Samantha Who? by Randy Holmes/ABC
Coming in fall 2008: a new ABC sitcom starring Eddie Cibrian and Josh Randall as wacky roommates! That's my prediction based on the omnipresence of those two TV journeymen as guest stars for the Alphabet network. Within the span of a week, Ed alum Randall reprised his Men in Trees role of Annie's loutish brother (in an episode taped last season, I grant you) and also surfaced on Private Practice as Addison's would-be (if not for his propensity for probing his posterior...) beau. Cibrian, meanwhile, recently played Karen's ex-husband on Dirty Sexy Money, and this week can be seen pitching woo at Samantha Who? In a similar vein, ABC tapped Sara Gilbert to play a convenience-store robbing mom-to-be on Private Practice mere weeks after the Roseanne vet visited CBS' Big Bang Theory. (That was the PP episode which went for the sweeps month hat trick: Name Guest Star, Emergency Baby Delivery and Hostage Situation.)Setting aside my opinions of any of the aforementioned actors (Randall's app...
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Welcome to another episode of Men in Trees [Thursdays at 10 pm/ET, on ABC]. This week's installment, "The Indecent Proposal," was written by our creator, Jenny Bicks. She is also a great blogger, so you should check out what she says about this one on the writers' blog at ABC.com. I know it sounds like I'm plugging the ABC website every week, but I promise I'm not some shameless promoter for the network. I just enjoy reading what our writers are thinking. This episode was exciting for me because it's the first time I have a scene with Jane (Seana Kofoed). In fact, this will be the first time that our characters ever speak to one another on the show. Seana and I were always saying to each other, "Wouldn't it be hilarious if Jane went out to Queens with Annie and met her insane family?" Well, Jenny Bicks must be a mind reader, because that's exactly what happens! Annie is bringing Patrick home to meet the parents and announce their engagement, and she tries to set up Jane with her cut...
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Jenna Elfman still believes in Dharma.
Hi-larious. That's the word coming out of Jenna Elfman's mouth, midconversation, as she picks up the phone for this TVGuide.com Q&A. What is the gifted comedienne in the midst of describing? That was the first topic at hand as we used the occasion of the DVD release of Dharma & Greg: Season One to chat up Elfman — fresh from Courting Alex's abbreviated run — about her sitcom hits, misses and lessons learned, the Dharma-
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Josh Randall, Courting Alex
It was a tall order — literally — finding the right man to play opposite statuesque Jenna Elfman on CBS' Courting Alex, which makes its Wednesday-time-slot debut tonight at 8:30 pm/ET. In the end the sitcom opted to pair Josh Randall, the man formerly known as Ed's Dr. Mike, with the woman formerly known as Dharma. Here, Randall speaks with TVGuide.com about his alter ego's certain swagger and weighs in on how Alex avoided the grim fates suffered by Emily, Jake and that familiar Monkey.
TVGuide.com: Jenna is 5'10" and you're over 6 feet tall. I have to think that Courting Alex's casting office looked like basketball tryouts.Josh Randall: [Laughs] You know, I happened to come in at a
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Jenna Elfman, Courting Alex
For its premiere last week, CBS' Courting Alex (Mondays at 9:30 pm/ET) drew 14.9 million samplers. It also saw seemingly just as many TV critics contend that the premise — Jenna Elfman's uptight lawyer finds unlikely sparks with Josh Randall's laid-back bar owner — is but a flipped version of Dharma & Greg, the statuesque comedienne's previous sitcom foray. Elfman, though, pooh-poohs such pigeonholing.
"I was doing a phone interview where they mentioned that, and I hadn't even thought about it, actually," the actress shares. "I hadn't thought this is anywhere near or opposite Dharma." Denoting several differences, she says, "Greg wasn't a workaholic [like Alex]. He wasn't a con
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Skating with CelebritiesIt's the first elimination round. One team skates off the rink forever, without the benefit of America's votes. (Take that, Dancing with the Stars!) New technical requirement: synchronized footwork. Theme: the '70s.
Kristy and Lloyd: I love how they keep calling her a "movie actress." Don't know why, I just get a kick out of it. This week, Buffy is resurrected in the eyes of the judges. The pair connects. They wear cool headbands (not!). They get the highest score for the evening: 50.7.Dave and Nancy: I'm not sure, but if you clocked them, I believe they may have performed the slowest spins in recorded history. A definite letdown from last week. Score: 47.4.Bruce and Tai: These Olympians were idolized in the '70s. Sir CrankyPants says they're not as fit as they were back
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Skating with CelebritiesIt's the first elimination round. One team skates off the rink forever, without the benefit of America's votes. (Take that, Dancing with the Stars!) New technical requirement: synchronized footwork. Theme: the '70s.
Kristy and Lloyd: I love how they keep calling her a "movie actress." Don't know why, I just get a kick out of it. This week, Buffy is resurrected in the eyes of the judges. The pair connects. They wear cool headbands (not!). They get the highest score for the evening: 50.7.Dave and Nancy: I'm not sure, but if you clocked them, I believe they may have performed the slowest spins in recorded history. A definite letdown from last week. Score: 47.4.Bruce and Tai: These Olympians were idolized in the '70s. Sir CrankyPants says they're not as fit as they were back
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Courting AlexWelcome back to prime-time television, Jenna Elfman! Oh, how I've missed her adorable wackiness. For weeks now I've been reading that her new show wasn't worth watching, and I was a bit skeptical going into it, thinking it couldn't get any better than Dharma and Greg, but I have to admit I really enjoyed it. Elfman is hilarious as Alex, a workaholic whose idea of intimacy is sleeping with her cell phone. No wonder she's still single in the big city. OK, it does sound like the premise of so many other failed shows out there (RIP, Emily's Reasons Why Not) but watching Alex take that leap of faith onto the motorcycle during the final moments had me wanting more. Maybe it was more of Josh Randall I was wanting. The former Ed sta
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Reports of the death of the TV sitcom were, thankfully, premature. New critical hits like My Name Is Earl, Everybody Hates Chris and the steadily improving The Office have set a high bar for the new and returning comedies that entered the fray this month. Just getting Scrubs back on the air after an inexcusable fall hiatus is reason enough to celebrate, while some of the newbies hope to fill the romantic-comedy void left by Sex and the City and Friends. Here’s my quick take on the mid-season comedy crop. (I dismissed NBC’s generic buddy romp Four Kings in an earlier column.)
ScrubsTuesdays, 9 pm/ET, NBCHeard it before? Thankfully, yes. The antics are as fresh as ever now that this endearingly irreverent medical comedy has returned — finally — with back-to-back episodes of bawdy slapstick and barbed verbal w
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Question: I've seen the many promos for the upcoming series Love Monkey and plan to watch because of Tom Cavanagh. My question is, do you know if Josh Randall (also from Ed) will be in any episodes? I've noticed him doing guest spots on a few different shows recently and would really like to see the two together again. Seriously, how much would you like to see the $10 bet at least one more time? The show looks funny enough to throw it in at least once. On a different note, I still don't agree with you that Battlestar Galactica is a top-ranked show. Sure, this half of the second season finally shows a little promise, but I think it's still nowhere near as good as Farscape or Firefly.
Answer: No disrespect to Farscape or Firefly (which should be obvious if you've ever read me before), but Battlestar is hardly comparable to those more fanciful sci-fi/fantasy series. (As with soaps in the earlier discussion, it's dangerous to judge shows against each other merely because they exist within
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