Audra McDonald, Private Practice
Question: The thing that really annoys me about Private Practice is that every actor is well known already. In fact, many of them have already been leading men or leading ladies on their own TV shows! There won't be any surprise breakout stars with this series, like there were on Grey's Anatomy. Had anyone even heard of Ellen Pompeo, T.R. Knight, Chandra Wilson or Katherine Heigl before that show's first season? It's like we're watching a veteran actor's workshop or something with Private Practice, and that just isn't fun for me.
Answer: Interesting point, although for my money, it's the writing that sets my teeth on edge most weeks. But this brings up the perennial issue about how TV is so much better at creating new stars (and Grey's Anatomy created a bunch of them) than it is at repackaging familiar faces and asking us to accept favorite actors in roles we may feel are beneath them (Amy Brenneman as the wretched Violet, anyone?). So far, my favorite character is Paul Adelstein's
...
read more
Well I don't know about you but I won't be eating cake anytime soon. And that stinks because I really like cake. Not sure how I feel about Dell trying to win Naomi's affections through his grandmother's baked goods but I do know what it's like to want an "in" with someone you care about. He's definitely barking up the wrong tree though and she really gave it to him in the end. Poor Naomi. I want to feel bad for her but she's really just wallowing in her own misery. Why won't she try to reconnect with Sam? And more Taye Diggs please! Not nearly enough Sam scenes tonight.Maybe my memory is fuzzy, but I don't recall ever learning the reason for their split. Shout it out in the comments if I missed something. If I didn't miss it, I want to find out!But back to the wallowing. Wow how old was that message Violet kept listening to? Watching her try to help Sad Sack all the while knowing what a "weak" person she is in love as well was scary. If it's one thing Dr. Melfi on The Sopranos taugh...
read more
Kristin Chenowith in Pushing Daisies by Scott Garfield/ABC
The early ratings are in, and it looks like the combination of aggressive promotion and laudatory media buzz paid off for the first round of ABC’s delightful Pushing Daisies, which handily won its time period Wednesday and is off to a solid start. Honestly, though, if any of the reality alternatives had prevailed (especially CBS’s snooze-inducing Kid Nation and the is-that-still-on stupid briefcase show over on NBC), I think I’d be wearing a black armband in to work for the rest of the season. I’m dying to see a second episode of Daisies, and am trying to pretend I’m not worried that ABC hasn’t supplied one yet. (A year ago, I was dazzled by the pilot of The Nine, an episode the series never again lived up to.) Still, after watching an opening hour as filled with wonder and whimsy as Daisies’ pilot (or “Pielette,” as the episode was titled), how can anyone express anything but hope?My other top Wednesday night priority was seeing how Priv...
read more
Wow. Now I know what Ron Burgandy meant when he said he was in a glass case of emotion! So much went on tonight. There was a poison Granny, a baby switch and a nasty stripper with a rash on her bum! Yuck! Speaking of bums, I loved how Sam was more concerned with Stripper Ginger's rash instead of the fact that she was gyrating in his face. He's my kind of guy! Another classic example of how men and women handle break-ups differently. Women bring ice cream over and men send strippers. Whatever works, I guess!Poison Granny was very clever. Malicious and insane, but very clever. I guess a mother really will do whatever it takes for her child. I would have had her butt hauled off to prison but Sam recognized the desperation in her actions and decided to go along with the scheme by telling her son he was allergic to alcohol and staging an intervention to get him help. Did anyone else feel bad for Violet? I did too, then I heard that she spent $6000 on a bike. Did this bike come with wings...
read more
Thank God my anticipation for this show didn't ruin the first episode for me. I was afraid I put a hex on the show by hyping it so much in my head. Sure, at first I wanted Addison to stay in Seattle and in Karev's arms, but I think I'm going to like her "one-man gyne show" in L.A.!I didn't think I was going to laugh when Sam saw Addison naked because it had been all over the commercials, but I did. She did the robot! Anyone doing the robot is hilarious, at least in my book.Overall, I felt this show had a different vibe than Grey's Anatomy. I liked that it was not set in a hospital and the conversations and issues were more grown-up and less petty. Don't get me wrong, I love my Grey's, but this new dynamic was refreshing. But, of course, it did mimic the wacky medical situations that seem to come out of nowhere. Addison will be delivering a three-headed baby in no time!I enjoyed the intense relationships that already exist between the characters and look forward to the new ones that ...
