Kooky matriarch Jessica Walter (90210, Arrested Development) will guest-star in an episode of Law & Order: SVU in the fall.
TVGuide.com has confirmed that Walter will appear in the third episode, which is titled "Solitary," as a legal-aid powerhouse named Petra Gilmartin. She will have scenes with ball-bustin'...
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TV has really put the “labor” in Labor Day week. It’s only the third day of September, and what is many years a sleepy week has already seen the premiere of six major series (network and cable), with roughly four more (if you count Bravo’s Top Design) on tap for tonight. I dealt with several of these shows already in my Roush Review column—FX’s The Shield and Sons of Anarchy, Fox’s Prison Break, TNT’s Raising the Bar and HBO’s True Blood—but here are some more thoughts on a week so busy it’s hard to fathom that the official network premiere week is nearly three weeks away.Gossip Girl Rocks. Some of the most fun I’ve had in front of the TV in the last week or so (when I’m not absorbed in U.S. Open tennis play) was zipping through the first three episodes of Gossip Girl’s hilariously sizzling second season. On Monday night, we learned that mopey Serena was getting through her summer-without-Dan by watching The Close...
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Cheers to Jessica Walter for continuing to develop her career after more than 40 years. The versatile actress recurs as Holly Hunter's in-denial mom on Saving Grace and recently guested as a mother-in-law from hell on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Plus, she's been cast as a '70s movie star-turned-alcoholic granny on The CW's update of 90210. (Walter's fans will recall she was a movie star in the '70s, most notably as a psycho in Clint Eastwood's proto-Fatal Attraction thriller, Play Misty for Me). And if the reports are to be believed, Walter will soon reprise her Emmy-nominated role as Lucille Bluth in a big-screen version of Arrested Development. Pretty impressive, considering most actresses of Walter's age can't get arrested. • Share your own raves and rants about other shows on the Reader Cheers & Jeers discussion board.• We may feature your Cheer or Jeer on TVGuide.com or in TV Guide magazine!
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It isn't Kelly Bishop, but this will do rather nicely: Sources confirm to me exclusively that Arrested Development's grande dame, Jessica Walter, has been cast as hard-drinkin', faded, '70s-movie-star Tabitha Mills on the CW's fast-tracked-for-fall 90210 update.To recap: Tabitha is the grandmother of the show's central teens, siblings Brenda Annie (Shenae Grimes) and Brandon Walsh Dixon Mills. As I reported yesterday, Lori Loughlin will play the pair's mother. The role of the dad (and Tabitha's son) has yet to be cast. I don't know about you, by my excitement about this show just swelled tenfold.This Just In: Dirt's Ryan Eggold has snagged the role of Ryan "the teacher."Related:• Hilary Duff Out, Degrassi Teen In at New 90210• Exclusive: Lori Loughlin Is 90210's New Cindy Walsh
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Question: It seems to me that TV is constantly going younger. I greatly miss Jessica Walter on Arrested Development, and now with the cancellation of Gilmore Girls I'll miss Kelly Bishop. While Sally Field is wonderful on Brothers & Sisters, I can't help but wonder what the future holds for older actresses on TV, or if audiences must grow even more accustomed to viewing shows targeted for a much younger audience.
Answer: I think you're already seeing it. TV is a demographics game, and the focus on who's winning in the 18-49 sweepstakes has become much more pronounced the longer I've been covering this beat. If we're lucky, the example set by Sally Field will encourage other shows, producers and networks to create similarly meaty roles for veteran actors of both genders. But these stars will rarely be asked to carry a show, it seems. Hard to imagine a network giving a shot to a Golden Girls-style show anymore, which is a real shame ...
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