TV Guide - June of 2002
BITTY SCHRAM
Age: 29
Hails From: Mountainside, New Jersey
Plays: Sharona Fleming, Girl Friday to Tony Shalhoub's obsessive-compulsive detective on USA's Monk.
Status: Single
Fun Fact: In A League of Their Own, she played the sobbing right fielder who was reminded by Tom Hanks that "There's no crying in baseball!"
In the show, you play a single mom to a 9-year old boy (although in "Mr. Monk and the Earthquake," Sharona says that Benjy is 11). Is that weird? "No, I've had children before in other projects. In A League of Their Own, I don't think I was 20 yet, and they made me have a 7-year-old kid!"
How are you like your character? "She's a fighter, like an Erin Brockavich. Someone who gets this opportunity to really prove herself. She has tenacity and passion for her work. Hopefully, I am more sophisticated-looking. She's more like a Jersey girl."
But you're from New Jersey! Any fun summer memories from the Garden State? "I'd go down to the shore with my friends and we'd cause a little bit of trouble. Jersey gets a bad rap, but we have some really nice areas there. Since The Sopranos, I'm so proud [laughs]."
Ever meet any wiseguys? "It's totally what I grew up with. Wait, I don't know if you should print that!"
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TV Guide- August 24, 2002
GREAT PERFORMANCES
"On USA Network's summer hit Monk, the pathologically phobic but brilliant detective Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) would be lost without his constant companion and nurse Sharona (Bitty Schram). Likewise, the show is unimaginable without the scene-stealing sidekick, a feisty single mom who loves the adventure even when Monk drives her to distraction. Equal parts protector and nudge, she is proud of her association with Monk but also so exasperated she often threatens to quit. Let's hope that never happens." -Matt Roush
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Satellite Direct. – June 2003
BITTY SCHRAM: ON LOVE AND NEUROSES
Audiences are going crazy for Bitty Schram's role on Monk as Sharona Fleming, whose calming influence works as the perfect foil for partner Adrian Monk's (Tony Shalhoub) obsessive-compulsiveness. With filming barely underway on the second season of the wildly popular detective show, Schram pauses briefly to talk life, love, and neuroses.
Q. How are you?
A. I've been running around like a nutcase.
Q. That's appropriate for someone acting against a character with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
A. Yes, it is.
Q. What's in store for Monk's second season?
A. We're only [currently taping] episode two, so I don't really know the season of storylines - it seems like it's going fine. So far, it's the same crazy adventures we had before.
Q. What would you like to see happen to Sharona during this season?
A. You wanna get me started? I'd like to have different relationships with the other characters. We started something with Lt. Disher and me in the first season. You really felt it was a love/hate thing, and they were going to get together at some point. They may really like each other.
Q. What about Sharona's bizarre relationship with Monk? Where's that going?
A. It would be good to delve into their relationship more. Like a married couple has its ups and downs, we should have more of an arc. If he got involved with a woman, how would I feel about that? How would that affect our relationship? He goes to the therapist; I could go to couples therapy with him and try to talk about our problems.
Q. The two of you would drive a therapist to drinking.
A. [Laughs]. It would drive a therapist insane. But us going to a couples' therapist should absolutely be explored. It would be fantastic.
Q. Why do you think Sharona is unable to leave Monk, even though he frustrates her?
A. Even though he does drive me crazy, I do connect with him. We're both outsiders, both different, and I really sympathize or connect with his oddness, his quirkiness. I do also know he's a good man, despite him driving me crazy. That's why I stay, that's the comedy, like The Odd Couple. He drives me nuts, but I could never leave him.
Q. What are your own neuroses?
A. I have a lot, but I don't know which ones to tell you. I worry about my work a lot, and I worry about how I look a lot.
Q. That's not neurosis, that's Hollywood.
A. I'll never be Hollywood. I'll never get plastic surgery. I'm mainly neurotic about the work. I'm neurotic because I'm a perfectionist. I'm worried about people taking my work and doing stuff with it. I worry about what take they'll use.
Q. What about an unreasonable neurosis? You sound pretty normal.
A. I'm claustrophobic. I can't stand being in elevators. Planes - I freak out on planes.
Q. Does Tony Shalhoub stay in character on the Monk set?
A. Oh, no. [Laughs]. Oh, God, no. And I don't think you could. I don't think the material warrants it. This isn't Sophie's Choice, this is Monk; we've gotta rest, otheriwse, we'd just be killed.
By Kevin Dickson
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Entertainment Weekly – late 2003/early 2004
The Second Banana Award goes to...
Bitty Schram
FOR ''Monk''
WHY? Tony Shalhoub gets all the glory (and last year, a Golden Globe) for his brilliant portrayal of obsessive-compulsive sleuth Adrian Monk. But without the all-important support of Schram's Sharona Fleming, Monk's perpetually exasperated assistant, the neurotic flatfoot might never leave the house. Catering to Monk's every phobia is a full-time job, which Sharona juggles with a full personal life that includes raising a preteen son and dating a succession of deceptive cads. Schram pulls it all off with grace and aplomb, and while wearing some of the tightest blouses and skirts on basic cable. Sharona may feel underappreciated, but it's good to see Globe voters haven't made that mistake with Schram.
(Golden Globe nomination: Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Series)
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Entertainment Weekly – February 2004
Bitty Schram
Here's what this up-and-coming star plans to do next by Amy Feitelberg
WHY HER You've gotta love a gal named Bitty.
WHY NOW Her big hair and bigger attitude are back on the USA comedy Monk.
Here's the thing: her real name is Elizabeth. ''Bitty was a nickname,'' says the Jersey girl, 33. ''When I became an actress I kept it. It's the only thing that went with Schram!'' But what really goes with Schram is a Golden Globe nom and the hit TV series Monk. Schram plays Sharona Fleming, the straight-talking assistant to PI Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub). ''Sharona's like his mother. He drives her crazy, but she loves him.''
She's made a career of small but memorable roles. ''I want to find the right projects'' -- like 1992's A League of Their Own or Broadway's Laughter on the 23rd Floor. ''I'm not going to take just anything.'' Fortunately, that leaves lots of time for her five-year plan. ''I like to find adventure,'' says the avid traveler. After conquering Spain, Belgium, Venezuela, and ''a little babushka town'' without running water near Moscow, what's next on Schram's itinerary? Everywhere. ''I'd like to see the whole world.''