read more
Amy Brenneman, Private Practice
ABC's Private Practice premieres this Wednesday. TVGuide.com is counting down to the Grey's spin-off's arrival with daily cast-member Q&As. It's been two years since she starred on Judging Amy. Now Amy Brenneman is back on prime time, playing the Oceanside Wellness Center's resident psychiatrist Dr. Violet Turner on Private Practice. We caught up with the five-time Emmy nominee to talk about raising kids, returning to television and who really inspired her to play an obsessive ex-girlfriend.TVGuide.com: Why did you decide to return to TV after mostly making movies for the past two years?Amy Brenneman: Shonda Rhimes. I'm ADD enough
read more
Tim Daly and Kate Walsh by Ron Tom/ABC
Watching Thursday night's underwhelming, overly frenetic "backdoor pilot" setup for the seemingly inevitable Grey's Anatomy spin-off, I was reminded how blown away I wasn't by the original Grey's pilot as well. The Grey's pilot had its problems, but this glossy new twist on the formula seems much more problematic.When Grey's first appeared, with the pilot held for mid-season in a year when Lost and Desperate Housewives exploded on the scene and turned ABC's fortunes around, my initial thoughts were: Loved the cast. Liked the characters. But at first look, the reliance on heavy-handed voice-over (since dialed back a bit) and woe-is-me, life-as-an-intern-is-hard whining obscured many of the charms that would soon emerge, and it felt a bit generic.By the end of that first half-season, though, I was hooked. The heightened mix of hospital drama and romantic comedy, lathered in torrid and twisty soap operatics, was infectious, and the wonderfully blended (by sex and race) cast pulled it o...
read more
Raise your hand if you're already hooked. Shonda, you have just sold me on Grey's 2.0, or what you are currently planning on calling it: Private Practice. I can't imagine ABC not picking the show up for the fall. To make this easier for me to write, but more importantly, to give it a more reader-friendly approach, I'd like to split this in two. I'll get to my comments on the very well-executed Kate Walsh pilot later. First, let's talk about Grey's...I. GREY'S ANATOMYWhen I heard that Meredith was going to be experiencing another family death, my initial thought was Thatcher, but then I felt that it would be silly to kill off her father right after her mother. When her step mom Susan (Mare Winningham) showed up again at Seattle Grace, this time with perpetual hiccups she claimed were due to her acid reflux, I agreed with Meredith and Thatcher. I figured Susan was faking it as an excuse for Thatcher to spend needed quality time with his daughter. As Susan kept returning with worse sym...
read more
Who's doing what for whom this pilot season (per Variety and the Reporter):• Emmy winner Christina Applegate, long wooed to return to network TV, has opted to star as an amnesiac woman in the ABC comedy Sam I Am. Jean Smart is Sam's mom, and Tim Russ (Star Trek: Voyager) is also in the cast.• As first scooped by the Ausiello Report, Judging Amy Brenneman and Merrin Dungey (Alias) have come on board the Grey's Anatomy spin-off, playing Violet and Naomi.• Melanie Griffith will guest on the pilot for the CBS musical drama Viva Laughlin. A conniving sexpot, Griffith's character could go recurring.• Drew Carey's Diedrich Bader is the loyal friend of CBS' Skip Tracer.• Jamey Sheridan (Law & Order: CI) is a wife-beater turned zombie in CBS' Babylon Fields.• Stephanie Childers (Studio 60) is the mother of ABC's American Family.• Ty Burrell (Out of Practice, indeed) is an ace reporter for Fox's Action News.
read more
Grey's 2.0 just got a major infusion of girl power. Sources confirm that Alias' Merrin Dungey and Judging Amy's Amy Brenneman have joined the cast of the Grey's Anatomy spin-off, er, I mean "the enhanced two-hour Grey's Anatomy episode with a potential for afterlife." Based on recent intel, my guess is Dungey will be playing a psychiatrist, and Brenneman a fertility specialist. But it could be the other way around. The duo's hiring puts to rest speculation (or concern?) that Kate Walsh would find herself surrounded by a mostly-male ensemble -- buzz that only intensified with the recent casting of Tim Daly, Taye Diggs, Paul Adelstein and Chris Lowell.Pretty ftaktastic cast, if you ask me. This thing is really gonna have to suck to fail. You agree?
read more
