Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) and Adam Rodriguez (CSI: Miami)
Senior editors Matt Webb Mitovich and Mickey O'Connor answer your burning questions. All requests for spoilery goodness should be sent to mega_scoop@tvguide.com.
After watching the promo for the next episode of Grey's, I must ask: Is there anything for Mer-Der fans to look forward to? You know, other than three women lying in Mer's bed while Derek lives downstairs? — Karen
Matt: Well when you phrase it like that, you make me think that Melissa George's debut this week as Sadie, a college pal of Meredith's, will only further muddle things for the would-be Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd. But maybe not. Consider this: Sadie's arrival will prompt Cristina — who feels displaced by her BFF's old BFF — to be a better sounding board for Derek, and that just might ease the tension in the lovebirds' overcrowded nest. Oh, and speaking of Xtina: Kevin McKidd (Owen) is now a series regular.
When does the next volume start on Heroes? Because "Villains" is turning the show into Heroezzz. (No offense, Tim Kring.) — Charles
Mickey: I hear you, Charles. At this point, I don't even care who is good and who is evil and/or how they got there; I'm just ready to move on. The next volume, titled "Fugitives" and said to be inspired by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, begins in January. It centers on a character called ...
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Dennis Haysbert, Michael Irby and Demore Barnes by Ron P. Jaffe/CBS
Any TV drama that deals with military heroism must eventually also confront the enormity of tragic loss. With that said, consider this a spoiler alert regarding the next two episodes (tonight and Nov. 13) of CBS’ underrated The Unit, in which this covert Special Forces team takes a fateful, fatal hit.The network and the show’s production studio have been urgently promoting these episodes (so much for keeping this twist under wraps), and while they’re uneven, they’re very much worth watching. There’s undeniably a bit of a sweeps stunting at play here, but I’m willing to take executive producer Shawn Ryan (The Shield) at his word when he says, in a cover letter attached to the screeners I received, “For three years, we’ve wanted to tell this story, but couldn’t until now. We needed the audience to know and love our characters for it to have the impact we knew it deserved.” He adds: “In the current war we are fighting, military dea...
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I had forgotten that the hair/makeup trailer is such a crossroads until my cousin Phillip flew back to L.A. with me from Dallas. Raising three daughters — he separated from their mother because he "always had his eyes open for what might be around the corner" — and orphaned at the age of 14, he's a devoted father, saving for his three daughters' futures. He gets up in the morning at 5:30 am, seven days a week, to take a bus to his job at a milk plant. He'd like to buy a house one day where all his girls can have their own rooms — "Even after they're grown they can live with their dad." He stresses education and is ever-protective of his girls — always gives them the practical advice, like, "Don't let the boys talk you out of your panties." Phillip has muscle-bound arms and the sweet smile of a teenager that belies the fact that he is about to hit 40. He takes two weeks off every year but never really goes anywhere. Wanting to do something for himself for a change...
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We wrapped shooting in April. We then had two-and-a-half months off. We actors go our separate ways to discover ourselves in different roles.Michael Irby headed off to New Orleans to shoot a jazz movie featuring Wynton Marsalis. Demore Barnes went back home to Canada and worked on his own film project. Abby Brammell traveled to Bangkok, where her tattooed blues-singing husband was making his acting premiere in a Sylvester Stallone movie.I returned to Dallas to start a home-renovation project. My aunt Virginia currently lives in the atomic ranch-style house as I go back and forth to L.A. I'm moving in another aunt who has a disabled daughter by the end of the year and wanted to make the home wheelchair accessible — ramps, wider doors, a new bathroom — so I find a contractor who says they can knock the job out in three weeks. In my mind I tack on a couple of extra weeks, thinking I'll still have plenty of time to sit on a beach in Tahiti during the remaining hiatus and "rene...
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Question: Someone wrote in recently about there not being any shows on the air that have a lead character of color, even in an ensemble show, and you said you couldn't think of any, either. I can think of at least one, and it happens to be one of my very favorites: The Unit. Jonas (Dennis Haysbert) is very much the lead character of that ensemble cast, and a fantastic one at that. Please don't overlook this excellent show: It wouldn't be the same without Dennis Haysbert's Jonas Blaine. He is the star.
