Character sheet is under construction. Beware of unmarked spoilers.
open/close all folders
The Brown family and associates
Dr. Andrew "Andy" Brown (Treat Williams)
- Broken Ace: He's an extraordinary and brilliant neurosurgeon and is also wonderful as a general practitioner who offers free medicine because he got vastly rich during his career. On the surface his life appears perfect... until his wife dies. His relationship with his son is troubled and he had issues with his wife. He says his profession is the only thing he's good at, but he often feels like a failure.
- Beard of Sorrow: He had a shaved face in the pilot, but he grows a beard and sports it for the remainder of the series.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Andy is frequently considered this; he's completely okay with it.Edna: Remind me again why you're offering this thankless town free medicine?Andy: Well, the long answer is that after fifteen years of making money off of other people's sickness, I've decided to alleviate my guilt by doing something incredibly altruistic. The short answer is: I'm nuts!
- Disappeared Dad:
- Pre-series. He and Julia never divorced or separated, but he was so caught up in his world-class prestige as a surgeon that he neglected his kids until the situation forced him to be a single father.
- Andy was a Disappeared Dad but later on it's explained he also had one, as he and his father didn't really get along and were estranged for a long time (to the point that his father didn't even know about Delia's existence, or Julia's accident, until years later).
- Non-Idle Rich: Dr. Brown's personal fortune amassed as a world-renowned neurosurgeon is large enough for him to operate a private medical practice, free of charge.
- Parent with New Paramour: He starts dating after a certain period of time in Everwood. His daughter doesn't much like his girlfriends.
- Wealthy Philanthropist: Andy was a top-notch brain surgeon in New York, but decided to move to a small town and work as GP, offering his services free of charge. An amazing thing in America where lots of people don't have insurance and often can't afford any treatment at all.Edna: Remind me again why you're offering this thankless town free medicine?Andy: Well, the long answer is that after fifteen years of making money off of other people's sickness, I've decided to alleviate my guilt by doing something incredibly altruistic. The short answer is: I'm nuts!
Ephram Brown (Gregory Smith)
- Cool Teacher: In season 4, he starts tutoring kids and teens who play the piano. Kyle is a troubled boy and his mother says to Ephram that his lessons are a great help. Moreover, Kyle is a gifted musician, but his mom is divorced and the money are a problem, so the lessons are free of charge.
- Deadpan Snarker: It's his defense mechanism.
- Disappeared Dad: Had one (pre-series). Andy was almost absent from his life and in a flashback, we saw he asked his mom to divorce her father because they practically are without him already
- Elegant Classical Musician: He's an attractive piano player. His talent works on some girls.
- Missing Mom: Textbook example, as Julia's death happens on the pilot episode, and she's remembered in a good light. Her loss is explained as a significant reason for a lot of Ephram's traits, both positive and negative.
- Psychologist Teacher: To kids he tutors, especially Kyle. To the point that he helps Kyle with money problems ('I'm actually paying you for the lessons'), tries to get him to reconnect with his dad, encourages his social life and helps him come to terms with himself.
- Troubled, but Cute: He has lots of family problems and feels like an outsider; however, his dark charms don't appeal to lots of girls at his school, though he manages to get some dates, and later also serious girlfriends. When he's older, he's surprised that Delia tells him her young teenage class mates find him attractive.
Delia Brown (Vivien Cardone)
- All Girls Like Ponies: She's promised to get a pony if they move to Everwood.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: A refreshing aversion. She's much younger than her big brother and the two are close. She likes Ephram a lot and he seems to adore her back, though it's never sickeningly sweet. Quite realistically, they sometimes bicker, argue or call each other names.
- The Cutie: She's an adorable girl with big chocolate eyes and long brown hair who likes ponies. And she's a devoted ice-hockey player.
- Daddy's Girl: Her dad loves her very much and he says she's the easier one of his kids. However, their relationship is not absolutely smooth.
- Little Miss Snarker: Brown family trait. She sometimes snarks at her brother and father, but not always. She can be very sweet and honest.
- Missing Mom: Her mom dies when Delia is a little kid (about second, third grade).
