Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Brian Benben Show: Cast Photo

The Brian Benben Show aired from September until October 1998 on CBS.

A sad-sack newsman was domoted and divorced, but wore a silly grin through it all, in this slapstick sitcom. Brian ( Brian Benben), was co-anchor on the KYLA-TV news in Los Angeles, who had been replaced, along with his co-anchor, in favor of 2 incompetent but attractive young news personalities: Chad (Charles Eston), who most recently was a VJ on cables VH1, and Tabitha (Lisa Thornhill), who had scored highly in audience testing when males were asked, " who would you most like to screw?" Despite having been dumped, Brian returned to the station as the emergency replacement for the human interest reporter-who had been mauled and killed covering an ape exhibit at the zoo. He did have his allies at KYLA-Kevin ( Wendell Pierce), the sports anchor, and Billy( Luis Antonio Ramos), the weatherman. Beverly ( Susan Blommaert), the station manager who had dumped him, was a constant thorn in his side. His friend Julie ( Lisa Vidal), provided a sympathetic ear and good advice.

A Review From The New York Times

by Caryn James

The more lightweight ''Brian Benben Show'' is built on a common but true assumption: the Ted Baxters of the world have taken over local news, that broadest and most irresistible of television targets.

Mr. Benben, best known as the fantasizing Martin Tupper of the HBO series ''Dream On,'' inspires sympathy here as a character named Brian Benben. He has been pushed aside as an anchor at a Los Angeles station in favor of two young, plastic airheads. ''Ken and Barbie have entered the building,'' Benben's colleagues say when they spot the new anchors. Benben is handed a fluffy human-interest segment called ''L.A. Story.''

In a mini-homage to the famous ''Mary Tyler Moore'' episode in which Chuckles the Clown, dressed as a peanut, is crushed to death by an elephant, we see Benben's predecessor on ''L.A. Story'' meet his end. He does a story at the zoo and is crushed to death by a lovelorn ape. His funeral is crammed with people he has covered, including Professor Kazoo and Miss Garlic. Now all that is Benben's.

Beneath this silliness, though, Benben shares much of the sardonic attitude of Martin Tupper. The series' tone is set by his vindictive attitude toward his gloating replacement, Chad Rockwell (Charles Esten), who is evil but happens to have great hair. With its surface giddiness and sight gags and its undertone of mordant wit, ''The Brian Benben Show'' plays better than it sounds and is much sharper than CBS's lame promos for it suggest. It is not the most hyped series of the season, but could turn out to be one of the most enjoyable.

THE BRIAN BENBEN SHOW

For more on The Brian Benben Show go to www.allyourtv.com/9899season/benben.html