Jack McGee with Denis Leary, Rescue Me
FX's Rescue Me (Wednesdays at 10 pm/ET) once again reminded its fans to expect the horribly unexpected, as its June 27 episode concluded with the gunshot suicide of firehouse chief Jerry Reilly. But the plot turn was downright devastating for Jack McGee, the actor who played the gruff, lovable chief.
Speaking to TV Guide in March during his last day on set, McGee alleged that the decision to off his character derived from an unnamed animus from the show's star and executive producer, Denis Leary. He claims the two were once close but that in recent years Leary had barely spoken to him off camera. "I don't know what I did to him," McGee says. What's worse, he added, is that Leary didn't break the news personally. "He handled it
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Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey, 30 Rock
1. You can really taste the SNL. When we hear the gang of NBC's 30 Rock (returning with a supersized episode tonight at 8:40 pm/ET) cracking wise about everyone from Dakota Fanning to disgraced congressman Mark Foley, it does our heart good to know that former Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey (who created Rock and stars as comic scribe Liz Lemon) still has a little Weekend Update in her. "Those things are so ingrained in me," she admits. "[I need] to have the show exist in the actual world." Costar read more
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters
In a candid TV Guide interview, Brothers & Sisters' Rachel Griffiths reveals how she is so over Six Feet Under and so into motherhood. (Brothers & Sisters airs Sundays at 10 pm/ET, on ABC.)
TV Guide: Brothers & Sisters is another series about a dysfunctional family. Does it feel familiar?
Rachel Griffiths: It is kind of Six Feet Under meets Dynasty.
TV Guide: How do you see your character, Sarah Whedon?
Griffiths: She's really beautiful, really warm, really competent. Harvard Business School, loving mother of two, just trying to juggle the whole thing with elegance and depth. She's been
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Tatum O'Neal, Rescue Me
Although life hasn't always been a paper moon for Tatum O'Neal, it's been great practice for braving the boys' club of FX's Rescue Me (Tuesdays at 10 pm/ET).
TV Guide: Your Rescue Me character, Maggie Gavin, is the sister of Denis Leary's Tommy Gavin. Describe her.
Tatum O'Neal: What you see is a real broad, a Queens woman who doesn't think before she speaks and is extreme in everything — extreme in her drinking, extreme in her men, extreme in her language, extreme in her opinions. Extreme all the way.
TV Guide: How did she get that way?
O'Neal: Maybe it's because s
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Robert Duvall, Broken Trail
It is, as they say out on the range, a sight for sore eyes to see Robert Duvall back on TV in AMC's first-ever original movie, Broken Trail. The two-part, four-hour film (airing Sunday and Monday at 8 pm/ET) stars Duvall as grizzled cowboy Print Ritter, who leads his estranged, taciturn nephew Tom Harte (Thomas Haden Church) on a harrowing horse drive from Oregon to Wyoming.
The ragtag travelers embark on your classic Western odyssey, complete with smallpox, bloodshed and outlaws, but with a twist: Duvall, who also served as executive producer, was intent on putting people, not shoot-'em-ups, center stage. "I tried to say, 'Let's just keep this very s
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S. Epatha Merkerson, Law & Order
S. Epatha Merkerson likely gave fans of NBC's Law & Order (Wednesdays at 10pm/ET) a jolt with her downright giddy acceptance speech at this year's Golden Globes. Far from the levelheaded sobriety of her TV alter ego, Lt. Anita Van Buren, Merkerson let it all hang out. "I feel like I'm 16!" gushed the 53-year-old stage and screen veteran as she accepted the best-actress award for her role in HBO's Lackawanna Blues TV-movie. "And if I wasn't in the middle of a hot flash, I'd believe that."
Merkerson's been feeling a lot of warmth lately. She's not only the longest-running cast member on Law & Order but the "longest-running African-American woman on a television drama." That makes her,
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