bruce.fretts

Cheers & Jeers: Royal Pains' Winning Pair

Cheers to Royal Pains for allowing two beloved TV faves chances to stretch. USA's hit medical dramedy has cast the Fonz himself, Henry Winkler, as Eddie, the deadbeat dad of Hank (Mark Feuerstein) and Evan (Paulo Costanzo) Lawson. After cleaning out their bank account — a totally uncool move — the old man apparently redeemed himself, returning their money. Meanwhile, Mary Lynn Rajskub, who wrapped her small-screen gig as world-saving CTU techie Chloe O'Brian only a few weeks ago, got back in touch...

Fri, Jun 11, 2010

Cheers & Jeers: Royal Pains' Winning Pair

Cheers & Jeers: Terry Crews Oughta Get Outta There!

Jeers to Are We There Yet? for typecasting Terry Crews. Taking over Ice Cube's big-screen role as a put-upon stepfather Nick Parsons in TBS' watered-down new sitcom, Crews is essentially rehashing his grumpy-dad shtick from the vastly superior 2005-2009 comedy Everybody Hates Chris...

Thu, Jun 10, 2010

Cheers & Jeers: Terry Crews Oughta Get Outta There!

Cheers & Jeers: Justified Loses M.C. Gainey

Cheers to M.C. Gainey for going out with a bang on Justified. The intimidating character actor best known as the ironically named Tom Friendly on Lost (and for his own flash-Sideways as the angry naked biker in Alexander Payne's 2004 film) loomed over the first season of FX's Elmore Leonard drama as backwoods crime-family patriarch Bo Crowder.

Wed, Jun 9, 2010

Cheers & Jeers: Justified Loses M.C. Gainey

Cheers & Jeers: Bradley Whitford --- The Good Guys' Bad Boy

Cheers to Bradley Whitford for his full-throttle comedic performance as dissolute Dallas cop Dan Stark on Fox's new action hoot The Good Guys. It's hard to imagine a character more starkly opposed to Whitford's breakthrough role as hyperverbal White House staffer Josh Lyman on The West Wing.

Tue, Jun 8, 2010

Cheers & Jeers: Bradley Whitford --- The Good Guys' Bad Boy

Cheers & Jeers: Friday Night Lights — Here Comes "The Son"

Cheers to Zach Gilford for scoring an emotional touchdown on Friday Night Lights. Ex-Panther quarterback Matt Saracen may have graduated from West Dillon High, but the deeply sympathetic character has thankfully stuck around the Texas town, delivering pizzas, taking care of his Alzheimer's-stricken grandma (Louanne Stephens), interning with a misanthropic artist (John Diehl) and clinging to his college-bound girlfriend (Aimee Teagarden).

Mon, Jun 7, 2010

Cheers & Jeers: Friday Night Lights — Here Comes "The Son"

Cheers & Jeers: Royal Pains Does Damages

Cheers to Royal Pains for keeping the spirit of Damages alive. FX may not have renewed its superb legal thriller, but two of its alums have found summer jobs on USA's breezy medical dramedy. Campbell Scott, so chilling as Joe Tobin—the WASP Michael Corleone—on Season 3 of Damages, has reprised his recurring Royal Pains role as Boris, the cagey billionaire with ...

Fri, Jun 4, 2010

Cheers & Jeers: Royal Pains Does Damages

Old Christine Won't Find New Life on ABC

Bad news for fans of CBS' cancelled sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine: Despite having expressed interest in the past in picking up the show, ABC has apparently declined to give the show a new lease on life. "It's just not going to happen at ABC," creator Kari Lizer tells TV Guide Magazine exclusively. "It looks like the end of Christine."

Thu, Jun 3, 2010

Old Christine Won't Find New Life on ABC

Cheers & Jeers: Jon Hamm Goes Mad!

Cheers to Jon Hamm for showing his wry side once again. On the debut of TV Guide Network's Curb: The Discussion, the Golden Globe-winning actor best known as the dead-serious Don Draper (or is that Dick Whitman?) on Mad Men gamely analyzed the behavior of Larry David as part of a post-Curb Your Enthusiasm celebrity panel. He revealed he's "not a fan" of breast implants before joking he's got them, and "my nipples are just as sensitive as they were before the implants." This should come as no surprise—the sense of humor, not the sensitive nipples—to anyone who's seen Hamm cut loose on 30 Rock ...

Thu, Jun 3, 2010

Conan Takes Manhattan

Cheers to Conan O'Brien for his triumphant return to New York City. Performing a mere 200 feet away from NBC's 30 Rock, his old place of employment, Conan rocked Radio City Music Hall with a high-energy, star-jammed extravaganza. Proving his career has risen from the dead ...

