Sherri Shepherd
Hell to the yes!
We lead off this week's rundown with congratulations to New Directions for winning Regionals, but more to the point, to Glee for finally giving us something to sing about again, delivering an overdue winner of an episode that reminds us why we fell in love with this musical-comedy-fantasy in the first place. Seeing an episode that gets so many things right, after so many recent episodes that felt perilously off-key, has me wondering if Glee wouldn't be better off producing on a cable schedule of fewer episodes per season, allowing for more polish and less thematic incoherence. A moot point, because corporate greed and the show's own popularity would never allow it.
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NBC has ordered new seasons of The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Community, the network announced on Thursday.
Fall 2011 TV Scorecard: Which shows are returning? Which aren't?
"I am so pleased to renew these three outstanding comedies which are all at the top of their game creatively," Bob Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment said in a statement. "The Office continues to fire on all cylinders on the most competitive night of television; Parks & Recreation has come into its own this season as the rightful companion to The Office; and Community is one of the freshest comedies on any network and a solid foundation for Thursday night."
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Ken Jeong, Yvette Nicole Brown, Malcolm-Jamal Warner
Could Senor Chang become Papa Chang?
On Thursday's Community, the study group throws a baby shower for Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown). Also, Chang (Ken Jeong) has warmed up to the possibility that he could be the father of her baby, but the only problem is that Shirley feels that Andre (Malcolm Jamal Warner) would make the better, saner choice.
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Josh Holloway
"Josh Holloway is as sexy, as dreamy as you would expect, even more so than he was in Lost I think," Joel McHale told TVGuide.com at Tuesday's PaleyFest tribute to Community.
Holloway, who played Southern rogue Sawyer on Lost, guest-stars on Community's two-part hourlong season finale on Thursday, May 12. "You really get to see his comedic side," said McHale. "He nails it. He's so funny. He was such a good guy, great to have around. I would follow him on to any set and then they would handcuff me and escort me out."
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Paget Brewster
Inside the Actors Studio (Monday, 7/6c, Bravo)
Even in those moments when it succumbs to fawning self-parody, there's something about James Lipton's craft/career-focused Q&A's that I find irresistibly endearing. (May have something to do with my nostalgia for what Bravo was like before all of those heinous Real Housewives took over the network.) This week, this marginalized show — notice how it airs outside prime-time parameters — welcomes its first-ever graduate from the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University. Said successful alum being Bradley Cooper, beloved by TV fans for his work on Alias but now busy with a film career including The Hangover, Wedding Crashers and the new Limitless opposite Robert De Niro.
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Tina Fey, Mariska Hargitay
Mark your calendars: NBC has announced its season-finale dates — and the airdate for 30 Rock's 100th episode.
Fall TV scorecard: Which shows are returning? Which aren't?
The sitcom's triple-digit milestone will air Thursday, April 21 as a one-hour episode. The hour will find TGS dealing with the prospect that its 100th episode could be its last.
30 Rock's fifth-season finale will air ...
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Josh Holloway
Lost star Josh Holloway is in talks to appear in Community's two-part season finale, Entertainment Weekly reports.
Catch up on today's latest news
Holloway, 41, would play a mysterious man who shows up...
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Joel McHale
The Independent Spirit Awards are known as the anti-Oscars, but something tells Joel McHale that the two ceremonies will have a lot in common this year.
"I think all the nominees will be read [at the Indie Spirits] and The King's Speech will win everything," he quips to TVGuide.com. "It cannot be stopped. It will not be ...
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Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki
Supernatural (Friday, 9/8c, The CW)
It's a mad, mad, meta world when the Winchester brothers are transported to a parallel universe where Sam and Dean become their actual alter egos: Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, stars of a TV show called Supernatural. Even weirder, Castiel turns out to be a Twitter fiend whose real name is Misha Collins, and so on. Sounds like a fun change of pace from the recent grim tidings. Meanwhile, in the same...
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Jeopardy!
Because social and personal (Happy Valentine's Day!) obligations kept me away from the TV more than usual this week, I'm going to boil down this week's wrap-up to my version of a "Hot Topics" list, with a few odds and ends thrown in for fun.
OF IBM AND MEN: Man your buzzer if you really thought either Ken Jennings or Brad Rutter could topple supercomputer Watson on Jeopardy! in that fascinating three-part exhibition stunt. I got more caught up in seeing what Watson didn't know or how it was misinterpreting clues — including the first Final Jeopardy, which somehow led Watson to...
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