Southland
The Pacific Dining Car near downtown Los Angeles is the kind of old-school, coronary-clogging restaurant where the walls are green, the steak is red and the clientele is LAPD blue. You won't find a Lohan or a Kardashian hanging out here, and the closest they have to a juice fast is a filet mignon smothered with Roquefort cheese. So it's only fitting that this is where the cast of the cop drama Southland has chosen to do an interview with TV Guide Magazine after a long day's shoot; the show prides itself on keeping it real.
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Jack McBrayer, Patricia Heaton
As if three crazy kids weren't enough for The Middle's harried mom, Frankie Heck (Patricia Heaton). The recently anointed dental assistant will gain another immature charge on the April 10 episode of the ABC comedy: her new boss, Ted Goodwin, DDS, played by 30 Rock alum Jack McBrayer.
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James Roday, Dule Hill
It's all screams and giggles — the screams courtesy of an insistent shrieking doorbell, while the giggles come with the territory — as USA Network's long-running hoot-dunit Psych marks its 100th episode (Wednesday, 10/9c) with a shamelessly wacky murder mystery set in a spooky mansion during a thunderous storm. It's a dark and silly night, indeed, as this Clue-inspired romp gathers colorful characters as suspects (including Lesley Ann Warren as a stuttering Miss Scarlett), while Shawn and Gus panic and mug as usual, running everyone in circles before solving the crime. Which is where the audience comes in this week, as the show goes interactive, urging fans to help decide the outcome by voting live during the episode on psych.usanetwork.com and Twitter.
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Ivan Sergei, Jeri Ryan
Where's Olivia Pope when you need her? Body of Proof's ambitious chief medical examiner and congressional candidate Kate Murphy (Jeri Ryan) hasn't even been elected yet and she's already facing her first potential scandal on this week's episode (Tuesday, 10/9c, ABC). While making an appearance at a ritzy Russian political gala, Kate strikes up a conversation with a tall, dark, secretive Ukrainian attaché named Sergei Damanov (Ivan Sergei). "Sergei and Kate have this very steamy, very passionate thing," Ryan says. "And then it gets complicated."
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Star Trek: Enterprise
Season 1 of Enterprise, the fifth (and so far final) Star Trek TV series finally arrives on Blu-ray Tuesday. Besides all 25 episodes, the six-disc set is chock full of special features including an eight-part documentary including new cast and crew interviews about the launching of the space exploration prequel series and behind—the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, cast commentary, and a frank conversation with shows creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, who admits his true feelings about Diane Warren's theme song. Scott Bakula, aka Captain Jonathan Archer, commander of the Enterprise NX-01, shares some memories and what else is in the stars for him.
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Dorothy Hamill
She behaved like an Olympic champion and toughed it out, but Dorothy Hamill was in rough shape for Monday night's Dancing With The Stars. Even with all the adrenaline that goes along with performing live, it was obvious that she was having difficulty walking, let alone dancing.
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Margo Martindale and Jake Johnson
What kind of family must it be where slacker bartender Nick Miller (Jake Johnson) is seen as the responsible one? That answer becomes clear in a sporadically amusing road-trip episode of Fox's New Girl (9/8c) that takes the roomies to Chicago to lay Nick's scoundrel of a dad (former guest star Dennis Farina) to rest. The formidable Margo Martindale (Justified, The Americans) presides over the ridiculous antics as Nick's gruff but needy mom, and cable clown Nick Kroll hams it up as his emotionally volatile brother. As usual, Schmidt (Max Greenberg) hijacks the proceedings with his death neuroses, and while he wonders "What's with this open casket thing?" it's his encounter with said coffin and its contents that provides the episode's biggest laughs.
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One Life to Live
Victoria Lord Banks is back and she's kicking boo-tay! Prospect Park's revamp of One Life to Live — launching April 29 on The Online Network — will once again find the powerful publishing mogul, played by six-time Emmy winner Erika Slezak, running Llanview's top newspaper, The Banner. But times are tough. "We'll be looking at the fight that's going on in the publishing world these days — how do newspapers survive in the age of the internet?" says OLTL head writer Thom Racina.
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Ben McKenzie
Send questions and comments to askmatt@tvguidemagazine.com and follow me on Twitter!
Question: This is more a commentary than a question, but what are your thoughts on Southland? Ben McKenzie and Shawn Hatosy have recently landed new pilots, so it would appear that this will be the last season of the very fine cop show Southland. Yes, the show is an ensemble and could certainly go on without the two characters they portray, but it would be a different Southland without them, even with a cast as strong as one that includes Regina King and C. Thomas Howell.
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Freddie Highmore
This is the night NBC has been waiting for all year. A rough 2013 it has been, for sure, with prime time in freefall and even institutions like the Today and Tonight shows embattled by negative PR. You might begin to think Do No Harm isn't just a bad memory, but a motto the Peacock network somehow just can't seem to live up to.
If the tide is ever to start turning, it will be on Mondays, with the return of the game-changing The Voice (8/7c) and its irresistible, instantly iconic "Blind Audition" episodes. New to the hot seats: Shakira and Usher, filling in this cycle for Cee Lo Green and Christina Aguilera, with NBC hoping it doesn't matter who's sitting in those revolving chairs. The show's the thing, and this has always been the best part of The Voice.
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