One of the better things about a good episode of NBC's stalwart Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is that you can rarely tell where it's headed. Is tonight's cameo-heavy hour (10/9c) the latest condemnation of reality TV's sordid excesses? Sure looks that way at the start, as we encounter an especially slimy Michael McKean (relishing his repulsiveness) as the predatory producer of a crap-tastic train wreck titled Showgirls, featuring young hopefuls who would do "whatever it takes" to land the starring role in a Broadway musical. (No small irony this is airing the week of the all-important-to-NBC Smash premiere, where such things could never happen!) As he liquors up a nervous contestant for her "audition," he leers for her to "seduce the audience. Let them know you want this." Doesn't take a genius to know where this is going.
read more
Knock knock. Who's there? Chelsea. Chelsea who?
No, make that Chelsea why? The answer to the question posed in NBC's squalid new sitcom Are You There, Chelsea? (8:30/7:30c) is "not really." Based on late-night spitfire Chelsea Handler's potty-mouthed party-girl memoirs — but dropping the Vodka from the title because that might be, you know, offensive — this smutty but toothless misfire puzzlingly reduces Handler to a supporting role: that of a mousy, whiny born-again sister to the fictional Chelsea, played by That '70s Show's Laura Prepon with a one-note husky-voiced crassness that grows stale long before the first scene (in a women's jail cell) ends with Glee's Dot Marie Jones leering at Chelsea. Which is maybe the only sexual advance Chelsea spurns. As long as she can be on top. Which she mentions a lot.
read more
Whoopi Goldberg will guest-star on an upcoming episode of ABC's The Middle, the show's executive producer announced Wednesday at the winter TV previews.
Get more scoop on your favorite shows in our Winter TV preview
Goldberg will appear on the 21st episode as the guidance counselor of Sue (Eden Shur), executive producer Eileen Heisler said during a panel that also featured the showrunners of ABC's other Wednesday night comedies, Suburgatory, Modern Family and Happy Endings.
Also coming soon to visit the Heck family...
read more
Country music spitfire Miranda Lambert will make her acting debut on an upcoming episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively.
Law & Order: SVU scoop: Harry Connick Jr. to play Benson's new love interest
Lambert, who is married to Blake Shelton, a coach on NBC's hit singing competition The Voice, will play an actress who claims to have been sexually assaulted by a reality show producer. Michael McKean (Laverne &Shirley, This Is Spinal Tap, Smallville) will play the alleged sleazebag in question. Given that Lambert's album and song titles include Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Kerosene and "Gunpowder & Lead," he'd better watch his back...
read more
Jeers to Castle for royally wasting Michael McKean.
Want more Cheers & Jeers? Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!
Casting the Laverne & Shirley and This is Spinal Tap comic genius as Victor Baron, a Donald Trump-like beauty-pageant mogul would seem like a masterly move. But ABC's featherweight mystery gave the versatile thespian (who proved he could handle drama as Daily Planet editor Perry White on Smallville) almost nothing to do...
read more