
Jacqueline Mazarella on Everybody Hates Chris
As Ms. Morello, the terminally Caucasian teacher on CW's Everybody Hates Chris (Mondays at 8 pm/ET), Jacqueline Mazarella earns laughs with racist quips that would land celebrities like Michael Richards in hot water. To (in)cite but a few examples, Ms. Morello, in an attempt to relate to Corleone Junior High's lone black student, has proudly pumped a black power fist, brought cans of food to his "ghetto" home at Christmas, and dubbed him a "sweet sweetback." Although Mazarella isn't a series regular, the TV newcomer is thrilled that her character has become one of the show's funniest, most wince-inducing recurring characters.
TVGuide.com: Everybody Hates Chris has been your big TV break. How did you land the part?
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Wayne Brady and Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
It's a November to remember for Wayne Brady, who already has an Everybody Hates Chris appearance under his belt, and next turns up on The N's The Brandon T. Jackson Show (premiering Friday, Nov. 24, at 9 pm/ET), followed by the CBS hitcom How I Met Your Mother (Mondays at 8), playing no less than Barney's brother. But enough with the exposition-filled intro, on with the interview!
TVGuide.com: You have a lot of stuff going on these days!Wayne Brady: Well, that's always a good thing.
TVGuide.com: First up, give me an overview of The Brandon T. Jackson Show. What's it going to be like?Brady: The Brandon T. Jackson Show is a younger, fast-paced sketch show.
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Because I get questions about it every single week, I figured I'd weigh in on the CW's announcement this week that the former WB Friday sitcom Reba (once a bright spot on that dim night) is finally coming back on air. But very much on the margins. And there's a reason for that.November is becoming an unexpectedly busy month for series and season premieres: ABC's Day Break is filling in for Lost, CBS' 3 LBS is replacing Smith on Tuesdays, and ABC's wedding-day sitcom Big Day and NBC's long-awaited return of Scrubs (as part of a new Thursday two-hour comedy block) will both bow the week after Thanksgiving.And now Reba joins the party. But you'll have to make an effort to find her. The CW has scheduled the show for Sundays, in the unenviable slot of 7-8 pm/ET. On the first night back, Nov. 19, two new episodes will air back-to-back. After that, starting Nov. 26, an "encore" Reba will air in front of a "fresh" episode (as they used to be called on the WB). If it looks like the CW is bur...
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This Monday's milestones....— Gaining 500,000 total viewers versus last week, Prison Break (8.97 million) had its best outing since Sept. 18. Similarly going to school on repeats of Wife Swap and How I Met Your Mother was CW's Everybody Hates Chris, which hit a season high with 3.56 mil.— With a 500K week-to-week gain, Heroes set a new series high of 14.73 mil.— Justice was up 300,000, but even at 6.5 million is still shy of its former Wednesday audience.— A special "one-time" (uh-huh... ) Monday outing of Friday Night Lights averaged 8.29 million total viewers, the freshman drama's best numbers ever, by a full million, and NBC's best performance in that 10 pm slot since the Oct. 9 Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. (Mind you, that was opposite a CSI: Miami repeat and, well, What About Brian.)FNL fans, be sure not to miss today's Interviews & Features Q&A with exec producer Jason Katims.
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America's Next Top Model
The CW, the green offspring of the merged WB and UPN networks, is now five weeks old. That's a lifetime to the 18- to 34-year-olds it's targeting, so the Biz thought it was a good time to ask the CW's entertainment president Dawn Ostroff how it's going.
