Andy Breckman’s multiple award-winning series Monk became one of the best comedies of its time. This show brought to us various memorable characters such as Adrian Monk, Captain Leland, and Sharona. Played by Bitty Schram, Sharona was first shown to be Adrian’s nurse, who helped him overcome his nervous breakdown.
As the episodes progressed, Sharona became Adrian’s Assistant. She would often tag along with Adrian and help him as well at times, especially when his antics started kicking in. It was a shock to long-time fans of the show when they found out that the actress that played Sharona had decided to leave the show.
Monk had a television run from July 12th, 2002 up until December 2009. It soon became one of the most-watched cable series of its time and has received many awards such as Emmys, a Golden Globe, and many others. It ended up having a total of 8 seasons, with the last season having around 5 million viewers.
Bitty Schram added the perfect touch of normality to Adrian’s eccentric personality, and most of the show’s fans loved the moments they’d be together on the screen along with other great characters. Her character could be defined as manipulative and sharp, but she would also often fail to find a good lover as almost always they’d turn out to be the killer.
Monk: About The Show
Revolving around Detective Adrian Monk of the San Francisco PD, the show takes us on a case-solving journey with a touch of humor. Adrian constantly suffers from OCD and has multiple phobias. This not only causes him to lose his old job but also leads to him giving up on life and locking himself inside his house.
It’s only when his nurse, Sharona Fleming starts to take care of him that he becomes more comfortable. Sharona’s strict personality and refusal to listen to Adrian are what was powerful enough to overcome his nervousness. He starts working once again, this time as a private detective.
Although he somehow manages to become better, his fear of 312 things still gets the better of him, especially when he’s in the middle of solving a case. Examples of Adrian’s fears include Milk, Germs, Ladybugs, and so on. As problematic as his personality may seem, it’s also the reason he’s able to solve cases so easily at times, as OCD causes him to pay attention to minute details and have good memory skills.
During season 3, Sharona finally leaves her job as Adrian’s assistant after she decides to move in with her husband, who lived back in New Jersey. This leads to a new character Natalie to be introduced, who starts accompanying Adrian the same way.
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Bitty Schram: The Actor Behind Sharona
This New Jersey-born actress is an alumna of the University of Maryland and began her acting career through the movie A League Of Their Own, where she played the character Evelyn Gardner. Soon after in 1993, she acted out in many Broadway Shows.
She has starred in movies such as Chasers (Flo), Full Cycle (Sofie), and Marvin’s Room (Janine). For her role in Moments of Clarity, Bitty had been nominated for a Maverick Movie Award.
It was in 2002 that Bitty finally got a significant role, which was in the show Monk. This series not only gave her much needed exposure, it also allowed viewers to appreciate her acting skills. After she left the show sometime around 2004, Bitty started working on many other television shows and movies like Kitchen Confidential, Thief, A-List and so on.
Bitty Schram Leaves Monk: The Reason
As Monk grew in popularity, the show started rising to the top. Naturally, most of the actors that worked in the series reportedly asked for some modifications in their contracts, and one of these actors was Bitty Schram. She along with Ted Levine (Captain Leland) and Jason Gray Stanford (Lieutenant Randy) were the ones asking for a raise.
Although Ted and Jason stayed on the show, Bitty Schram decided to depart from it. The network that hosted the show Monk stated that they had dissimilar creative directions with some of the actors that starred in the show, indicating a contract dispute as the reason for the exit. Despite them not renegotiating the terms, Bitty left the show amicably and didn’t feel bad about it. She had much to look forward to and asked fans to keep supporting her work.
After Bitty’s character was written out, her role as the assistant was replaced by Traylor Howard, who played the role of Natalie Teeger. They incorporated her into the storyline as a single mother Adrian comes across during one of the cases.
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