david.hochman

Why Don't Fans Like 24's Evil Prez?

At the beginning of this wild season of Fox's 24 (Mondays at 9 pm/ET), the producers graciously asked Gregory Itzin what he'd like to see happen with his character, President Charles Logan. "I said, 'I'd like to be the hero,'" Itzin says. "I'd like Logan to turn out to be the guy in the big white hat." So much for the opinion of actors. With only a handful of episodes left in Day 5, Logan has emerged as the dark force behind a White House scandal that makes Watergate look like a couple of parking tickets. Contrary to everyone's perception, Logan's not the bumbling, indecisive half-wit-in-chief but rather the man who masterminded the plot to steal Sentox nerve gas and assassinate David Palmer. The president has ties t

Mon, Apr 24, 2006

Numbers Romances Start to Add Up

Let's suppose the total number of viewers itching to see FBI agent Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) on CBS' Numbers (Fridays at 10 pm/ET) hook up with someone for longer than five minutes is greater than the sum of fans who believe TV math has never been sexier and you arrive at... frankly, we don't have the foggiest, but clearly it has something to do with solid ratings for CBS. Averaging 11.5 million viewers this season, Numbers is attracting more people than shows like Crossing Jordan and

Fri, Apr 21, 2006

24's Audrey & Jack: Happily Ever After?

In this TV Guide Q&A, Kim Raver of Fox's powerhouse 24 (Mondays at 9 pm/ET) shares exclusive intel on stolen kisses, sad goodbyes and Audrey Raines' future with Jack. TV Guide: Let's get this straight: Jack was just roughing you up [in the April 3 episode]. Now you're working with him again? Kim Raver: There have been so many crazy switches for Audrey, but it works perfectly for her character. Her father was in the military and was secretary of state, so this ability to flip sides for the good of the country — it's almost inbred. If it's about saving lives, you get over whatever grudges you have and you move forward.

Mon, Apr 17, 2006

24's Julian Sands Blows Us Away

Here's what's odd about Julian Sands. You'll be having a perfectly lovely conversation about all the innocent people he's threatened to exterminate this season in his role as billionaire villain Vladimir Bierko on Fox's 24 (Mondays at 9 pm/ET), when suddenly the guy starts talking about taking his kids to the zoo! What's next? Unleashing laughing gas on CTU? But it turns out he's making a point about his character. "My children," Sands says in his highborn English accent, "often stare the longest at the creature in the reptile house that's the stillest. Bierko is that snake." Bierko is indeed the quietest — and most slithery — of menaces. With his Savile Row suits and Russian oil money, you'd expect to find him n

Mon, Apr 10, 2006

Extreme Makeover Helps the Big Easy

Stunned silence doesn't play especially well on reality TV, but then reality TV hasn't encountered anything quite like New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Archille "Chile" O'Neal, a blues musician from storm-struck St. Bernard's Parish who lost all of his instruments, was moved beyond words when Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's Paul DiMeo — the carpenter with the Buddy Holly eyewear — surprised him with a pickup truck full of gleaming Gibson and Hohner guitars. As he clicked open case after case, O'Neal just shook his head in glorious disbelief. "You realize these are for you, Chile?" a producer asked off camera. "All these are yours to keep." DiMeo slung his arm around O'Neal's shoulder and smiled warmly, as the producer asked them to redo the moment. On Take 2, they got exactly the Extreme reaction ABC needed: hoots, hollers and an unholy scream of "Oh, my god!" As its popularity co

Thu, Apr 6, 2006

We Debrief 24's Chloe and Edgar

Chloe and Edgar are the yin and yang of Fox's 24 (Mondays at 9 pm/ET). She's a hottie who kicks butt out in the field. He's an aerobically challenged techie who never leaves his computer. But CTU's loyal systems analysts keep saving the world, which is why Mary Lynn Rajskub and Louis Lombardi think they have the coolest characters on the show. When she's not shooting 24, Rajskub hangs with Fiona Apple and makes movies (most recently, the Harrison Ford thriller Firewall). Lombardi, an alum of The Sopranos, prefers homier pursuits. "I have the new Xbox," he says. "Come to my house and I'll play you for money." Here

Mon, Feb 27, 2006

Inside 24's Very Smart Move

Jean Smart wants to make a cheesy little movie called "All the Scenes I'd Really Like to See on 24." "Wouldn't it be fun to find President Logan floating in the moat around the western White House?" jokes Smart, who plays Martha Logan, the show's unhinged first lady whose motto ought to be: Just Say Yes... to Prescription Medication. "Or — here's one! — we see Logan coming out of Martha's closet in a little Chanel dress with high heels!" Smart and her presidential costar, Gregory Itzin, need to "fill in the blanks with our characters," she says, because 24's producers, eager to maintain dramatic tension, "don't want us to know a thing about where our characters came from or where the hell

Mon, Feb 20, 2006

Priscilla Presley's New Elvis Tribute

For more than a year, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley sorted through the vast Presley family archives at Graceland, selecting cherished images and songs for a new TV special, Elvis by the Presleys. As part of Elvis week on CBS, the two-hour program will peer into the King's private world with intimate family reminiscences, home movies and rare concert footage. (There's also a new two-CD set of the same name from Sony BMG, for $19.98.) Nearly 30 years have passed since her ex-husband's death, but the task, as Priscilla reveals here, left her all shook up.TV Guide: Why did you decide to open the vaults on this material right now?Priscilla Presley: You can't deny the passion that's out there for Elvis. On the anniversary of his death, 70,000 people come to Graceland with candles. It's overwhelming. But we realized there's a whole new generation that doesn't really know who Elvis was. Children, people in their twenties, thirties. They're the ones

Wed, May 11, 2005

Meet Extreme Makeover's New Beefcake

Imagine Bob Vila on a really good hair day, and you get Joel West, the hunky carpenter on ABC's newest Extreme Makeover spin-off, the upcoming Wedding Edition special (May 9 at 10 pm/ET). If West's face (and other assets) look familiar, it's because the Iowa farm boy was once among the world's highest-profile male models. In the mid-'90s, his steamy Calvin Klein advertising campaigns had him flashing his rippled abs and microscopic skivvies in magazine ads and on Times Square billboards. Now 30, his hair isn't as thick as it was when Richard Avedon photographed him for Versace all those years ago. But West, who is also an actor, wasn't just hired by ABC to be a pretty face. He actually has some legit carpentry credentials: His father was a foreman at a construction company, and West has been working with tools since he was 10. He's also worked carpentry jobs in the Los Angeles area recently. And as for the wedding part of

Mon, Apr 25, 2005

Office Star's New Alias

How did Ricky Gervais follow up his double Golden Globe win for BBC's The Office last month? He went straight to work filming scenes for Sunday's episode of Alias (9 pm/ET on ABC). Here's what the British funnyman thought of his weird, wicked week in sunny Los Angeles. TV Guide Online: Aside from The Office, you haven't really acted before. What was it like starring in a big TV action-drama?Ricky Gervais: The hardest part was keeping straight-faced. Everybody around me was in black and cool and wearing Gucci and Armani and guns, and there I was in a jumper looking like a country fisherman. I couldn't take myself seriously. I just pretended to be Jack Bauer from 24. TVGO: Who do you play?Gervais: All I can tell you is he's a very, very bad man indeed. An international terrorist. Let's ju

Fri, Mar 12, 2004