Character Profile
Before we even see Brice, we hear him described as ‘the walking rulebook…the human regulation’. The script for ‘The Nuisance’ describes him as ‘young, aggressive, determined. Although he has the traditional all-American good looks found on faces on cereal boxes, he exudes a formal quality bordering on coldness. His hair is cropped short and he wears wire-rimmed glasses. He has no sense of humor.’. This is indeed pretty much the case for the whole of his first appearance, where a subplot involves Roy’s lecturing him for his clinical treatment of a patient. He is very hung up on doing things precisely according to procedure, and makes it clear that he prefers to call people by their last names.
By Brice’s second appearance in ‘Rules of Order’, he’s loosened up a bit. He doesn’t seem to be quite so hung up on formality and is a trifle warmer in how he treats people. He’s even heard to refer to people by their first names. J His partner in this episode treats him with amused tolerance. The same holds true for his third and last appearance in ‘Limelight’.
Brice’s personality is hard to define. There is a definite change between his first episode and the latter two, perhaps because the first one was written by Robert Hamilton and the second two were written by James G. Richardson himself. We see hints of obsessive compulsive behavior, a keen intelligence, and perhaps a photographic memory. ("He memorizes the commas, and the periods, and the exclamations points….and then he repeats it all back to you at the meetings.") We find out that Brice is active and involved in various department-related activities, including the Fireman’s Olympics, and various committees. We know he runs, and participates in marathons. It is interesting that he is obviously not a people person, but seems to keep placing himself in situations where dealing with people is a necessity. Even Johnny and Roy are astounded at the end of ‘Limelight’ when Brice thanks them for pulling him out of the warehouse fire.
We know about as much about Brice as we do about any of the show’s secondary characters, and there is a lot that fanfic has tried to or could flesh out.