Brewster Place

Brewster Place is an American drama series which aired on ABC in May 1990. The series was a spinoff of the 1989 miniseries The Women of Brewster Place, which was based upon Gloria Naylor's novel of the same name. The series starred talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who also served as co-executive producer.

Brewster Place
Genre	Drama
Based on	The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
Written by	Maya Angelou Paul W. Cooper Earl Hamner, Jr. Dianne Houston Don Sipes
Directed by	Ivan Dixon Jan Eliasberg Bill Duke Helaine Head
Starring	Oprah Winfrey Brenda Pressley Olivia Cole Rachael Crawford Kelly Neal John Cothran Jr. Oscar Brown Jr. John Speredakos Jason Weaver
Theme music composer	David Shire
Opening theme	Performed by Take 6
Composer	David Shire
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	11 (2 unaired)
Production
Executive producers	Earl Hamner, Jr. Don Sipes Oprah Winfrey
Producers	Reuben Cannon Stan Kallis
Editors	Dann Cahn Quinnie Martin, Jr. Joe Morrisey
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	22 minutes
Production companies	Amanda Productions The Don Sipes Organization Harpo Productions Hearst Entertainment
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	May 1 (1990-05-01) – July 11, 1990 (1990-07-11)
Related
The Women of Brewster Place

Plot

Set in 1967, the series begin with events following the end of the 1989 miniseries, The Women of Brewster Place. Mattie Michael (Oprah Winfrey) is fired from her job as a beautician, and agrees to purchase a neighborhood restaurant with her best friend Etta Mae (Brenda Pressley). Kiswana (Rachel Crawford), Abshu (Kelly Neal), and Miss Sophie (Olivia Cole) are still residents of Brewster Place, and various other individuals move onto the block as the series progresses.

The series was filmed entirely in Chicago, on the lot of Winfrey's Harpo Productions. It failed to capture the audience and critical acclaim of the miniseries, and was cancelled after a month. However, the full season of 11 episodes has since been released on both VHS and DVD.

Cast

• Oprah Winfrey as Mattie Michael
• Rachael Crawford as Melanie "Kiswana" Browne
• Brenda Pressley as Etta Mae Johnson
• Olivia Cole as Miss Sophie
• Kelly Neal as Abshu Kamau
• John Cothran as Ralph Thomas
• Oscar Brown Jr. as Jessie
• John Speredakos as Mickey Adriano
• Jason Weaver as Matthew Thomas

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	"Pilot"	Unknown	Unknown	May 1, 1990 (1990-05-01)
2	"Open for Business"	Unknown	Unknown	May 8, 1990 (1990-05-08)
3	"One Small Step at a Time"	Unknown	Unknown	May 9, 1990 (1990-05-09)
4	"Spring Fever"	Unknown	Unknown	May 16, 1990 (1990-05-16)
5	"Whatever Happened to Patience Jones?"	Unknown	Unknown	May 30, 1990 (1990-05-30)
6	"Gone Fishing"	Unknown	Unknown	June 13, 1990 (1990-06-13)
7	"Bernice Sands Comes Home"	Unknown	Unknown	June 20, 1990 (1990-06-20)
8	"The Poet"	Unknown	Unknown	June 27, 1990 (1990-06-27)
9	"Family Album"	Helaine Head	Johnny Dawkins	July 4, 1990 (1990-07-04)
10	"Say It Loud"	Roy Campanella, II	Dianne Houston	July 11, 1990 (1990-07-11)
11	"Partners"	TBD	TBD	UNAIRED
12	"County General"	Helaine Head	Kathy McCormick & Dianne Houston	UNAIRED

Ratings

• Episode 1: 15.3 rating/21.9 million viewers
• Episode 2: 13.2 rating
• Episode 3: 9.7 rating
• Episode 4: 10.1
• Episode 5: 9
• Episode 6: 7.6 rating/11.9 million viewers

Reception

Entertainment Weekly gave the series a grade of B−, and reviewed the show mildly favorably, stating, "There's something warm and comforting about Brewster Place, and something complacent and artificial as well."

External links

• Brewster Place at IMDb