Wed, Jun 2, 2010

Justified: Right in Tune

Cheers to Justified for tracking down the perfect theme song. FX's modern-day shoot-'em-up opens with the country-rap hybrid "Long Hard Times to Come," by the aptly named Gangstagrass. That's Brooklyn mashup artist Rench along with hip-hopper T.O.N.E.-z and a high-caliber bluegrass band. (Fun fact: The show's instrumental score is composed by Steve Porcaro of the '80s pop-rock band Toto.) The title song's blend of twang and grit neatly fits the story of itchy-trigger-fingered U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) dealing with his lowlife homeboys in Kentucky. To put it in terms Raylan would surely appreciate, it hits the bull's-eye.Are you blown away by Gangstagrass?

Tue, Jun 1, 2010

The Bachelorette: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatheads

Jeers to Ali Fedotowsky for keeping weatherman Jonathan in the picture on The Bachelorette. Sure, Canadian dental salesman (seriously, is there a better job description...

Tue, Jun 1, 2010

The Bachelorette: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatheads

The Secrets to the King of Queens' Long Reign

CBS' The King of Queens — which presents its series finale tonight at 9 pm/ET — ruled as long as Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond. Abdicating after nine seasons, Kevin James will match Jerry's and Ray's marks for longevity, even if King never achieved the same critical or ratings success. "We were TV's bitch," says cocreator David Litt. Still, flying under the radar had its benefits. "It helped us because the network let us do our own thing," James says. "We were the litt

Mon, May 14, 2007

The Secrets to the King of Queens' Long Reign

Leah Remini Readies for King of Queens' Royal Send-off

Funny lady Leah Remini speaks candidly about her friends Tom and Katie, her diet tips, and moving on from CBS' The King of Queens (Mondays at 9:30 pm/ET). TV Guide: After playing Carrie Heffernan on The King of Queens for nine seasons, you're coming down to the wire with next month's series finale. How does it feel? Remini: Awful. It's a cliché, but you just don't know what you have until it's gone. Kevin [James] and I have both had babies on the show. We've lost weight. We've gained weight. Just look at everything we've gone through. Nine years is a big chunk of your life. It's been my first real success, and you can't

Mon, Apr 16, 2007

Leah Remini Readies for King of Queens' Royal Send-off

Guess Who's Back on the Runway?

As Heidi Klum says on Project Runway, "Either you're in or you're out." But in the case of Daniel Franco, it's not that simple. The aspiring fashion designer with the Flock of Seagulls haircut was the first contestant kicked off the Bravo reality show last year. But when the Emmy-nominated sleeper returns for a second season on Dec. 7, Franco will be back in style, competing again for the chance to create his own clothing line. "The judges had no idea I was going to be there," Franco says of his second audition. "I walked in the room like everybody else. I came in with my shades and my samples and stood in line." After Project Runway guru Tim Gunn invited Franco back on the show, "it felt like a bit of a redemption,"

Thu, Aug 11, 2005

SFU's Dearly Departed Bids Farewell

Six Feet Under fans were stunned when the show's main character, funeral director Nate Fisher (Peter Krause), suddenly succumbed to a brain disease at the end of the July 31 episode. But Krause wasn’t surprised to get killed off. "I kinda knew it was coming," he says. "It'd always been something [creator] Alan Ball thought about, even from the first season. Initially, Alan wanted to do it in the very final episode. And I was glad that he [decided] to do it earlier, even though it was a strange shift to go from playing a living person to then playing whatever it is when you've passed on on Six Feet Under." Indeed, no one on HBO's surreal drama ever really dies, so Krause will rematerialize as an apparition in the series' final three episodes. Like his character, Krause's spirit isn't comple

Thu, Aug 4, 2005

Rescue Me's Fiery Females

The words "Rescue Me" would have had an entirely different meaning for Diane Farr if she'd auditioned for Desperate Housewives. "I told my agent, 'No, I'd really be terrified to be with that many actresses at once,'" Farr says. "Boys are so much easier." Denis Leary and his fellow firemen may dominate FX's dramedy, but their female costars rival the ladies of Wisteria Lane for sheer fierceness. In addition to Farr, who plays Laura, the fire crew's sole distaff member, three other actresses have major roles this season: Callie Thorne as 9/11 widow Sheila, who's expecting a baby with Leary's Tommy Gavin, her late husband's cousin; Andrea Roth as Tommy's ex-wife Janet, who's run off with their children; and Ashlie Atkinson as Theresa, a self-confident, sexy, plus-size woman carrying on a torrid affair with FDNY hottie Mike, aka "the Probie" (Michael Lombardi). "These women have depth," says Thorne, a veteran of Homicide: Life

Tue, Jun 28, 2005

Six Feet Star: Mad as Hell?

