Make room on the couch for Hope Davis and John Mahoney.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actors have signed on to co-star in the second season of HBO's shrink-tastic In Treatment as Dr. Paul Weston's (Gabriel Byrne) new patients.
Davis, last seen on TV in ABC's short-lived Six Degrees, will play ...
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The past few weeks have been trying ones for anyone who cares about TV and the potentially devastating impact the ongoing writers’ strike could have on the current season and beyond. Which is why, being a cockeyed optimist and all, I’ve been cautiously thanking the fates ever since hearing that the Writers’ Guild and the producers’ alliance are going back to the negotiating table on Monday. No guarantee, of course, that this will mean a quick end to the standoff that has shut so much production down already. But hey, it’s Thanksgiving week, so let’s stay in a thankful and hopeful mode, OK?In that light, here are 10 more reasons to be thankful about the current week in TV as we head into the Thanksgiving break.1. We’re still in a sweeps month, which has allowed us most nights to live blissfully in denial that a strike is even happening, since new episodes continue to abound (including over most of this long holiday weekend). Depending on what happen...
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Four-time Emmy winner David Hyde Pierce will always be a small-screen star due to his 11-season stint as Frasier's neurotic brother. But these days he's just a Broadway baby hoping for his first Tony nod for his work in the tuner Curtains. Although Pierce began his career on stage, he made his musical debut in the Broadway blockbuster Monty Python's Spamalot in 2005 and fell in love with the genre. Soon he signed up for Curtains, the final musical by John Kander and the late Fred Ebb, the team responsible for Cabaret and Chicago. A
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Question: While thinking of the sad and sudden death of John Spencer and what the producers of The West Wing will do to alter their story line, I came upon a repeat airing of Aaron Sorkin's The American President, starring Michael Douglas. In that movie, actor John Mahoney (of Frasier fame) has a small but key role as head of an environmental lobby. While watching his performance, I was struck by his fine acting but more by his physical similarity to the late Mr. Spencer. Perhaps the West Wing producers, rather than "kill off" Leo McGarry's character, which has been important to the most recent story arc, could see if Mr. Mahoney is available to assume the role, just to finish out the series and give the McGarry character a proper send-off. Fans of both The American President and The West Wing, I feel, would not be too bothered by the change, and Mr. Mahoney is a fine actor and could bring dignity to the role. What do you think?
Answer: I agree that John Mahoney is a terrific,
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