- Precocious Crush: In the earlier episodes, it's heavily implied that she has one on Bright.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: She loves sport and dresses very casually - she likes wearing football shirts, jumpers or jeans. Her friend Brittany is a girly girl who's interested in make-up, fashionable clothes or celebrities.
- Tomboyish Baseball Cap: She often wears one, even though her sport of choice is ice-hockey.
- The Un-Favourite: Feels like that at the end of the third season and there's a whole episode devoted to it. She was trying hard to get Andy's attention but all he was concerned about was repairing his relationship with Ephram.
Julia Brown (Brenda Strong)
- Broken Pedestal: Ephram is devastated when he learns that his mum who was perfect in his eyes was having an affair.
- Posthumous Character: Her death in the pilot kicks off the series.
Madison Kellner (Sarah Lancaster)
- Magical Nanny: She's hired to take care of Delia who adores her and tells her she's her best friend. Madison manages to bring together even bickering Ephram and Andy... even if it's to share their complaining of Madison.
- Romantic False Lead: For Ephram. They fall for each other, date and even have sex until their inevitable breakup.
- Teen Pregnancy It's downplayed. She's twenty, which is still too young to have a child, and everything we learn about the pregnancy is what she tells Andy and Ephram.
Brittany Clark (Whitney Lee)
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the girly girl to Delia's tomboy. She's interested in celebrities, fashion and make-up.
Will Cleveland (James Earl Jones)
- Cool Teacher: Ephram's cool piano teacher. He's a jazz-man par excellence.
Kyle Hunter (Steven R. McQueen)
The Abbott family and associates
Dr. Harold Abbott (Tom Amandes)
- Deadpan Snarker: He basically speaks in snark language, excepting perhaps only his daughter Amy and sometimes his wife Rose. His Snark-to-Snark Combats with Andy Brown are hilarious and trademark of the series.
- Happily Married: His marriage with Rose is very happy.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His demeanor is often quite off-putting and is frequently lampshaded. Deep down, though, he really is a good person and a loving family man.
- Missing Mom: As a kid, he was devastated by his mother leaving to go to Africa, which resulted in a lot of resentment which continued, literally, for decades.
- Papa Wolf: Hurting or insulting his family in any way is enough to rile Harold up to genuine anger. Lampshaded by his sister Linda in Season 2 as the news of her HIV infection became apparent to the rest of the town members.Linda: When someone comes after you, you argue. But when someone comes after someone you love - the minute you see blood - you go for the throat.Harold: That's what you do for a family. You fight. You go too far.
Rose Abbott (Merrilyn Gann)
- Happily Married: She has an exemplary marriage with Harold. They are very close. They have brought up two kids and both Rose and Harold consider them their biggest success in their life.
- Let's Have Another Baby: At one point, Rose really starts longing for another child in their family, but she would prefer to adopt one and Harold agrees. She soon finds out she has cancer and her health becomes the primary concern of the family. She survives but is devastated when she finds out that cancer patients/survivors are not likely to adopt a child.
Amy Abbott (Emily VanCamp)
- Alliterative Name: Amy Abbott
- Annoying Younger Sibling: She and Bright really care for each other, although they're hardly ever sweet with each other. They do face problems often, mostly because Bright complains about Amy's drama overshadowing him and the close relationship between her and their father.
- Daddy's Girl: She and her father are very close and they have a loving and trusting relationship. At least most of the time.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: Amy's junkie boyfriend Tommy, in the second season.
- Emo Teen: Spends half of season 2 in a deep pit of depression and apathy after the death of her boyfriend Colin Hart. She gets better, though.
- First Girl Wins: Ephram has loved Amy since the day he met her and the series end with them embarking on a mature, adult relationship.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Amy is very pretty with blond long hair. She's very friendly and a loving daughter, sister, granddaughter and girlfriend.
- Shipper on Deck: Ships Hannah and Bright, though it takes her time to warm up to the idea due to Bright's reputation.
Harold Brighton "Bright" Abbott (Chris Pratt)
- Break the Haughty: A subtle example. He starts out season 1 as a Jerk Jock who's a shoo-in for a football scholarship, but as the plot thread of Colin's surgery and recovery progresses he's shown to be hurting quite badly over it. In season 2 he's not only recovering from Colin's death but is kicked off the football team for failing a class and loses his scholarship. In season 3, he goes through something of an identity crisis when he doesn't get into college, and his womanizing ways come back to bite him in the butt. (See Handsome Lech below)
- Friend to All Children: Although he can be a douchebag, he's quite good with small children.
