As a criminal procedural, this was a solid (but not outstanding) episode, with all of the standard ingredients for a good potboiler: murder, money, power, sex, drugs and even a little rock and roll. OK, maybe that song that played over the opening yoga sequence wasn’t exactly rock and roll, but it was haunting and pretty in a melancholy sort of way, and I really dug it. Who was that mysterious troubadour?While the plot felt a little too familiar — as I’ve said before, how many scheming, whiny rich kids bumping each other off for money do we really need to see? — the acting redeemed this episode. The obvious standout was Doris “Marie Barone” Roberts, whom it was weird to see bedridden and nearly mute (especially after watching an Everybody Loves Raymond episode at 8:30 in which she was her usual feisty self). But once they got her on the right meds, she was as spry as ever — though (slightly) more regal and commanding than her sitcom counterpart...
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We knew him as Frank Barone, the gruff grandpa who made merry mischief with his sons, his long-suffering wife Marie and his horrified in-laws for nine seasons on Everybody Loves Raymond. Also as the comical monster of Young Frankenstein, tapping and yowling to “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” And let’s not forget Clyde Bruckman, the wry, melancholy psychic who foresaw his own death (among others, including Mulder’s) in one of the most memorable X-Files episodes ever. It was for that X-Files guest shot that Peter Boyle won his Emmy in 1996, but he won America’s heart (and was nominated seven times) as the most curmudgeonly of the comic engines in the splendid ensemble cast of Everybody Loves Raymond, one of the last great classic TV comedies. His cranky rapport with Doris Roberts, who played Marie to his Frank, was so popular they reprised their roles for several retro Alka-Seltzer commercials after Raymond folded. It was great seeing them again, reminding us of h...
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After nine years — and four Emmy wins! — as Everybody Loves Raymond's exasperating Marie, Doris Roberts decided to mix things up a bit. She returned to the big screen in the semi-raunchy Grandma's Boy, then switched from tickling funny bones to warming hearts with the Hallmark Channel movie Our House (premiering Saturday at 9 pm/ET). Roberts spoke with TVGuide.com about her real-life-tinged turn as a wealthy widow who opens her manse to the homeless, as well as her upcoming reunion with her TV son, Ray Romano.
TVGuide.com: So after years of making everybody laugh on Eve
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In Hallmark Channel's Hidden Places (premiering Saturday at 9pm/ET), Sydney Penny (All My Children, The Thorn Birds) plays Eliza, a Depression-era farmer's widow who, when times get very bleak, is offered assistance by a handsome stranger named Gabe (Jason Gedrick). Can she trust this angelic drifter? Helping usher things along is Eliza's Aunt Batty, played with a flourish by Academy Award-winner Shirley Jones. TVGuide.com welcomed the chance to talk with the woman best know as Oklahoma's Miss Laurey — even at the risk of spontaneous warbling.
TVGuide.com: I was a stagehand for my high-school's production of Oklahoma, so forgive me if I sudd
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Question: So how did you do on your predictions? Who should win vs who will win vs who did win? I could do the math myself, but perhaps everyone would like to see the results!
Answer: Like many another so-called "expert," I did even worse than usual this year. But honestly, given the results, I'm accepting that as a badge of honor. Of the 17 categories I went on the record to predict, I pegged only eight right: for drama (Lost), lead actor in drama (James Spader), supporting actress in comedy (Doris Roberts), movie (Warm Springs), lead actor in movie (Geoffrey Rush), music/variety/comedy series (The Daily Show), reality program (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which was announced a week earlier) and reality-competition program (The Amazing Race). If you count my "should wins," you can add two more: for miniseries (The Lost Prince) and lead actress in movie (S. Epatha Merkerson). Of all the categories I flubbed altogether, the one I'm most at peace with is Felicity Huffman winning as
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