Fred Willard

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Fred Willard: TV Guide News

Episode Recap: "Something's Up There" | Back to You | 11/15/2007
The good folks at WURG sure know their slapstick. It's been quite some time since I've seen good physical comedy on television, so what a thrill to see it make a comeback. Good slapstick, good slapstick. Now let's get to the better banter.I'm not sure we've had an episode yet that puts the whole crew in one situation, so this week was a change of pace. Little Gracie's 11th-birthday party was basically over before it started, because the only one of the six adults there who had steeled herself... read more
Episode Recap: "Gracie's Bully" | Back to You | 11/8/2007
There is nothing more terrifying than having your 10-year-old classmates meet one (or both) of your parents, and I know this from experience. I felt for poor Gracie Carr, who so obviously wanted both her bully and her mother to disappear from this class trip to the station. She was probably thinking that the only upside was not having to have class.If only Kelly and Chuck knew that they were probably just making the situation worse for their daughter by wanting to confront the bully, whether... read more
Episode Recap: "A Night of Possibilities" | Back to You | 10/18/2007
Is it 1994? I think it must be, because lately Tia Carrere is popping up everywhere — well, if not everywhere, at least on two shows I cover, and I only cover three, so if she shows up on Friday Night Lights, I know something's up. Between her hanging out with Larry David (cocreator of Seinfeld, coincidentally on in 1994) and Kelsey Grammer (Frasier, also on in 1994) in recent weeks, I just have to wonder if I've been witness to a time warp. She did a cute job tonight, playing a woman... read more
Back to You's Fred Willard Is the Life of the Party | TV Guide Interviews & Features | 10/17/2007
On Back to You (Wednesdays, 8 pm/ET, Fox), the Kelsey Grammer/Patricia Heaton sitcom vehicle, Fred Willard plays freewheeling sportscaster Marsh McGinley, whose lead foot alarms a coworker tonight when they carpool together. Marsh is the latest in a gallery of grinning goofballs that Willard has given us over the course of a career that spans 40 years. TV Guide: What do you enjoy about Marsh?Fred Willard: I love it that he's a sports guy and that he says whatever comes to his mind. He doesn't... read more
Episode Recap: "A Gentleman Always Leads" | Back to You | 10/11/2007
Well, I'll say one thing: This is the first time in recent memory I've heard the phrase, "Recorded in front of a live studio audience" outside of a 20-year-old rerun. In fact, it made me think I was too hard on last week's episode. It's a retro show in its own way, and perhaps I needed that jolt of perspective that Kelsey Grammer's little intro gave me.The newsroom of WURG certainly was all a-twitter this week. After Chuck overheard some network brass (who were in Pittsburgh for a program at... read more
Episode Recap: "The First Supper" | Back to You | 10/4/2007
Clunk. That's the sound this episode made as it hit the air. You may be wondering how a show could make a physical clunk sound, but (and imagine some dramatic flare here) they found a way! It's almost as if after last week's great momentum, the powers that be decided that they didn't want to give us too much funny too fast, and so they churned out an awkwardly paced and plotted car boot of an episode.On the upside, Fred Willard's Marsh was on fire tonight, and doing his proprietary shtick that... read more
Episode Recap: "Fish Story" | Back to You | 9/27/2007
An alternate title for this episode could have been, "One fish, two fish, overfed fish, fried fish." I doubt PETA will be particularly thrilled with the outcome of the story. Me? I just kind of want to go out for seafood. While the fish-as-child metaphor was not exactly subtle (or original — they did it on Frasier in the episode "Flour Child," leading to Niles' wonderful line, "After all, a real child would have cried before it burst into flames"), it did create an almost Stooge-like... read more
Episode Recap: "Pilot" | Back to You | 9/20/2007
There's something about this show that reminds me of a glazed doughnut. It's nothing you haven't had before and something you know you should stay away from, but in the end, you choose it anyway, not only because it's comforting, but because as hard as you try not to, you can't help but enjoy it.Our setup (if the millions of promos that Fox ran didn't give it away first) is this: Chuck Darling and Kelly Carr were the dream team of Pittsburgh's local news scene. Now, 10 years later, Chuck's made... read more