- Handsome Lech: He's charming and girls at school swoon over him. He even manages to convince several girls to go with him on the prom simultaneously. However, it later bites him in the butt when he's almost sued for sexual harassment by the woman who felt jilted that he wasn't serious about her. He's also not pleased to realize that women see him as someone who's fun to date, but not a serious guy to settle with.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When he was not the nicest guy at the beginning of the series, he wasn't far off when he told Ephram that his sister was only using him to get his father to operate on Colin. That is partly proven true.
- Jerk Jock: In the first half of the first season, he plays football and constantly bullies Ephram.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Like father, like son.
- Shipper on Deck: Once he befriends Ephram, he heavily supports Ephram's pursuit of Amy and wishes his best friend and sister would date.
- Took a Level in Kindness: By Season Two, he becomes far kinder than he was in Season One, and he even befriends Ephram, and they remain friends throughout the remainder of the series.
- The Un-Favourite: Harold in particular tends to largely relate to Amy, and he's called on it by Rose in the second season, as she felt Harold was 'rewarding' Amy for her bad behaviour and at the same time he didn't trust Bright's abilities ('you're not smart enough!'). Some episodes make a point of having Harold getting closer to Bright.
Edna Harper (Debra Mooney)
- Badass Biker: She rides a powerful machine and wears a leather jacket.
- Cool Old Lady: She is young in spirit and is a great, cool grandma to boot.
- December–December Romance: She falls in love with Irv when they are both of senior age. But they are both young at heart and they just click.
- Happily Married: To Irv.
- Parent with New Paramour: In a flashback it's revealed that Dr Abbott very much disliked the idea of his widowed mother Edna re-marrying.
Irv Harper (John Beasley)
- December–December Romance: He and Edna got together when they were of senior age.
- First-Person Peripheral Narrator: He sometimes acts as narrator, but his life is not in the focus of the series.
- Happily Married: He and Edna are very happy together, though it's not without a few roadblocks and bumps.
- Hidden Depths: It's revealed he's an aspiring writer and he publishes a successful book.
- Magical Negro: Downplayed, but he's definitely the wisest character on the show, and has the least amount of baggage.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Irving becomes a writer. He writes a fairly successful book about people from Everwood.
- Write What You Know: In-universe. He writes stories about people he knows.
Dr. Linda Abbott (Marcia Cross)
- Fiery Redhead: She's red-haired and quite spirited.
- Granola Girl: She's a doctor who likes alternative medicine like acupuncture and she's into organic food. She also works in third world counties.
Tommy Callahan (Paul Wesley)
- Romantic False Lead: Lampshaded several times. Amy acknowledged she was dating him while being fully aware he wasn't the one. In fact, she considered losing her virginity to him because she thought it'd take the pressure off.
Reid Bardem (Justin Baldoni)
- Broken Ace: First comes in as a buff, smiling med school student who seems to outclass the confused Ephram and the still-struggling Bright. But med school proves to be too much for him, his grades plummet, he's expelled for cheating and tries to kill himself. His mother and Ephram feel guilty for not realizing he wasn't as happy as he let on.
- Driven to Suicide: He swallows some pills and guys find him on the floor in the bathroom. He survives. The reason for his suicide was that he couldn't cope with the workload of studying the medicine and was expelled because he cheated on a test.
- Mistaken for Gay: Bright tells Amy Reid is a "big homosexual" after Reid mentions an old partner (really his EMT partner) and is seen constantly working out.
- Mr. Fanservice: Loads of shirtless scenes exhibiting his sixpack abs.
- Romantic False Lead: Textbook example: Amy had a crush on him in the beginning of Season 4, and dated him very briefly, thus creating tension with Ephram and prolonging the anticipation for their (Amy's and Ephram's) coming back together.
Nina Feeney and associates
Nina Feeney (Stephanie Niznik)
- First Girl Wins: Textbook example, as she's literally the first woman Andy meets when he moves to Everwood, and she's the one he ultimately falls in love with from late Season 3 until the Series Finale.
