Now playing in this week's Mitovich Mega Minute:
• As 24 stages another enjoyable showdown 'tween warring computer wonks Chloe and Janice, the question looms: Might Janeane Garofalo be kept around for next season? I've got Mary Lynn Rajskub's take on her real-life gal pal's possible encore.
• If Cold Case gets picked up for seventh season, what new ordeals await Lilly Rush? Kathryn Morris shares a sneak peek.
• And as Lost's two-hour season-ender nears, I have to wonder: Can Jacob even be killed, as Locke aspires to do? Michael Emerson shares his qualified (and always-entertaining) two cents.
Watch and dicuss the new MMM after the jump!
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Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Molly Shannon and Tina Fey
In their oral history of Saturday Night Live, Live from New York, Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller revealed an unfortunate legacy of sexism. Many of the show's female writers and cast members, chief among them Nora Dunn, told of difficulty in getting skits on the air and of generally being taken seriously by their male counterparts. That was then… and now six prominent alumnae will back on the tube this fall in five successful returning shows and one promising newcomer. (Also, a series of six special all-politics Thursday episodes of SNL begin October 9 at 9:30 pm/ET on NBC.) In the meantime, let's check in with these smart, talented women.
After the jump, see who made our list of today's most successful female
Saturday Night Live veterans...
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Melanie Lynskey by Cliff Lipson/CBS
Melanie Lynskey may have driven off the set of Two and a Half Men, but when the sitcom celebrates its 100th episode, she'll be back as Charlie’s stalker Rose, and apparently for more than a pit stop. At the CBS Monday Night Lineup Premiere Party on Sept. 19, Men costar Marin Hinkle (who plays Judith Harper) revealed that in the milestone episode, Charlie will realize his true passion for his stalker. "He goes to seek her out to tell her how he feels about her, and there’s a surprise to how she handles it. I’m sure she will be back for many episodes. The way they left it had a wonderful dot-dot-dot."Lynskey is not the only guest star appearing on the comedy in its first six episodes. Janeane Garofalo appears as one of Alan's romantic mistakes, Ming Wen will be one of Charlie’s objects of affection, and much to Holland Taylor’s delight, Robert Wagner will come back to romance her character, Evelyn Harper. "I’ve had Martin Sheen and Robert Wagner as my lo...
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Question: The series 24 endured a lot of scrutiny last year — and for good reason. I do not accept that "Graem" is Jack's brother who accidently let terrorists arm a bomb. I do not accept that Chloe is just an exposition whore. I do not accept that the second that Jack is done with Fayed, he receives a call from Cheng. But I think 24 can always land on its feet. (Season 4 was horrible, Season 5 amazing.) What do you make of the show's production delays? Are they just scrambling to get a story together, or do they need time to do it right? I would be lying if I said I was calm and confident in this new season, but with the recent additions of Janeane Garofalo, Colm Feore and Rhys Coiro (from Entourage) maybe there is hope. Or maybe I'm just lost.
Answer: Because 24 doesn't premiere until January, it has the luxury of time, which it seems to be using this year, to work things out before they get so far along in production that course correction becomes more difficult. When I heard of the
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Janeane Garofalo by Cliff Lipson/CBS, Ming Wen by Michael Desmond/Fox
Apparently all is right with the cosmos. Janeane Garofalo, who recently was announced as a cast member of oh-so-serious 24, will play to her strength as a funnywoman in a guest-star turn on CBS' Two and a Half Men, series creator Chuck Lorre tells TVGuide.com. In the second outing of the new season, Garofalo will play a love interest for Jon Cryer's Alan (who, history is showing us, never seems drawn to the shrinking-violet type).TVGuide.com has also learned that Vanished Inconceivable ER alum Ming Wen (nee Ming Na) also is visiting the Men, appearing in multiple episodes as a judge who seems to be out of Charlie's league — and yet we're confident she ultimately bangs his gavel.
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Rhys Coiro by Claudette Barius/HBO
As first reported by Ausiello, Janeane Garofalo (whose name I will apparently need to learn to type correctly... ) is joining 24 for Season 7. Per a Fox press release, Garofalo is playing "Janis Gold, an FBI systems analyst assigned to the team investigating the crisis befalling Jack Bauer and company." Working alongside G-a-r-o-f-a-l-o, TVGuide.com has confirmed, will be Rhys Coiro (aka Entourage's Billy Walsh). 24's new day begins sometime in January 2008.... It's The Accused meets Top Gun! All that's missing is a barn-raising. Kelly McGillis will be guesting on The L Word this coming season, playing a military lawyer involved in a "Don't' ask, don't tell" case, says the Advocate.
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I'm going out on a limb this week, and I'm choosing a DVD set I haven't seen for my "Pick of the Week" (minor mix-up at the PR firm) - Not Just The Best Of The Larry Sanders Show. Though this is a dreaded "best of" release (please, please continue with the series in seasons sets), there are tons of bonus materials on the release. Garry Shandling is joined by Peter Tolan for commentary on two episodes, with Todd Holland and Judd Apatow doing one episode a piece. There's a documentary about making the series, deleted and extended scenes, alternate takes, and interviews with Alec Baldwin, Ellen DeGeneres, David Duchovny, Tom Petty, Jerry Seinfeld, Sharon Stone, Jon Stewart, Carol Burnett, Penny Johnson, Wallace Langham, Scott Thompson, Janeane Garofalo, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Sarah Silverman, Jeremy Piven, Bob Odenkirk and Linda Doucett. Those special features join 23 episodes of the series on 4 discs. The only thing that would make this set better? Well, that would be the rest of the seas...
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According to the Hollywood Reporter, Janeane Garofalo has been tapped to star in a CBS drama pilot following the loves of a team of public defenders.... Aussie beauty Rose Byrne (Marie Antoinette) is a fresh-out-of-law-school attorney who goes to work for Glenn Close's high-powered litigator in FX's untitled legal-thriller pilot. Additionally, Tate Donovan (The O.C.) and Zeljko Ivanek (24's Andre Drazen) have been cast as Close's most-trusted adviser and her opposing attorney, respectively.... David Carradine and Amy Madigan will guest on Criminal Minds during February sweeps. Check out the fresh Ask Ausiello for details.
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Grey's Anatomy
Like I said last week, this ain't your father's West Wing. Tonight's episode makes me think that the days of long hallway walk-and-talks debating the relative merits of public housing and the census are officially over. What clued me in? Hard to say. It was either the jump-cut montage of Matt Santos on the campaign trail set to Steve Miller's "Jet Airliner" or the Jerry Bruckheimer-esque Top Gun homage near the show's end.
All that's OK, though, because watching Josh frantically try to put Band-Aids on a thousand political paper cuts — from the "siesta" scandal to the broken bed to the Mommy Problem — makes for an entertaining hour of television. Can anyone play pompously irritated better than Bradley Whitford? Hey, wait! Janeane Garofalo just answered that question! While Garofalo's turn as acid-tongued media consultant Lou Thornton might not exactly be a huge stretch, she does provide a much-needed foil for Josh in
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Janeane Garofalo has landed a three-episode arc on The West Wing playing — what else? — a liberal media strategist hired by Democratic presidential candidate Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits). She first airs Oct. 2
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