A.U.S.A.: Cast Photo - Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries

A.U.S.A. aired on NBC from February until April 2003.

Courtroom comedy centering on handsome young New York Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Sullivan ( Scott Foley), who bumbled his way through his first days on the job even while showing some surprising backbone when cases got serious. His chief foil was pretty public defender Susan Rakoff ( Amanda Detmer) who felt that all A.U.S.A.'s were enemies of the people and who regularly put him down. Of course that made him lust for her all the more. Geoffrey ( Peter Jacobson), was Adam's mousy supervisor, Wally ( John Ross Bowie), his grinning, goofball paralegal ( obsessed with stappling everything), and Ana ( Ana Ortiz) a street smart fellow A.U.S.A. who came to the rescue when gullible Adam was about to let his naivete get the best of him. Owen ( Eddie McClintock), was his shaggy, party-guy roommate who hung around the office looking for chicks.

A Review From The New York Times

TELEVISION REVIEW; A New Show Blessed for What It Isn't
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: February 4, 2003

''A.U.S.A.,'' a new NBC sitcom set in the United States attorney's office in Manhattan, seems startlingly old-fashioned: it is a three-camera taped show with a laugh track, a cast of likable oddballs and dialogue sprinkled with references that seem taken from an old Bob Newhart episode, like Bob Dole and the Tuskegee airmen of World War II.

Tonight's episode may not be as madcap and original as ''Will & Grace'' or as artfully written as ''Friends,'' but ''A.U.S.A.'' -- for assistant United States attorney -- is not a reality show. That alone should be honored as an extraordinary act of will by NBC. Viewers should not only watch it, they should march en masse to Rockefeller Center and festoon the gates with bouquets, balloons and messages of thankful praise.

Just as the American government turns a blind eye to autocratic excesses in Kazakhstan, viewers can no longer afford to be too picky about their network sitcoms and dramas. The alternative to ''A.U.S.A.'' may not be a more imaginative sitcom, it could be yet another dating contest, perhaps real-life federal prosecutors scouring women's correctional facilities for the hottest inmate.

''Joe Millionaire,'' ''The Bachelorette'' and ''American Idol'' have converted even the most skeptical network executives to the immediate future of television, and it does not lie in expensive, well-constructed comedies. Two weeks after predicting that the reality-show craze would soon collapse, CBS confessed it, too, was rushing to schedule more reality shows for fall. ''The world as we knew it is over,'' Leslie Moonves, the president of CBS Television, explained.

''Friends'' and ''Frasier'' are to disappear after next season, putting tremendous pressure on NBC to develop new hits to take their place. NBC scheduled ''A.U.S.A.'' on Tuesdays after ''Frasier'' to try it out as a possible substitute for the poorly rated ''Hidden Hills.'' That deplorable sitcom about sex-starved suburban baby boomers was the network's effort to branch out to family comedies like ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' and ''According to Jim,'' which did well for CBS and ABC.

With ''A.U.S.A.'' NBC returns to what it does best, sophisticated farce centered around single urban professionals. Not that sophisticated, however. In one scene shown many times in promos, a judge walks in as the new and nervous prosecutor, Adam Sullivan, played winningly by Scott Foley (''Felicity''), tries to dry his trousers by pressing his hips against the men's room dryer.

In tone and comic sensibility, ''A.U.S.A.'' feels less like a successor to ''Frasier'' than another 90's sitcom on NBC, ''Wings.''

The executive producer, Richard Appel (''The Simpsons,'' ''King of the Hill''), based the series on his own experiences as a prosecutor in New York in the early 90's, and it reflects a United States attorney's worldview: F.B.I. agents are stiff, pompous and doltish.

The hero is saddled with an inept paralegal, Wally, played with considerable finesse by John Ross Bowie (''Road Trip''), and a beautiful blond adversary, Susan Rakoff, a public defender played by Amanda Detmer (''The Majestic''). In the first episode Ms. Rakoff's character is a generic lust interest. She is not so much dressed in low-cut blouses and miniskirts as she is trussed in them.

If nothing else, she is a sign that even if David E. Kelley's ''Ally McBeal'' and this year's short-lived ''Girls Club'' were canceled, his vision of women in the courtroom lives on. And that is just fine. At least she is a fictional character and not a contestant in ABC's next big reality show, ''Are You Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People.''

A.U.S.A.

NBC, tonight at 9:30, Eastern and Pacific times; 8, Central time
Creator and executive producer, Richard Appel; directed by Andrew Weyman, Steve Zuckerman and Linda Mendoza; producer, Shari Tavey; edited by Kirk Bensen; written by Abraham Higginbotham, Warren Lieberstein, Halsted Sullivan, Judah Miller and Murray Miller; director of photography, Bobby Byrne; music by Roger Neill. Produced by NBC Studios and 20th Century Fox TV.

WITH: John Ross Bowie (Wally Berman), Amanda Detmer (Susan Rakoff), Scott Foley (Adam Sullivan), Peter Jacobson (Geoffrey Laurence), Eddie McClintock (Owen Harper) and Ana Ortiz (Ana Rivera).

A Review From The Michigan Daily

'A.U.S.A' not A-OK
By Christian Smith, Daily Arts Writer
2/4/03

For four years, Scott Foley played charming doofus Noel Crane on the WB's critically adored college drama "Felicity." He brought that same nebbish charisma to NBC's "Scrubs" last year in a two-episode guest stint. With "A.U.S.A," NBC's new legal comedy, Foley makes it three-for-three in the charm department. Unfortunately, he didn't bring along any of the other qualities that make those other two shows so compelling.

After first hearing about "A.U.S.A.", it seemed to have the potential to capture the quirky essence of "Scrubs" and its inventive take on a tired genre. What "Scrubs" did to the medical genre - givinng a face of humanity to those intense doctors - "A.U.S.A." could have done for lawyers, if that's at all possible. Instead, it comes off as another stiff and contrived sitcom leaving Foley no room to shine.

In tonight's pilot episode, we meet Foley's Adam Sullivan, a promising young assistant U.S. attorney (hence, the title). It's his first day on the job as a federal prosecutor, and it's going to be a long one. After an accident at the firing range (evidently that's a requirement for new prosecutors), Sullivan works duly hard trying to impress his unappeasable boss (Peter Jacobson) and Susan, the public defender he's up against (Amanda Detmer), who also happens to be his former college crush. He comes across one misfortune after another, including a sexually-charged encounter with a bathroom hand-dryer and an accidental case of jury-tampering. But while these circumstances could be utilized to opportune comedic effect, "A.U.S.A." doesn't take advantage of the situations.

None of the supporting characters do much to help take the pressure off of Foley, (Eddie McClintock) Sullivan's easygoing roommate, is downright infuriating. The one exception is John Ross Bowie as the incompetent paralegal Wally, who grows a liking to Sullivan. If not for him, Foley would be completely hung out to dry. Although the dimwitted lackey character is hardly an original move, Bowie's mindless devotion comes off as refreshing in this otherwise mechanical contraption.

It's as if network executives just took the old sitcom formula, changed the variables and plugged it into the machine. Unless "A.U.S.A." makes some considerable changes soon, look for this midseason replacement's tenure to be a short one.

2 Stars

For more on A.U.S.A. go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.U.S.A.