:
EPISODE 3.09: "Gimme Shelter" Original Airdate: 11/13/1996 Ally's Party of Five rating for Ben Browder: A+ Ally's Party of Five rating: B- (and occassionally lower for having Sam on for less than 10 seconds in one episode, and an F for writing him off... and a bomb rating for doing it in such a idiotic way!) Beyond these few episodes, I don't recommend Party of Five at all. Except maybe the first few episodes when they still had a good story idea... and used it.
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