The Wednesday Battle Begins | Roush Dispatch | 9/19/2007
Is it possible that this season, Wednesdays are the new Thursdays? An incredible amount of high-profile new programming — nine freshman series in all — will be introduced to the Wednesday prime-time schedule over the next few weeks, and when the dust settles, I can only hope a few of my new favorites will survive.First up are CBS, the CW and Fox, launching their newbies a week before the official season begins. The biggest headlines so far have been generated by CBS' unseen-by-critics... read more
Ask Matt | 9/14/2007
I snapped up TV Guide's Fall Preview issue, and I find it a mixed blessing. While I appreciate the behind-the-scenes reportage and the luxurious layout, there's one crucial aspect that I miss greatly: your Picks (and yes, the capital P is deliberate). Of course, there were the "10 Shows with Buzz," but they included some shows you don't even like (Gossip Girl, etc.). And while you gave a helpful day-by-day analysis of the new programming, I and no doubt many other readers miss the days when you... read more
Hatin' | Michael's 24 & Stargate SG-1 Blog | 6/15/2007
Wow. I have not gotten into so much trouble for not completing my homework assignment since grade 9. You have no idea how many people have been riding me like Zorro for not keeping up with this blog. Thanks for caring. "I'mmmmmm back!" Well, not to make any excuses, but we have been shooting the second SG-1 movie, Continuum, for the last three weeks and things have been a bit hectic. Not to mention the fact that the first shooting week overlapped with my wife's last week of filming her movie on... read more
Fox Plays the Waiting Game | Roush Dispatch | 5/17/2007
If you could just ignore those pesky months between September and December, Fox would be sitting pretty. The challenge each year for this network is how to schedule a fall start that will live up to the blockbuster spring finish provided by late-arriving shows like American Idol and (even a diminished) 24.In the last of the week’s Upfront presentations, Fox Entertainment president Peter Ligouri made the curious choice of putting himself in the middle of a 24 parody, trading exchanges on... read more
Fox Announces Its Fall Schedule | First Look: Hottest Fall TV | 5/17/2007
The new dramas premiering this fall are K-Ville, starring Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser as police officers in post-Katrina New Orleans; and New Amsterdam, the first American television project from Oscar-nominated director/producer Lasse Hallström, featuring newcomer Nikolaj Coster Waldau as a unique New York City homicide detective.The new comedy slated for fall is Back to You, from executive producers Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd. Set at a TV news station in Pittsburgh, the... read more
April 6, 2007: The Final Bell | Wedding Bells | 4/7/2007
As most of you know by now, Wedding Bells was given the axe this past week. Which means yesterday's episode was the last and from what I've heard, the actors didn't even complete filming the season finale. So, more likely than not, this show will never make it to DVD. Which is a shame, considering how many loose ends we were left with last night. For starters, we'll never know if that kiss between Annie and David would have amounted to anything more or if it was just a result of them... read more
TV Guide Interviews & Features | 3/29/2007
Getting fired is never fun. But Annabelle Gurwitch's journey to the unemployment line was particularly unpleasant: Not l read more
Fall 2007: Hairspray Headliner Gets Fugly | Today's News: Our Take | 2/27/2007
The latest batch of fall-pilot news, from the Hollywood Reporter and Variety:• Marissa Jaret Winokur, a Tony winner for Hairspray and a survivor of Stacked, will star in the CBS comedy Fugly, in which three siblings pool their money to give one sister (not Winokur's character) an extreme makeover.• Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) has joined ABC's Suspect, playing a cop.• Fred Willard is the sports anchor for Action News, starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton.• William... read more
TV Guide Interviews & Features | 6/5/2006
Who put the overly amorous boss from read more
Ask Matt | 3/24/2006
I saw in the Biz column that NBC has not yet decided if they will read more
Today's News: My Take | 2/7/2006
The latest pilot casting news finds ER's John Leguizamo toplining CBS' Edison, a read more
Today's News: My Take | 9/20/2005
As Brad Garrett joked on-stage, and then later indicated read more