TVGuide.com: How do you assess the year so far?Dawn Ostroff: I think we're pretty happy with where we are. We got off to a solid start. What we said all along is that what we really want to see by the end of the season is to have a little bit of growth over what UPN or WB would have had. Right now we have a little bit of growth over them in 18- to 34-year-olds. We knew the migration was going to be a huge undertaking. The best way to describe it is that it would be as if you woke up one day and 67 percent of the country was told, "Oh, you're going to see CSI on a different channel." It's a big ordeal to move all of these viewers, tell them there is a new network, and tell them you need to find a new show on a new s
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I always know Im going to like an episode of any TV show when they include flashbacks to the childhood of one of the characters especially when we get to learn something new about that character That was the case tonight when we discovered that Sean himself had a facial deformity as a youth and had plastic surgery to correct it No wonder hes been freaking out about Conors situation and about his eventual corrective surgery As Julia told Sean That kid is why youre a plastic surgeon Glad they ended up going forward with the surgery and so far Conor seems to be OK Didnt the promos for tonight with Sean saying to Julia I have something to tell you make you think he was going to come clean about his affair with the tragically departed Monica But now Julia has something to hide from Sean her little kiss with Marlowe Interesting line that Marlowe muttered as he walked out Thats why I have to leave You could tell he was into Julia but I didnt think she re
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Didnt take long for the first shoes to drop this season, did it? Lets analyze the moves network by network.CBS We start here because CBS has wielded the cancellation ax first, dropping the Sopranos-lite caper Smith immediately from the otherwise successful Tuesday lineup. Strike one for this seasons new wave of serialized dramas. Crime-drama repeats (what else?) will occupy its slot starting this Tuesday.Im not terribly surprised. Though there was some buzz for the show and its very expensive (I heard $6 million at least) pilot, plus its starry cast (someone sign Simon Baker up for another show now!), Smith always struck me as an empty version of a Sopranos or a Shield, to name two distinguished shows with criminals as protagonists. The characters on Smith just felt hollow to me, giving us little reason to care or to root for or against them.CBS other big move was a no-brainer: switching the time periods for Monday comedies The Class and How I Met Your ...
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Question: I know it's still summer, but have the networks announced tentative dates for their season premieres?
Answer: As of now, the only network not to announce premiere dates is CBS, which will likely launch most of its new and returning shows the weeks of Sept. 17 and 24.
Here's how the others shape up: The season kicks off early on Fox, with Prison Break and Vanished on Aug. 21; then the limited reality series Duets on Aug. 29; Justice and Bones on Aug. 30; House and Standoff on Sept. 5; the comedies 'Til Death and Happy Hour on Sept 7; Nanny 911 on Sept. 8; Cops and America's Most Wanted on Sept. 9; Fox's animated comedy lineup plus The War at Home on Sept. 10; and MADtv Sept. 16. (The O.C. won't return until after postseason baseball on Nov. 2.)
On ABC, 20/20 officially kicks off Sept. 8; Dancing with the Stars returns Sept. 12 and 13; Wife Swap premieres Sept. 18; Grey's Anatomy and Six Degrees on Sept. 21; Ugly Betty and Men in Trees on Sept. 22; Extreme Makeover: Home
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Housewives' James Denton with his wife, Erin, and their son, Sheppard
With Dad's day almost upon us — Sunday, June 18, if you still need to run out and grab a card — your favorite stars from Desperate Housewives, Prison Break, Without a Trace and more share their best bits of fatherly wisdom. For photos of these proud pops with some of their kids, pick up the new issue of TV Guide.
James Denton
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The Television Critics Assoc. (of which I'm a member) just came out with its 2006 TCA Award nominations and, save for the Battlestar Galactica snub, it's a pretty fraktastic lineup. I'm especially jazzed that after years of checking off Lauren Graham's name, our girl finally made the cut. Ditto Scrubs. With any luck, both will prevail on July 23 when the trophies are handed out. (FYI: If the TCA brass are reading this, I've got dibbs on presenting Lauren with her award if she wins. C'mon, it's a no-brainer.) A list of the major nominees are below. See if you can guess who I'm voting for.INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDYSteve Carell (The Office) Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report) Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls) Jason Lee (My Name Is Earl) Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMAAlan Alda (The West Wing) James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) Hugh Laurie (House) Kiefer Sutherland (24) Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM OF THE YEAR Big Love (HBO) The Colbert...
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