Answer: No argument. The Unit is less a classic ensemble drama than a military action adventure with a strong domestic component, but there's no question about Haysbert being the authority figure. Ditto for Regina Taylor as the spiritual den mother. And I missed another one in this discussion, as Jennifer reminds me: "While I won't argue that there should be more minority casting, I did want to point out that a major network has built an ensemble around a minority actor: Ugly Betty. That
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The Unit
Few television shows pack the same live-grenade tension as an hour of The Unit (which presents its season finale tonight at 9 pm/ET). On the CBS series, Dennis Haysbert leads a small group of elite military personnel through deadly missions in hot spots around the world, while at home, Unit wives grapple with long separations, their husbands' low pay and some potentially explosive secrets. The show is based on the book Inside Delta Force, which covers author Eric Haney's own career in the army's special-forces unit from 1978 to '85. And though both Haney and fellow series producer
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I've been traveling the last week and a half from L.A. to Dallas to Atlanta and back. Still working off little sleep, I find myself daydreaming. I used to walk and talk in my sleep when I was a child. Would wake up and find myself out of my bed, down the stairs in the living room on my rocking horse, or other places. I've done it a couple of times as an adult, had conversations with friends on the phone that I don't recall and waking up in a different room. I wake up slightly disconnected for the rest of the day. Having roamed while asleep, I then dream while I'm awake. I associate travel with dreaming. Fall into a reverie on trains and planes. When I come to, I'm in another city, another time zone, and sometimes feeling that no time or space has passed at all.I was in Atlanta last Tuesday when CBS aired The Unit's double-header evening of "Sub-Conscious" and "Johnny B Good." "Sub-Conscious," written by Daniel Voll, explores the dreams of unit wife Kim Brown (played by Audrey Marie ...
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CBS' The Unit is back from holiday hiatus with a new episode [airing this Tuesday at 9 pm/ET]. In "The Broom Cupboard," the unit is assigned to protect a Texas senator who is touring in a hostile country. And Jonas is given a secret assignment by the president, played by William H. Macy, while Molly, Kim and Tiffy plan a surprise for Crystal.I spent the holidays back in Dallas. I love taking long walks every day through my neighborhood. Rolling hills and wide open sky. I think that limitless horizon inspires a body to dream — I can’t help but to wander off on your own way. I remember as a child catching hell a few times for being a little “off the beaten track,” but I got Texas grit in my veins.... I kept stepping. Sometimes you have to make your own individual path.Audrey Marie “Hepburn” Anderson knows about that sky. She’s another fellow Texan from Fort Worth. Audrey is eclectic. An inventive cook and a great photographer, she makes her own funky...
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"Silver Star," the episode of The Unit [Tuesdays at 9 pm/ET, on CBS] that airs Dec. 12, has Jonas and Molly going home to Jonas' parents. The occasion is Jonas' father finally being awarded the Silver Star for his heroic actions in Korea. While at the family gathering, Jonas' nephew — a soldier recently returned from combat and suffering from post-traumatic-stress disorder — acts cowardly in beating his pregnant wife. Jonas steps in with some rough justice and tough love. In the process, he shares his dad's story, taking us back to the hero who did not receive a hero's welcome, as Jonas' father, a colored man in uniform, travels with his son down south in the US of A, 1952. At the TOC, Mac tries to help a mysterious passenger (Ed O'Neill) on a private jet in restricted airspace, who is trying to land the plane after the pilot dies at the control board.The JumpThis past month, Michael Irby, Robert Patrick and Scott Foley jumped with the U.S. Army parachute team, Tthe Gold...
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In The Unit episode "Bait," which airs Nov. 28, Jonas is bound and thrown into a room with a bag over his head, and his captors are about to draw his last blood. He proves himself to be Houdini, however, by persuading them that he's more valuable to them alive than dead. Houdini, master of illusion and escape — we never know who's the rabbit and who's the fox. Jonas manipulates his captors to have them videotape him with their terms of release. As he reads their demands, he secretly signals to his comrades back home. He pulls more than one rascally rabbit out of his hat in order to escape, only to be captured and returned, bound and tortured. Meanwhile, Washington suits aren't interested in negotiations, so Colonel Ryan has to perform his own sleight of hand — before our Houdini runs out of rabbits.On the home front, Colonel Ryan's wife, Charlotte, who was shot at the end of last season's finale, is now hooked on pain meds. Driving under the influence, she wrecks another w...
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