- Girl Next Door: She's a grown-up version, so it's more like a Woman Next Door. She's a wholesome beauty with natural good looks who stayed in her home town.
Sam Feeney (Ben Hammond, Jimmy Bennett, Ryan Armstrong)
- Cheerful Child: He's just a boy who is not particularly troubled, even though his parents divorce and it's fairly messy. Nina takes good care of him and tries to protect him as well as she can.
Carl Feeney (Dylan Walsh)
- Incompatible Orientation: It's hinted that he's always been gay and only married Nina to cover it due to living in a mostly conservative town like Everwood. Nina even realizes somehow she always knew even though she blamed herself for the distance in their relationship.
Dr. Jake Hartman (Scott Wolf)
- Hospital Hottie: He's a baby-faced doctor.
- Romantic False Lead: He's in a good, healthy relationship with Nina. Although quite a long-lasting one compared to the average, as he lasts about a season and a half. But they are not meant to be.
Hannah Rogers (Sarah Drew)
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: While Bright is certainly not a bad boy per se, he does sort of fill that gap within the show universe. She liked him from day one. Lampshaded in that she admitted to Amy she was 'surprisingly shallow.'
- Distaff Counterpart: She's a bit of a Gender Flip version of Ephram: social outcast (at first), love interest of one of the Abbott siblings, best friend of the other Abbott sibling, strained relationship with a parent, losing the other parent whilst still a teenager, similar sense of humour (as pointed out by both aforementioned Abbott siblings).
- Endearingly Dorky: Especially in season 3, where she's a shy and socially awkward girl with Nerd Glasses, but she still attracts Topher and eventually Bright.
- The Glasses Gotta Go: Amy makes her wear contact lenses.
- Iconic Sequel Character: Doesn't appear in the first two seasons, but is a fairly prominent character since her introduction in season 3.
- Insecure Love Interest: Bright's. This is actually deconstructed in a few episodes, where her constant fear and worry that someone like Bright could never really love her and want to be with her leads to them arguing about it more than once, especially when Bright finds out Hannah's been lying about liking the frat parties he takes her to.
- Naïve Everygirl: Shy, romantic, insecure and doesn't make friends very easily.
- Shrinking Violet: Especially in season 3, but she starts coming out of her shell over time.
- Shipper on Deck: Amy actually calls her out on that at some point, as Hannah's set on shipping Amy and Ephram during the fourth season.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Averted. While she's basically filling the gap left by Laynie's off-screen departure, a lot more focus is given to her and there's Character Development to the point that on Season 4 she's virtually got as much screen time as any starring character except for Andy, Ephram and Amy.
Topher Cole (Lukas Behnken)
- Annoying Laugh: Dr. Abbott gets annoyed at his laugh.
- Dogged Nice Guy: He likes Hannah and they briefly date, but she doesn't love him back.
The Hart family
Colin Hart (Mike Erwin)
- Living Emotional Crutch: He and Amy come dangerously close to this for each other during his recovery; he relies on her to support him while her emotional state is tied to his well-being.
- Playing the Victim Card: Done for him a few times, most notably when he's busted for trashing the gym teacher's office and they let him off with a slap on the wrist because he's had such a hard time of it.
- Sacrificial Lion: He's in coma for half of season 1. Doctor Brown's brilliant mind and magical hands help him, but he's not completely cured. He needs another surgery and he doesn't make it.
Laynie Hart (Nora Zehetner)
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially where her dislike of her home town is concerned.
- Put on the Bus: She attends a boarding school which conveniently explains her absence.
- Romantic False Lead: Briefly for Ephram, but she goes back to boarding school before it can develop beyond a few dates and some flirting.
Sharon Hart (Nancy Everhard)
- Satellite Character: Doesn't get as much development beyond Colin's worried mother.
James Hart (Michael Flynn)
- The Alcoholic: He drinks. His son's illness and death make him drink much harder.
The Hayes family
Amanda Hayes (Anne Heche)
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She's introduced to the series soon after Linda Abbott leaves and has a very similar role as a Love Interest for Andy. Both relationships were initially opposed by first-degree relatives of both (Deliah and Harold, Deliah and Charlie, respectively) and they both ended soon after they'd started to feel comfortable together and were ready to become public.