Viewers aren't the only ones shocked by Six Feet Under's plot twists. Sometimes the actors are, too. Take James Cromwell, who's not crazy about George's recent descent into madness. "They didn't tell me what was going to happen to this guy — all of a sudden, he started to fall to pieces, and I had no idea," gripes Cromwell, whose character undergoes electroshock therapy this season. "I'm not used to working this way. I like to know when I'm being led somewhere." Cromwell thinks he's earned the right to be warned of such a sudden switcheroo. "S---, I've been doing this for 40 years," he says. "I'm not a goof. I understand if you've got a 19-year-old kid who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground, but people spend their lives doing this. It doesn't add any more life to keep actors out of the loop. "I have quibbles with writers running shows," Cromwell adds, pointedly referring to SFU creator Alan Ball. "Writers are belitt

Thu, Jun 9, 2005

Ed Harris Falls Back into Television

Ed Harris doesn't like the M-word. "Someone called it a miniseries, and I wanted to throw up," says the star of HBO's Empire Falls. "It's not a miniseries — it's a damn movie!" If so, we hope Harris doesn't see the cable network's promos, which bill the star-jammed adaptation of Richard Russo's Pulitzer-winning novel as a "miniseries event." In any event, HBO will split the three-hour-plus small-town drama over the evenings of May 28 and 29 — all the better to qualify for a best miniseries Emmy. You can't blame Harris for his unfamiliarity with TV terminology: He hasn't appeared on the small screen in nearly 10 years, since his 1996 TNT Western Riders of the Purple Sage. "I've been asked to do a bunch of TV stuff, and I came close a couple times," Harris explains. "But nothing quite grabbed me as much as I needed to be grabbed." Then came Empire Falls' Miles Roby. When Harris first read the novel, he

Fri, May 27, 2005

Criminal Intent Cop Needs Nap Time

Vincent D'Onofrio is beat. Getting into makeup on the Manhattan set of Law &amp; Order: Criminal Intent, he doesn't just have bags under his eyes — he's got a full set of luggage. "You can never get enough sleep," the 45-year-old actor says of his brutal shooting schedule. "You wake up, you look like me. It takes about three hours to start getting your face back." The demands of playing polarizingly bizarro NYPD detective Robert Goren for the past four seasons finally caught up with D'Onofrio late last year; he collapsed on the set twice and had to be hospitalized for exhaustion. Help is on the way. Next season, Chris Noth will reprise his L&amp;O role as Det. Mike Logan in half of Criminal Intent's 22 episodes, relieving both D'Onofrio and equally weary costar Kathryn Erbe, who admits, "This is the season we cried uncle." (As reported in yesterday's Entertainment News, A

Wed, May 25, 2005

Summer Cable's Sizzling Twists

While a compelling season of broadcast network TV will draw to a close with the end of May sweeps, cable TV is preparing to heat up the small screen this summer with plenty of returning series. Here, catch up on where your cable faves left off and find out what's coming up. For even more dish, the May 29 issue of TV Guide magazine is mandatory reading. Seriously, we mean it. Go buy one pronto!Six Feet Under (HBO, Mondays, 9pm/ET; returns June 6)Where we left off: After discovering that his wife, Lisa, had been murdered by her brother-in-law, Nate proposed to girlfriend Brenda.Coming soon: Brenda and Nate (Rachel Griffiths and Peter Krause) are now married and expecting a baby. David (Michael C. Hall) and Keith (Mathew St. Patrick) ponder adoption. Queer as Folk(Showtime, Sundays, 10pm/ET; returns May 22)

Mon, May 23, 2005

ER's Big Guest Stars

Ray Liotta's real-time tour de force as a dying alcoholic defibrillated ER's ailing ratings in November. So it's no shock that the NBC medical drama has lined up more big-name guest stars for February sweeps. First up, on Feb. 10 is Sissy Spacek, who'll play the long-lost birth mother of Dr. Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes). How did ER land the Oscar-winning actress? "I'm a huge fan of [executive producer] John Wells," Spacek says. "We worked together on [the 2004 indie film] A Home at the End of the World, and since then, he's been sending me ER scripts. This one just spoke to me." "The show has a pretty solid reputation for actors and if it didn't have that, we would've never had a snowball's chance in hell of getting her," executive producer Dee Johnson says frankly. "As far as I know, [Spacek appears in only] one episode, but it's not like she drives off a cliff at the end, so nothing's impossible."

Thu, Jan 27, 2005

Desperate Hussy Tells All

She may have been snubbed by the Golden Globes, but Eva Longoria ain't complaining these days. Her insta-breakout role as suburban adulteress Gabrielle Solis on Desperate Housewives has made this 29-year-old Young &amp; the Restless alumna one of TV's hottest (in every sense of the word) young actresses. Here, Longoria dishes with TV Guide Online about her show's best-comedy Globe, her desire to defeat CSI and her 90210 memories.TV Guide Online: Why are people so fascinated by Gabrielle's affair with John (Jesse Metcalfe)?Eva Longoria: It's the journey to find love and happiness, and no matter what route that takes you, audiences like that. It's very entertaining. I do a lot of awful things to get there, but in the end, it's still a pure hope of getting love, so that's what the audience is attracted to. People appreciate it and think it's funny — I don't think there's going to be a lot of 40-year-old women running off

Mon, Jan 24, 2005